Amid slowdown, Goodwill plans to close most Sacramento-area Donation Xpress centers
Amid dropping sales at its retail stores, Goodwill announced it will close most of its capital region Donation Xpress locations.
The company plans to close “upwards of 60” Donation Xpress centers, according to Richard Abrusci, CEO of Goodwill Industries of Sacramento Valley and Northern Nevada. Goodwill announced its intentions in a June 25 letter to its landlords, where it requested a termination of its lease agreement for many of its donation center locations.
Until now, the organization managed 81 Donation Xpress locations from Sacramento to Reno, where the company collects roughly 80 percent of the donations it sells at its stores. With the coronavirus pandemic, the company has lost about a third of its revenue, as the number of shoppers at stores plummeted and the company’s 20 retail locations shrank operations.
“It really is a very difficult balance to try to keep services operating,” said Abrusci. “Our hard costs don’t change.”
The economic outlook for the organization appears bleak. Abrusci said he expects sales to remain down because community members “don’t want to be out and about,” and are still “practicing shelter-in-place lifestyles even after the end of shelter-in-place orders.”
Looking to cut operating costs, Goodwill made the decision to cut the Donation Xpress centers because they don’t generate revenue and because the organization has struggled to keep up with rent payments at numerous locations, Abrusci said.
Stores, will remain open with limited staffing and reduced hours. Keeping the stores open, said Abrusci, is essential to the company’s ability to remain “viable” amid the ongoing economic downturn.
The decision to shutter the Donation Express centers followed two waves of organization layoffs in June, mostly concerning its administrative and operating staff. The newest closures will not lead to more layoffs, said Abrusci, with employees at the donation centers offered positions at the company’s stores.
Despite the cuts, about 15 Sacramento-area Donation Xpress locations will remain open. This includes three locations owned by Goodwill, several locations where Goodwill has negotiated delayed rent payment plans with its landlords, and other sites where Goodwill made the decision to keep its Donation Express center open due to the lack of similar donation services, such as in Yuba City.
“What we found is that when people don’t have the opportunity to donate, that it just ends up in a landfill,” said Abrusci of communities without donation services. “We wanted to make sure that we didn’t leave that community without the opportunity to make donations.”
Goodwill stores have shifted to absorb the company’s donation-acceptance operations. All 20 Goodwill retail stores will remain open and accept contactless donations on normal business days from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
