MERS Goodwill will reopen St. Louis City and St. Louis County retail stores and donations centers on Monday, May 18. 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.
With regard to donations, Goodwill will be taking precautions to keep everyone safe, and will be using a “self-service” donation process. Donors are asked to 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 also implemented safety measures as outlined by the government and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, including: masks or other face coverings 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; 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 Plexiglas 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. It plans to re-open Illinois area stores as soon as the stay-at-home order is lifted in those areas.