Bin shopping comes to south KC

By Jill Draper

Bin shoppers, get ready for a new opportunity in south Kansas City. Sometime in late May a Goodwill retail outlet center will open at the southwest corner of Bannister Road and I-435 in the old Homefield sports facility.

Customers can dig through bins of items that vary daily, all containing things that didn’t sell in four or five weeks at Goodwill thrift stores throughout the area. Prices will range from less than $1/pound to less than $3/pound depending on several categories.

“As you can imagine, it’s a very active scene,” said Kelly Garrett, operations leader at the nonprofit Goodwill of Western Missouri & Eastern Kansas. “There are all kinds of treasures.”

The new retail outlet center is an expansion of Goodwill’s current outlet center in the Northland, which will close when the south KC location opens. Representatives gave an update on the center at the April 14 meeting of the South Kansas City Alliance.

The center will be open seven days a week and will process millions of pounds of goods per year. The selection of items will vary daily, but unlike other retail bin stores, prices will remain steady each day. Customers are invited to bring their own shopping bags, and gloves will be available for those who want them.

“Community donations have been very strong for us, and they increase every year,” said Garrett. “We don’t ever run out. We’ll have more than anyone can buy.”

He said that unsold bin items are recycled to secondary vendors to keep them out of the landfill.

Goodwill will open another facility adjacent to the retail outlet center in August 2026. Called an Excel Center, it will offer a series of go-at-your-own-pace classes to help adults earn high school diplomas.

“It’s a big barrier for many adults to have no diploma,” said Romeo Michael, who told the crowd how an entire community helped him finish high school and college when he was homeless in Austin, Texas. “Now I feel like I have a calling from God to help others.”

When completed, the Excel Center will have nine classrooms plus a community room and a student lounge. Students can access free drop-in child care and life coaching as they pursue their diplomas. A temporary site for classes will open in October 2025 in the Crossroads while the new center is being built. Goodwill operates other Excel Centers throughout the U.S., but this will be the first one in the metro area.

A question about education arose in an earlier part of the SKCA meeting when a citizen asked, “Why can’t we have classes in school for conflict resolution?” This occurred after Kari Thompson, South Patrol Division Commander with the KC Police Department, reported four homicides in one week.

Thompson pointed out that many public schools are starting conflict resolution classes in second and third grades, including talk about bullying. She also gave a “shout out” to municipal court judge Courtney Wachal, whom she said has begun a batterers group to help men regulate their emotions in domestic violence cases.

Attendees in the audience also asked about street racing. “It has gotten out of hand,” agreed Thompson, who said KCPD was trying to get stronger ordinances passed for better enforcement. It was noted that a police officer trying to stop reckless drivers downtown suffered head injuries on April 12 after being hit by an ATV operator.

Dan Moye of the Economic Development Corporation of KC spoke next. He observed that south KC is broken into many unique sites and development is going piece by piece. The city’s Fifth District has been one of the more difficult areas to attract investment because it’s largely residential, he said.

Members of the audience asked about plans to repurpose the Cerner campus at 87th Street and Hillcrest Road. Cerner, now owned by Oracle, has not lived up to what was originally discussed, Moye said, acknowledging several angry questions. “Our goal is to keep all the people that are working there now, and look into how we can get more.”

He added the EDC offers anti-gentrification tools available to neighborhood associations and single homeowners in the form of tax abatement programs in urban renewal areas. These programs are mostly used in the city’s Third District, although there is discussion on expanding them.

KC Fire Department staff talked about the newly renewed public safety sales tax, which not only will help fund a city jail but also makes money available for new fire trucks and ambulances. Some of the large ladder fire trucks cost up to $1.5 million each, staff said. They also hope to replace their current training academy.

KCFD reminded the crowd that households can sign up for unlimited ambulance services (after insurance payouts) at $59/year.