While many businesses have had to make cuts at some point during this economic downturn, there's one place that's thriving.
  Goodwill of Middle Tennessee is experiencing explosive growth and putting record numbers of people back to work.
   
If you've been down Nolensville Road in South Nashville lately,  you've
noticed this brand new Goodwill Store.   And Tabitha Pendergrass is up
against the clock.  She says, "I'm trying to learn to set up the
register and of course I'm doing the back office and career solutions."
  
  
Pendergrass is in the IT department at Goodwill,  but once she finishes
this store, she's on to 4 other stores!!!!  All opening in the next 15
months.

    Goodwill spokeswoman, Jamie Berry says, "People  are
always looking for a bargain and I think we offer unique items at a
great price and I think that's a big reason why we're growing and I
think the economy just kind of put us over the edge." 

    The
other stores are opening  in Donelson in December,   Then
Hendersonville, Mt Juliet and Murfreesboro in 2013 all because of record
sales during a sluggish economy.   People looking to stretch a dollar
sent sales soaring from  $28 million in 2006 to double that this year at
$61 million.  

    Berry says, "With Halloween coming up..
where else can you get a costume for 3.99?"     That costume is new and
so are many other things at Goodwill stores.  That's because many
stores, like Target, donate overstock clothing to Goodwill. 

Berry explains,  " I don't think what the public realizes is the more we grow the more we can serve and help find jobs."

 
   That's where the Career Solutions piece comes in.  Midstate
Goodwills offer anyone, not just the disabled... ANYONE who is
unemployed  help with free computer training, resume building and job
searching.

  According to Berry 77% of people Goodwill helps at
its Career Solutions centers end up getting jobs outside of Goodwill.  
That's because Goodwill works with a thousand area employers to place
workers.   Pendergrass just liked Goodwill so much that she decided to
stay.

  She says, "They didn't want to hire me bc of my hearing
and I was saying your loss. I'm going to find something better and here I
am." 
 
   The Nolensville Road store opens next Thursday.  If
you need Goodwill's help finding a job, go to Fox17.com, click Foxlinks,
then look for Goodwill Career Solutions.
   SYM: Goodwill Growth