At eight A.M., Cathy pauses in the middle of her Goodwill sales floor. She’s standing next to an endcap filled with new kitchen utensils, like wooden spoons and plastic spatulas. Around the corner are stacks of secondhand pots and pans. “What’s with all the new stuff?” I ask. She glances at the line of people outside her store. This really isn’t the time for an in-depth discussion of retailing strategy. But Cathy, famously patient, offers an answer: “They’d buy it at Walmart if we didn’t sell it. Since we can’t sell used shower caps, we sell new, and people can do most of their shopping here.”
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