Demand for our products, a soft economy, and the continued generosity of our donors, means Goodwill is growing again.  A second store in historic Franklin is scheduled to open on Thursday, February 18, with a ribbon cutting ceremony at 8:45 a.m.  Doors will open for shoppers at 9:00 a.m.  

The new store, located in the Alexander Plaza on Murfreesboro Road/Highway 96, will be one of the company’s largest.  The 25-thousand square foot space will house a retail store, state-of-the-art drive-through donations center and a processing area.  The new drive-through replaces the attended donations trailer that currently sits in the plaza’s parking lot.  Goodwill’s original Franklin store is located at the corner of Hillsboro Road and Del Rio Pike.  

The new Franklin store is opening at a time when Goodwill’s retail sales continue to rise, up about 10 percent through 2009 over the previous year’s sales.  “Goodwill has gained a new base of shoppers, many who had never been in our stores until the last year.  And the interesting thing we’ve found is once they discover the quality of our merchandise and the choices in each store, they come back,” says David Jenkins, the senior director of retail.  

Opening this new store means Goodwill continues to fulfill its mission of providing jobs and training to people throughout the communities we serve.  The company plans to hire as many as 25 new employees to work in both the store and donations site.  When the ribbon is cut, the second Franklin store will be the thirty-third retail site in the middle and west Tennessee communities served by Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee.  

The store and donation site will be open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.

The Mt. View community, near Antioch, will be home to a new Goodwill store in March 2010.  That store is scheduled to open its doors on Thursday, March 18.  


About Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee, Inc.
For more than 51 years, Goodwill has provided job training and job placement free of charge to people with disabilities or other barriers to employment through the sale of donated items.  Goodwill served 11,237 people in 2009 in the communities we serve in middle and west Tennessee.    For more information about Goodwill’s Career Solutions, retail stores, and donation centers, please visit www.giveit2goodwill.org or
call 1-800-545-9231.