Goodwill opening draws massive crowd

ROCKINGHAM — Hundreds lined up at the grand opening of the sixteenth-largest Goodwill in the United States and the first in Richmond County Friday morning.

Even though customers couldn’t start shopping until 10:00 a.m., guests lined the street at 6:00 a.m. waiting to be the first ones in.

At more than 35,000 square feet, it’s the first store that’s a new model for Goodwill locations around the country. It includes a one-thousand square foot community room that can can be rented for events and is the second site of the technology store, The GRID: Powered by Goodwill.

The Salty Bean Coffee Co. is also situated at the entrance of the Goodwill.

“It’s been awesome,” said Jose Luis, COO at Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont. “We’re super excited about this community and how many people are showing up.”

Luis noted how this has been one of the largest grand opening in Goodwill’s history, with people traveling from Laurinburg, Bennettsville and Robeson County.

“We appreciate the support that we’re getting from the community tremendously,” Luis said. “This has been overwhelming.”

Mae Winstead traveled from Cheraw and arrived about an hour after the grand opening, and still had to wait in line about 30 minutes. She said she loves every Goodwill she’s been to and just “had to come” after hearing about the grand opening.

“It’s pretty cool and huge,” said Josh Nessell. “It’s definitely bigger than what I expected it to be and feels bigger on the inside.”

This Goodwill will be a model for a similar store that is planned in Shelby, NC. There are 27 Goodwill locations in the greater Charlotte Region. This store brings 30 news jobs to the region and an estimated economic impact of $3.3 million annually.

“It’s so big and crowded,” said Hope McBryde. “Everybody I’ve interacted with has been so friendly.”

“I love it,” said Cindy Hinson. “I’ve gotten just about everything. This is going to really help the community.”

This location is the former building of a Lidl. It has been vacant for the past two years.

“The people have been so friendly and showed so much love when we walked in,” said Mary Allen.