MERS Goodwill Reopens St. Louis City and St. Louis County

Locations on Monday, May 18

Organization request donors still hold on to donations to allow time to keep up with intake

St. Louis, MO. (May 14, 2020) - MERS Missouri Goodwill Industries will reopen its St. Louis City and St. Louis County retail stores and donations centers on Monday, May 18, 2020. The stores will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Locations at 9116 Manchester Road in Brentwood and the location at 14808 Clayton Road will be donations only. The openings include revised procedures to limit exposure to others, including PPE for employees, extra cleaning and protection screenings, store capacity limits and social distancing, updated donation quarantine and return policy.

With regard to donations, Goodwill will be taking precautions to keep everyone safe and will be using a "self-service" donation process. Goodwill asks donors unload their own vehicles and place donations in the containers provided. Because of the new donation procedure, there may be long lines to drop off your donation. To minimize wait time, the organization recommends holding off on bringing donations for a couple of weeks.

Goodwill has implemented safety measures as outlined by the government and CDC guidelines including: Masks or other face coverings are required to enter the store at present time; occupancy limitations for customers set by the governing city/county; shoppers will not be able to bring their shopping bags into the store and are encouraged to bag items at their car or purchase a reusable bag for $1.00; Stores and donation spaces are practicing social distancing (asking customers and staff to maintain six feet between others); Dressing rooms are closed; Goodwill now accepts Google Pay and Apple Pay for the convenience of touchless checkout and the stores have installed plexiglass at all registers.

Goodwill depends on the revenue from their stores to provide career services to the community. Area Missouri locations opened last week including locations in Franklin, Jefferson and St. Charles Counties. They plan to re-open Illinois area stores as soon as the stay at home order is lifted in those areas.

# # #