There’s a new player in the thrift shop neighborhood. Well, kinda. Goodwill isn’t exactly a new player in the thrift shop game. In fact, they may have been some of the first to come up with the concept of selling donated stuff to make money for charitable purposes.

But the latest location in Annandale, Virginia is the newest kid on this thrifter’s block!

It’s located in the heart of Annandale at 7031 Columbia Pike, right near the corner of Columbia Pike and John Marr. I went for the grand opening this morning and the crowds for the grand opening were admirable.

People were lined up to get in a few minutes before the official opening time of 10 am. They did a ribbon cutting and a few folks made speeches.

You could tell that most of the crowd was there for the shopping though, not the free food (sponsored by Capital One), face painting or speech-making. Speaking of Capital One, did you know that if you have a Capital One credit card, you get 10% off every time you use it at a DC area Goodwill store? Me neither!

Anyway, luckily, the presentation was short and then it was off to the races!

It’s a nice big space and because it’s brand new, it is sparkling clean and very well organized. Most of the Goodwill stores around here are actually quite clean and well-organized, but this being the first day, everything was evenly spaced on shelves, clothing was perfectly organized by color and displays were carefully curated. It was rather eerie at first actually. Most of the space is dedicated to clothing, which is never my first interest, but for those who are avid thrifty fashionistas, you’ll be glad to know that the selection abounds here!

The housewares section is a bit larger than many of the local stores, with six aisles of plates, glasses, planters, small appliances and other household bits and bobs.

The furniture section is a bit small, though there was an annex of sort in the back that may be used for additional furniture later on once they have cleared out some of the donation backlog that was being stored in plastic crates back there. Sorry for the slightly blurry photo. I forgot my camera and took all these pictures with my phone.

This being Northern Virginia, there were a fair number of antiques and other very nice pieces scattered around. This vanity was priced at $85. I doubt it lasted the day. I missed out on a $10 faux bamboo end table in the same style as my new living room shelves, which made me sad. I also passed on a few interesting vintage lamps just because I don’t particularly need lamps at the moment. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t make out with quite a lot of fantastic goodies for my trouble.

I’ll take some photos of everything once I’ve gotten them unpacked and cleaned up. Of course, there’s a lot of mid-century ceramic goodness in there. And a veritable brass menagerie. Needless to say, I’ll be going back again soon!

But before we leave the new Goodwill, let me just leave you with this.

Cept my gator shoes, those are green