You don't want to get arrested in Collier County and go to their jail.  They have a reputation from hell. Naples is the only town in SW Florida that has not started to trend blue.  I wish all of you could see all the homeless that we have down here.  They sleep in the woods year around.  There isn't a month that goes by that you don't read in the news that a homeless camp was raided and everyone was forced to leave a town or county or be arrested.  The homeless population has really grown in the recent years.  I don't shop much at Goodwill anymore because their prices are too high.  I only go in there to collect vintage cook books or baking molds.  Most of the time I walk out empty handed. 

As a close relative of a disabled person who has a job at Goodwill, I wish people would just lay off the "investigation" of what they pay. They are expert at paying disabled people just enough and giving them just enough hours, but no more, so that they don't trigger the worker being cut off of government benefits. Ask any social worker, Goodwill is a great place to get some work activity for disabled people who would not really last long in any real work environment and still need various government benefits to survive. People who if they worked anywhere else would endanger necesssary benefits that basically keep them alive. It is not required for anyone to work at Goodwill, it is something that relatives and other caretakers of disabled people like because it gives people that would otherwise be sitting at home some dignity and self-confidence. Among a crew of people of equivalent competence where the disabled person isn't continuously looked down upon as the least competent person in the place, with whom they can also have social interaction.

The only dangerous thing is when Goodwill decides that you are "too able" a worker and tries to move you into a welfare-to-work government program where you can "earn more money". Then if you are fired for not having the brains to compete in that probably minimum wage job, or because your cerebral palsy or whatever your handicap requires too many days off, you have still been branded "employable" in the real, non-Goodwill world and by the government, and you are screwed.

If you want to blame someone about what they pay, look at the laws that set the limits on how much work you can do and how much money you can earn before various government benefits are cut off. Adjust upward and I have every belief from what I have seen that Goodwill would also do so, almost to the penny.

Goodwill gets donations of items for free, then retails them and charges enough to spend millions of executives? Only in America could you call that goodwill.

I worked on a series of projects for non-profit orgs, including this one, and I noticed that the bosses seemed exceptionally well-dressed - gold stickpins in their ties, etc. - and drove very fancy cars compared to our other client contacts. I chalked that up more to them having to rub elbows with truly rich folk that might donate large sums than being exceptionally well paid. But who knows?  

Although in this case the fellow seemed to be overly generous rather than felonious, I know my bosses would not be very understanding if I didn't charge my time to projects that I thought deserved a break. My billable time includes a lot of markup for office overhead.

In essence he was donating the organization's money to certain of the poor without it's direction or knowledge. That their mission is to help the poor adds a touch of irony, but it is understandable that they would want control over how and to whom their funds are donated. I wouldn't want to find out that my bank had given my money to some charity without asking me first.

That said, their response was over the top.

Ramona, when I  was actively scouting books around S. California I spent a great deal of time in these kind of shops, including Salvation Army and other thrift shops including one which was quite upscale. I think the folks over-reacted in the arrest, but they did have a right to enforce rules.

Of the two shops I frequented most, both had management problems. I got to know the workers well because, uh, they sometimes led me to the best books---was that wrong? Maybe so. But I was told on several occasions that every Saturday at the S.A., the Commander's wife would back her car into the building and she would sort through all the jewelry and electronics and fill up her vechicle. None of those items ever made it to the floor and if someone wants to believe they were sold on-line, why was it done off site when they had a ton of officer and warehouse space.

At the upscale store, a thin blond lady who was married to a Doctor and drove a Land Rover ran the book operation. Funny thing, I could never find an overlooked prize in there, nothing worth more than a few dollars, and I kept wondering where all the good books were so I razzed her a couple of times about it and got an extremely cold response like, "everything's here, first come first served"---which turned out to be true because on several occasions I saw her car at a dealer I knew well and I asked him if she came in there. "Yeah, he said, she brings in some really good books".

Back in the hippie days of the 1960's, the Diggers in San Francisco opened a Free Store. This was stocked by donations, but unlike a charity shop, everything inside was free. You just walked in and took what you wanted.

Sure enough, one evening someone broke in and stole the stuff.

Since I had not been to my up scale Goodwill for months,  I dropped in today.  It is in the same strip mall as the Dollar Store Market and I needed to pick up some dish soap. They have moved back to a more traditional thrift and it was busy.  It was not as organized and attractive with displays.  There was cheaper everyday stuff now with the used mink stoles and beaded gowns.  I guess they had to add some junk to boost sales.  All these comments here got me interested in stopping.  A group of local homeless was at the entrance of the parking lot.  They had their signs.  I happen to know some of them by their first names.  They used to hang out in front of the trailer park.  I stopped and handed them 2 dollars and listen to Brenda tell me why they are down the street now.  I had not seen them for the last month.   They were gone when I got done shopping.  It was starting to get dark.  The chronic homeless is part of the community in my part of the world.  I will have to tell the neighbors when they comment on missing them.  I did find a Wilton valentine cookie sheet and a fake copper jello mold just the right size with a fall theme all for $3. Now my grand daughter wants to make valentine whoopie pies tomorrow. She figured out that all of them would fit in the oven at the same time to convince me that we should add valentines in with the pumpkin whoopie pies to save time. LOL. 

There's three separate issues being discussed in the blog and comments.

The first is the question of Goodwill CEO's and management pay. Perhaps a case could be made that its too high. My cynical mind tells me that is likely true. But simply listing the pay of three CEO's doesn't make that case. Its at best a tiny first step toward making that case.

The second is the supposition that some managers of Good will stores are siphoning off the best of the donations for personal use or to sell for personal profit. Again my cynical mind sees that as reasonably possible too. But rumor and innuendo doesn't even begin to make that case.

The third question is a cashier unilaterally discounting goods at half off the price. In no way shape or form is it acceptable for a low level employee to discount items at the cash register. I'm sure Anderson got a big ego stroke when he gave away other people's money with no cost to himself. I don't think his heart was in the right place and I don't believe he didn't know what he was doing was wrong. Maybe now he understands that stealing other people's money for a "free" ego boost has costs. He gets no sympathy from me.

Keeping in mind that we are talking about a teenager here, the arrest was definitely unnecessary.  A more conscious management might have taken some responsibility for not training the employee properly and reprimanded him without firing him.  Teaching him how to properly do his job would have been a more appropriate response in my view. 

I don't feel you can pretend this was just like working at a regular retail place.  This happened precisely because it was a charitable organization.  In my view, how they handled the situation reflects their values and they could certainly do better.

The issues of whether people take advantage of such charities for personal benefit is an issue few would probably care to truly investigate.  And clearly these days the higher level pay of every CEO etc. is suspect when the wages of the majority of the country are being depressed.  That is something that needs to be screamed and shouted about.