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Goodwill opens The Grid : donated games become force for good

by: Ben Berry -
More On: The Grid

If you're not familiar with Goodwill, they're a charity that uses the money from selling donated items (aka Goodwill stores) to educate and train people for employment opportunities. That model has worked for a while, and with 83% of the funds raised going directly to programs, it's got a pretty serious track record.

That's not to say the over 100 year old organization isn't up for learning some new tricks. Back in early June, Goodwill opened The Grid: Powered by Goodwill which gives them a computer and video gaming speicific storefront location for used and refurbished video game products that have been donated. Located in Charlotte, NC, the pictures provided by a Reddit user show a pretty nice setup, with a ton of older systems supported from NES up to a PS3 being prominently displayed. Prices are allegedly quite good (as to be expected of Goodwill stores), and I saw several harder to find older items in just these few photos.

This store seems to have primarily only received regional press, but if these started to pop up all over the country, this could be a big thing for gamers, keeping older products out of landfills, and making gaming available to those on lesser budgets. So if you're in NC, maybe you can pick up some retro titles or consoles you've been looking for at a good price while assisting a charitable organization with a history of helping others. 

(Hat tip to our own Travis Huinker for bringing this to my attention.)