What's the DEAL with Mystery Bags

If you’ve been to one of our Goodwill Retail Store & Donation Centers recently, you may have seen a stash of brown and blue paper Mystery Bags hanging out on our sales floor. For all the details on what these bags are, why Goodwill started Mystery Bags, and a sneak peek into the contents of one, keep on scrollin’!

What are Mystery Bags and why did Goodwill start this process?

Mystery Bags contain a select number of items that were not sold on our retail floor. Our Mystery Dozen Deal contains twelve men’s or women’s tops in your selected size for $9.99. We also have a Mystery DVD Deal, which contains five DVDs in the genre of your choice!

After seeing that other Goodwill organizations were doing something similar, we thought it would be an amazing opportunity to give items another chance to sell, allowing for an additional opportunity to give these items a new home. Our customers love the variety of items in the bags, the surprise of not knowing what they’ll get, and that everything is of good quality and value.

Who decides what items go into the Mystery Bags?

Categories are selected by retail management, but individual items are put into Mystery Bags by store employees. We add new categories and expand bags based on popularity and how fast they sell.

Can customers expect the same quality of items?

Yes, these are items that were already on our sales floor. Mystery bags are a great way for these items to sell at a discounted rate and it’s fun to see what’s in your bag!

How many stores currently have Mystery Bags?

As of April 2021, 27 stores are actively offering Mystery Bags, but our goal is to have them in every store and offered at curbside pick-up stores eventually.