The Full-Service Bohemian: My trip to the Goodwill Outlet

This past Monday, I visited a new Goodwill Outlet in Bellmawr, NJ. I wasn't expecting much, so I considered not emptying out my car, which was full full full since I'd done a flea market on Saturday. (I did sell a lot, but even so, the car was still full full full.)

Boy, am I glad I DID empty out the car before going.

If I hadn't, I'd have had a heck of a time getting all those bags into the car.

So here are the details of my tale:

I get there, and surprisingly, it's just a big ginormous room. On one side are about 12 tables, and on the other are twelve tables. In the middle is a big empty space.

I began shopping on the right side, and this was my first find:

I had the identical pillow a really really long time ago.

The above pillow is pretty much the only thing I found on the right side, initially, because it seemed to be mostly used luggage, VHS movies, Made in China shoes, and old textbooks.

So I went to the left side, and found:

Some Halloweed/masquerade stuff. While I'm poking through the tables, the manager comes up to me to tell me -- and later everyone else -- to move to the other side of the room, because they're going to be changing out the tables.

Workers come out and take all the tables on this part of the room into the backroom, then they come marching out with new tables, while everybody but me -- because this is my first time, and I don't know the drill -- lines up as if they're in a 50 yard dash race.

The scene looked a lot like something you'd have seen in a B-movie comedy, circa 1975.

Once all the tables came out and were placed where they were supposed to go, permission was granted to go rummaging through them.

Here's what I found:

Another pillow. This one's covered with mother-of-pearl buttons, which I'm going to remove. Then toss the pillow.

Here's more pillows:

Very medieval.

These are very cute AND were made in Italy.

This isn't old, and the chain needs to be put back on it -- and for that to happen, I need to find my needle nose pliers which I haven't been able to find in ages -- but for the price* I'm paying, it was worth it.

Almost everything in this store is sold by the pound, i.e. 99 cents a pound. Books are 25 cents. Shoes are a dollar-something.

Speaking of books...

That's a first edition of The Stand. The other book is something about the Springfield rifle.

Above is a 1950s hunting/fishing/guns catalog.

Another first edition!

Dunno about this one, but maybe it is.

I also got another book, something about American history and people circa 1900. 1,000 of this book were published. The one I got is number 20. Forgot to take a picture of it.

These Christmas balls are just adorable in person. They look homemade from the Seventies. I know this because I was making Christmas balls myself then. I was a very artsy-craftsy kid.