Goodwill Bins in Iowa

"Not your "normal" goodwill this place is unsorted goods dumped into bins and is super cheap! $1.69 per pound!! Every so often they call out over the intercom they are placing new bins and people crowd around them to rummage the good stuff they provide reusable bags just grab one and fill it up. They have scales all around to weigh your loot. You can also fill a cart and they will weigh it up like that minus the tare weight of the cart. Come early and make a day of it! JUST DONT FORGET TO BRING GLOVES THEY ARE REQUIRED!! SOME ITEMS IN BINS ARE SHARP! I found a tape dispenser for packing tape and have used one as a saw once! Be careful and watch for others digging for gold ! It gets crazy!!! While I was there today a guy got minecraft for Xbox one for free because it didn't weigh on the scale and I said to the checkout person to place it on the scale with the next person's items! You never know what you will find here! I got a Pizza Hut cartop sign at the one in Fort Worth Texas for less than 5 bucks and swapped it for a large pizza!!! Today I got a black light flashlight with dead batteries that worked! They have amazon returns!!! 2 bucks for all that stuff below, I wonder what lego set that is!!! 😂"

"I absolutely love hunting through the bins at goodwill outlet, I could spend all day here! It's not a typical goodwill - at goodwill outlets, you dig though huge blue bins with random items inside. These bins are rotated every hour or so. Gloves are required for safety so bring your own (or you can buy a new pair of gloves there for $1.99). Items are sold by weight so ignore any prices that may still be on the items in the bins (the only individually priced items are the really big bulky/furniture items near the back corner of the store). Items are sold at $1.49/pound; paperback books are 25 cents each and hardcover books are 50 cents each. There are a lot of regulars that go here (you can tell by how organized/prepared they seem to be) but as long as you follow the rules (don't take things from other people's carts, don't touch the covered freshly rotated bins until the sheet is taken off by an employee, wear your gloves) you won't have any issues! It's dirty but it's TONS of fun looking for treasure and getting clothes for the lowest prices possible!"

"LOVE shopping here! I can stay for hours. I always leave with lots of treasures for cheap! Rummaging through the bins is like a treasure hunt. If you are willing to look you can find some great stuff. I find clothes with tags all the time and lots of well known brands. At $1.49 a lb clothes are a steal. Paperback books are a quarter and hardbacks are 50 cents. I have a lovely stack of interesting books by my nightstand now. It's always fun when they bring the new bins out! The staff is wonderful. So excited they brought this to Cedar Rapids."

"Been to 50+ of these USA bin stores. This one is smaller, simple, and table changes are often. Some decent finds but no major estate dumpage of smalls. 3.8 stars for store. Good staff. 1 star for the repulsive grabby customers, they're a bit worse than the average bottom dwellers that spoil the fun at bins, litterally touching your hand getting way too awkwardly closer than other locations. Maybe its a weird Iowa thing? Still Good finds if you stand it."

"This is the last chance for thrift items before they head to the landfill, and it’s such a smart concept. Everything here is sold by weight ($1.89 per pound), making it incredibly affordable if you shop for the right items. You’ll need to dig a bit, and I regret not bringing gloves. This is where unsold items from other stores go, so inventory changes often. We picked up shoes, bags, and some surprisingly decent home goods for next to nothing. The only negative here are the customers. Staff are now required to regularly remind people not to grab items out of other’s hands or their carts, each time new inventory goes out. If you enjoy treasure hunting or love a good deal, this place is worth checking out."

"Take plastic gloves and wear a face mask if you plan a visit here. Watch your cart and don't leave it. Arrive early at the opening hours to get the better bargains! I can't go back after getting really sick a couple of times, and heard that there is feces/cockroaches in the bins. Otherwise, I enjoyed a good treasure hunt here and found quite a few good things for 99 cents/lb. Could be a little more now, but you can certainly find stuff if you dig enough."

"Lots of stuff to dig through. Some people get a little crazy when the new bins roll out but there's plenty of stuff to rummage through."

"Walked into this location and realized it was not for the faint of heart. I didnt do my research before entering the establishment (recommended) i should've brought gloves as there was broken metal and glass items in the bins. You could find anything from stained under garments to possibly a homeless person sleeping in the bins ready to greet you with his good will"

"I love digging through stuff and taking hours to scour through everything to find that one piece that made it worth it. Sad to say I feel like this particular branch of Goodwill is a do it once and you know what's there type place. I usually see the same stuff I see in there everytime. Now that goes without saying that it's not the organizations fault more than lack of donations maybe? The staff are always friendly and helpful and the place is usually very tidy and cleaned up. I personally visit the other locations in the tri-state area due to them having a diverse and contantly rotating selection of items."

"Not a bad place, find a few deals every now and then. But most of the time there's really friendly people in there to chat with and usually the person running the register is always quite friendly. I definitely recommend a visit. And I tried always give one recommendation on how to improve, when you have people donate clothes to you and you get some hiring clothes or clothes that might have been higher in say 20 years ago don't mark them up to like 10 to $20 and put them on a special rack make some out with the regular clothes and that'll give people an incentive to go digging through everything to look at all your other stuff and hopes that they might find some of these clothes out there at a good deal."

"Great place nice people prices are a lot more than what they used to be I understand you got to run a business but at the same time it's a used goods store I shouldn't be paying $20 less than the same price for a new bike from Walmart. This store was once good a year or two ago and now I guess under new management their prices have inflated a lot."

"They usually do 50% off holiday items the day after the holiday. This year they decided they would just throw what Halloween stuff they had left in the trash compactor. They have the bins right next door but opted to throw that stuff in the landfill, instead. Also, they usually have tons of Christmas stuff in the bins around this time. Sounds like they decided they're not going to put stuff out until it is close to Christmas. So I'm sure a lot of Christmas stuff will be going in the landfill, also. And this isn't just what they do with holiday stuff. They do it with stuff all year long, because they don't want people to get a deal they would rather throw it in the landfill if they can't get full price which has gone up a lot. If you think about donating here you might want to think twice."

"the best fr. great staff great price very fair . Losers are bitching in the reviews abt single shoes and stickers on vases but that's just like what it is & yall are weak bc the glass is like 15 cents and the shoe is $0.75 . ""but when u put a sticker on a leather shoe it strips the finish"like oh my god u people cant do anything for urself. U know what else strips the finish? wearing the shoe. again, the shoe is $1 it costs less than a candy bar so there might be a slight cosmetic flaw & if u cant intuit this come back here i wanna pick u up &drop u on ur head itll be nostalgic for u probably. Thrifting is just like some times it's great and sometimes u touch a weird wet sheet or theres a smell just chill!! when u spend a ten and get a bag of random stuff that's like ur choice & u get what u get. If u want perfect shit ur gonna spend fifty. learn to fix things the economy &climate will not get better while we are still alive . I miss when there was a mirror in the store so i could see how things might look but im getting better at imagining it in my head. its like a museum of other peoples old t shirts and shoes, weird amount of shoes when you think about it. also if u wear gloves im going to make fun of u loudly where u can hear. to finish, Love this place, love the world, yeah. go here"

"I use to go there a couple times a week. I haven't had time to go lately, but this visit seemed like it was more rundown & worn out stuff. There were 7 single shoes that we searched hi & low for & never found. The bin of bags & purses were junk and should've been thrown away and never even put on the floor for sale. All the clothes seemed to be xxxl. Very disappointing!! I'm not in any big hurry to go back."

"I love how Goodwill claims to be good stewards of donated items, only to turn around and damage the very products they received for free before reselling them to the public, often at prices that hardly resemble “thrift” anymore. Why they continue to place adhesive price stickers directly inside leather shoes is beyond comprehension. Anyone with even a basic understanding of leather knows that removing those stickers strips away the finish, leaves behind residue, and permanently damages the material. It’s careless, unnecessary, and completely undermines the organization’s supposed commitment to sustainability and responsible reuse. And somehow the response is always to pass the buck and blame “improper training,” despite the fact that Goodwill has entire departments dedicated to training and operational standards. At some point, recurring incompetence stops being a training issue and starts being a leadership issue. If the same preventable mistakes continue happening across stores, over and over, that reflects a systemic failure in management, oversight, and accountability, not just a few poorly trained employees. And this is just one of many instances where Goodwill’s actions completely contradict the image they work so hard to promote. Time and time again, donated items are mishandled, damaged, overpriced, or carelessly processed, all while the organization continues presenting itself as a champion of sustainability and community service. It’s difficult to take that messaging seriously when the actual treatment of donations shows such a blatant lack of respect for both the items themselves and the people who donated them in good faith. Frankly, it’s embarrassing for an organization so focused on public image to display such consistent carelessness behind the scenes."

"I would rate higher, but they are hardly open ever. There hours change all the time? However they are open 5 days a week yes. But for people who work during the day it’s not practical. I miss coming here every Saturday with my mom, but we both work during the day so we cannot."