Bemidji Goodwill Holds Grand Opening for New Location

After 15 years in one spot, Bemidji’s Goodwill has moved from downtown to a new location on Paul Bunyan Drive NW. The new site is double the size of the old one and will feature more inventory and shopping options.

“True North Goodwill in northern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin is pretty much all of northern Minnesota and then a little bit of northern Wisconsin,” explained True North Goodwill Community Engagement Director Scott Vezina. “So we are one out of 154 unique Goodwill territories. We have 29 counties in the service area. So each Goodwill operates completely independently and we are 100% local, 100% nonprofit.”

The secondhand store held its grand opening on Friday and was greeted with tons of customers looking for deals. Goodwill says they aim to provide not only an affordable place to shop but a sustainable one as well, as every year thousands of donated items are saved from going straight to the landfills.

“It’s a second chance [for them],” said True North Goodwill Regional Manager of the West Felicia Henderson. “And we are able to give jobs for the people in our community.”

“Within the territory, it’s over 280 local jobs, right?” said Vezina. “And all of the dollars that people spend locally at Goodwill, all the items they donate to generate that income or that revenue actually goes directly into supporting mission services. So each year we serve around 600 people and that number is going to keep growing as we keep expanding more services across the territory.”

The downtown Bemidji Goodwill will still remain open and become an outlet, featuring even more discounts on items that have not been sold from the new main location. The company decided that they wanted to expand within the Bemidji area.

“We have the drive-thru canopy so our customers or donors will be able to come through the drive-thru and come in through an automatic door, or our DSA will come out there and pick up the donations for them,” said Henderson.

“We’ve been in Bemidji around 15 years and we knew we wanted to expand our footprint to be able to provide a better shopping experience, a donor experience with the donor drive-thru, we’re bringing curb navigation services to the location as well, where we can provide people with those front line supports, seeking jobs, upskilling, all things of that nature,” added Vezina.

Those job resources and other expansions will be coming to Goodwill in the future.