Goodwill Tour

Today was half-price day at all central Arizona Goodwill stores. We hit six stores in north and northeast Phoenix.
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Our first stop was the 16th Avenue and Happy Valley store. I visit this store the frequently because it close to home. It also seems to have the best stuff. Most of the Goodwill Fiesta I find comes from there.

And today was no different. I found five mugs--1 each in Juniper, Cobalt, and Plum, 2 Periwinkle, and a Cobalt dinner plate. I didn't want or need them. But like Siamese kittens in a shelter, I couldn't just leave them there. Besides, the mugs were only 35 cents each and the plate was 50 cents.

I also found a Sunset book about patio design (many pics of cool modern architecture here) and a pair of Lucky Brand jeans. Luke netted a heavy duty baseball tee.

Our second stop was 7th Street and Union Hills. Here, I found 2 books on American architecture and residential floorplans.



Lucas encountered this rack full of office phones. We estimate there were close to three dozen of these same phones in all. What's pictured isn't all of them. They were scattered all over the electronics department.

The third store was the 7th Street and Dunlap location. Long time Phoenicians know this place as the old Liquor Barn store. I like this particular store not for the offerings, but because the building is an example of true modern architecture (click on the above photo to view larger). In a city where everything older than ten years old has been torn down and/or given a Mediterranean or Tuscan-style facelift, this place--save for a paint job or two--is mostly original. Definitely a rare sight.

I didn't find anything here. But Q got a supplemental pack of Trivial Pursuit cards for $1.

Stop #4 was Cave Creek and Cactus. The closest thing I saw to Fiesta is this sauce boat and undertray that looks like a bad copy of the original. It wasn't marked or stamped. In fact, the paint job looked like it was done at one of those paint-it-yourself pottery places.

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No, I didn't buy the sauce boat...or anything else, for that matter. But Lucas did find an A/V splitter for his old school video game collection. I have no idea what it is, but he was sure excited about it.

Our fifth stop was 19th Avenue and Thunderbird. Again, I didn't buy anything here, but I was regaled by the grab-bag format Goodwill uses to sell items that are too small to be placed loose on the shelves.

I scanned through these bags and found little odds and ends like shoelaces, votive candles, dental floss, hair rollers, shower curtain rings, pacifiers, etc. In fact, this was how my Fiesta napkin rings were packaged. One of these days, I will find one of these plastic grab-baggies full of Harlequin nut dishes. Oh yes. It will happen.

Lucas referred to this shelf display as Keyboard Heaven. If you didn't already know, this boy loves the electronics department.

By the time we reached 19th Avenue and Bell, we were all running out of gas. Even so, I found another floor plan book (I really love reading those things) and a Star Wars book for Kyle.

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Pat (Q's mom, who's visiting from Oregon) found a bunch of stuff too, including clothes, plastic dishes for the grandchildren, table linens, knitting yarn, a utensil organizer, and a hard-sided suitcase.

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We arrived home with a very full trunk.