A Day of Kansas City Firsts - Experiencing the Goodwill Bins and the Z-Man Burger With One of My Besties
I have been wanting to go to the Goodwill Bins for years. There just never
was one close to me and well, after hearing stories about the bins and watching
YouTube thrift with me videos, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't intimidated.
However, after the opening of The Everyday Look (linked here!) and my friend Abigail telling
me there was one in Kansas City I knew we needed to go so we picked a
Saturday and I made my way up
to the big city. As expected it was a thrifting experience unlike anything
I have ever had before as well as a successful one since we both found some
pretty amazing things. Scroll on down to read more and to see a preview of
what we found! (Actual haul will be coming soon!)
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The Goodwill Outlet in Kansas City opens at 9am and so we decided to
get there a little before then to try and secure ourselves a cart. When we pulled
up to the place there was already a long line out
the door of people waiting to be let in.
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Queens of Thrifting!
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Once the doors opened it was a mad dash right to the carts. Luckily I managed to grab
us one (although later we wished we would have each gotten one since we found so
much but you live and you learn lol). Had we gotten there any later than we did we
might not have been quite so lucky! Those carts disappeared fast! I was already feeling
overwhelmed, but luckily Abigail had been there before multiple times and was a bit of an
ole pro at the bins so she helped me stay calm. lol We pushed our cart over to a wall where
we could let it sit while we dug through the bins. One of the main rules of the bins
is that once something is in a cart no one is allowed to steal it out of the cart
and it made me feel more comfortable with just leaving it somewhere
out of the way while we dug. I mean it was just so much easier
to move around without having to push the cart and keep it close to
me.
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Not long after we arrived it was time for the first rotation. A worker got on over
the loudspeaker and told everyone to step away from a certain section
of the store. More workers came out and removed the bins of things already out
there (never to be seen again; once something leaves the bins floor it is never
brought back out and is instead shipped off to a landfill/disposal place) and
replaced them all with new, very packed bins.
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Some people continued to hunt through bins that were out on the other
side of the store, but most of us were waiting by the white line
eyeing the new merch that was coming out trying to see if there was
anything good we wanted to grab. It kind of felt I was back in elementary
school about to race some chump on the playground for the best swing. lol
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Once all the bins were out the worker came back on over the loudspeaker and
yelled “WALK!” We then all proceeded to place ourselves in front of a bin we
wanted to look through. Once you position yourself in front of a bin
DO NOT TOUCH IT. You will get yelled at as you have to wait until you are
given the okay to touch anything.
I waited patiently in front of a bin next to Abigail until I heard over the
loudspeaker “SHOP!” and then began to dig through the insanely high
mountain of clothes. (Seriously these bins were piled higher than I stood. I wish
I would have snapped a pic of them, but I was focused. lol)
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Now even though they were piled high to the ceiling, the clothes bins were
definitely a little less hectic than the home goods bins. People got straight crazy when
those came out! Abigail was a lot braver than me going after things in those bins and
she walked away with scratches and was even bleeding at one point, but dang
did she find some great stuff! I ended up being more of a clean-up crew person
waiting until people kind of cleared out from the bins to go in and look. Probably
not the best way to try and find some goodies, but y’all I was
scared. Abigail was bleeding. BLEEDING. It was a battlefield out there! Lol And besides
I still found some good things so I can’t complain about my method too much. Although
next time I do think I will try and get in to a bin first and stop acting like such
a scared little newb. Maybe. I don't know. We will see. Lol
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We were at the bins thrifting for over 4 hours and since we skipped breakfast
we were definitely starting to get pretty hungry so we checked out, loaded all
of our goodies into the car, and then began searching for places to eat on
Google.
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https://videopress.com/v/YOnvRhoP?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&muted=true&persistVolume=false&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true
Here is a little video of our haul. I'd say we were pretty successful. And the best part? We both paid less than $100 for all of it.
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Eventually we landed on Fritz's for food. Unfortunately, the hours posted online
for the restaurant were wrong and when we arrived at the restaurant we found
we weren't going to be getting our meals delivered to us by tiny locomotives that day.
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We sat in the car hangry and trying to figure out where to go when Abigail
just blurted out…"have you ever had a Z-Man burger?!" I said “no, what the
heck is a Z-Man burger?” and so we headed towards the original Joe's
Kansas City Bar-B-Que which can actually shares a building with a gas station. (And like a legit one with pumps and everything)
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Even though we arrived at a non-lunch hour (we got there about 3pm) there was
a line of people out the door we had to wait in. We stood in line for about
45 minutes before finally winding our way up to the order counter. We both
got the original Z-Man with fries and a drink.
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The Z-Man burger is a “burger” with smoked brisket, smoked provolone cheese, fried onion rings, and BBQ sauce on it.
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It was absolutely delicious (looking at this now is definitely making my mouth
water and my stomach grumble) and their homemade fries were bomb as well! I
would go back in a heartbeat! If you go my main tip is to just
be prepared to wait in line. While we were there
there continued to be a steady stream of people with the line continuing
out the door the entire time which I suspect is pretty typical for that place
regardless of the time of day.
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After we finished our food we headed back to Abigail’s, but not before making a quick
detour at Culver’s for some ice cream (because, as my dad says, there is always
room for ice cream. lol). We sat and ate our ice cream while watching
Mai Pham on YouTube (totally should check our her channel if you haven't
already...she is one of my fave YouTubers!), transferred
my stuff out of her car into my own, and then it was time for me to make the long trek back home.
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Final Thoughts On the Bins:
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The Goodwill Outlet is an intimidating place, but it was fun and I walked out
of there with so many amazing things for cheap! I really wish I lived closer
and could go more often!
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My main tips for the bins:
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-get there early
-bring a fanny pack/small backpack to store your valuables in and keep on you
-bring a granola bar or some type of little snack (you will probably be there for a few hours so you will be glad you brought a little something to eat. lol)
-find a good spot to stick your cart that is out of the way if you are lucky enough to get one
-bring large reusable bags (like ikea bags) to carry with you and stick stuff in while you dig through the bins (this keeps your arms free and keeps you from having to make so many trips back to your cart
-follow the rules
-HAVE FUN AND DIG YOUR HEART OUT
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Have you ever been to the Goodwill Outlet or to Joe's KC BBQ? Let me
know down in the comments!
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