Retro, old school, or just plain old, the Goodwill has it all for Christmas

The Goodwill Thrift Store offers everything from new and slightly used clothing to craft items to appliances to home decor. [Click to enlarge]

Ask one person his opinion of thrift stores and he'll tell you he took a bag to the store just the other day.

"How nice it is to clean out a closet," he'll say, "and get a nice little late-in-the-year tax write-off to boot. Score!"

Ask another, and he'll tell you they just took a bag OUT of the store.

"Will you take a look at these Brooks Brothers shirts," he'll say in wide-eyed amazement. Only three bucks a piece, can you believe it? And they look like they've barely been worn! Score!"

Retro is back, my friend, and none of that nouveau retro crap. This is the real deal.

"I've finally found out the difference between 'old school' and 'retro,'" smiles Jan King, Goodwill Industries vice president of operations as she searches through the merchandise bin. "'Old school' means a classic pair of sneakers and 'retro' means an old LP of Christmas music."

"Where else can you find old 33 1/3 record albums or, wow!, eight track tapes, at such a reasonable price than at a Goodwill Thrift store?" she laughs. "Anyplace else, these would be considered 'classics,' collector's items."

Just like their retail counterparts, Christmas time is the busiest time of the year for thrift stores like the Goodwill.

"People clean out their closets during the spring and the fall," King explains, "and that mean we have a surplus of stuff in the summer and around the holidays."

And just like their retail counterparts, customers at the Goodwill Thrift Store are on the hunt for a bargain.

"The typical Goodwill customer is the working class mom with small children, a budget, and a mortgage," King contends. "She's the woman who likes nice things but doesn't want to pay an arm and a leg in order to get those nice things. She's not afraid to search for the perfect bargain because she has to worry about daycare, heat and fuel prices."

Another type of customer is the treasure hunter.

"I knew an elderly woman who'd come in periodically," King recalls, "and one day, I saw her with tears in her eyes. In a far-off side of the store, she discovered an old antique teapot. The teapot was an exact replica of the one she received as a wedding gift many years before."

"The woman said she had been looking for a teapot like this for years," King continues, "because she had lost the original."

"It just goes to show ya," she suggests. "You never know what you'll run across at the Goodwill."

And King's customers know it.

"We have some customers come in every week," she mentions, "and then we have the real 'die-hards' who may come in everyday, sometimes MORE than once a day. They know our merchandise is ever-changing and they want to get it before it's gone."

Although the Le Mars store has a wide selection of new and slightly-used garments, King says Goodwill merchandise knows no season.

"If you're looking for a nice short-sleeved shirt this time of the year, you aren't gonna find it in a traditional retail store," she observes. "And if you're looking for a coat in summertime, you won't find one at Wal-Mart."

"Nobody can match our variety," King says, "and nobody can beat our prices."

Which makes the Goodwill a "must-visit" destination for holiday crafters.

"We have antique pieces of fabrics and one-of-a-kind jewelry," King suggests. "They're beautiful and they're ideal items to repurpose. If you're stumped for ideas for Christmas gifts, the Goodwill will get your mind racing."

She also speculates that different genders gravitate towards different items at the Goodwill.

"Guys usually head over to the book section as soon as they come through the door," comments King. "Their second destination: the cookies."

The women, she says, are much less predictable.

"When they're searching through our bins or through the racks, you can kinda see the wheels already spinning," King notices. "They know they're gonna buy it. They just don't know who's gonna get it."

"This REALLY is a good place to people-watch," she says with a chuckle.

King's recommendation for Christmas shopping at the Goodwill?

"Shop often," she offers without hesitation.

"We put out 11,500 new items a week," King contends. "If it's been invented, we've probably had it pass through our doors."

What is her favorite type of customers?

"Younger people," she says. "What may seem old and dirty to us suddenly becomes retro and funky in their eyes."

"One man's trash may turn into another man's treasure," King smiles. "You'll never know what you'll find at the Goodwill."