Tulsa - As the recession drags on, more and more shoppers are looking for bargains at Goodwill stores.

Sales at local stores were up more than seven percent for the first three months of 2009 and that number continues to rise.

Eastern Oklahoma has nine Goodwill stores, including three in the Tulsa metro area. One in Tulsa on Southwest Boulevard serves between three and four hundred customers every day.

Carolyn Crump shops for herself and other people who need help.

"I go to the store in Owasso, there's one at Garnett and Admiral, and the Broken Arrow store, as well as this store," she says. "I have a cousin that lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was buying her first home, and I found all types of appliances and towels and linens to help her start her new home."

And Carolyn's not alone. LaDwana Pease says she does her shopping there, too.

"I save at least 60 percent on everything that I buy," Pease says. "I shop here because it's cheap and it's good stuff."

Goodwill Spokesperson Nancy Webster says first-time shoppers are surprised by the brightness and cleanliness of the stores and the number of brand name items for sale.

"Our children's clothes are $1.99 daily," Webster says. "So it's a great place to shop for the entire family and for the household."

Goodwill donations help the organization hire 450 workers a year. In addition, others are trained to help them find new and better jobs.

One of those trainees is Norma Scott, who says she has the passion, the drive, and the get up and go to find a new job and will soon have all the skills to qualify for it.

"I just need some help, somebody to invest in me," Scott says. "And that's what this program has done. And I will be forever grateful to Goodwill for this."
 
She completes her training classes in another six weeks.

Even if the recession ends soon, Goodwill says their business will continue to grow. They say once a person shops at their stores, they get hooked on the brand names and the bargains and they continue to come back.

Last year, Goodwill trainees found three hundred jobs in the Tulsa metro area.

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