Goodwill thrives at San Francisco thrift store

[Shana A]

Goodwill thrives at San Francisco thrift store

By LISA LEFF, Associated Press
Associated Press November 28, 2010 01:37 PM

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/11/28/national/a094415S53.DTL

(11-28) 13:37 PST San Francisco (AP) --

Before Goodwill Industries opened its newest retail outlet here, no one would have argued that San Francisco had a shortage of thrift stores for its avid recyclers and trendy hipsters. What the city did lack was enough jobs for its transgender population, a group with an unemployment rate thought to be twice the California average.

So when a prime piece of commercial real estate languished vacant in the predominantly gay Castro district, activists and city officials saw an opportunity to put a dent in the problem. The result is the nation's first Goodwill, and perhaps the first store of any kind, designed as a jobs program for workers whose genders are different from the ones they had at birth.

[tekla]

Goodwill in the Castro?  Oh god, I'm going to need body armor.

[spacial]

Bad is it tekla?

[tekla]

Oh no, the neighborhood - the first real gayborhood in the US- is, of course, absolutely fabulous.  It's just full of pro shoppers.

[spacial]

I see. Never mind. The middle classes do think they need to keep up with fashion.

Still, it gives the rest of us a laugh.

[tekla]

Fashion in SF tends more anti-fashion, which makes Goodwill (Let's see if I can find five things that the original owners wouldn't wear at all and wear them all together at the same time) a gold mine.