In addition to shopping here, please consider donating to Wise Buys Thrift Store on State Street…read more(1224 N State Street -- near Rudy's Pizza and Old World Deli) as part of your support for Lydia Place (http://lydiaplace.org), a women and children shelter established to help get women back on their feet and into a permanent job and housing. The Wise Buys Thrift Store is also a great place to shop. I almost always see a great bargain whenever I'm there dropping off donations.

The Food Bank in Bellingham is a wonderful resource for "Hamsters". Because they depend on…read moredonations the items vary from week to week but there's always fresh milk, eggs, and toilet paper. It's not a grocery store so wait times can be long. But food is expensive and some of us don't have a large budget and it's great. The volunteers are so helpful with assisting customers so it doesn't feel like you have to pay a lot for food to get great service and groceries. Kudos to everyone who donates or volunteers.

The Bellingham Food Bank ("Feeding our community since 1972") has helped me out more times than I…read morecan count. When you're unemployed, broke, and the food stamps have run out, this is the place to turn to. Bring a postmarked piece of mail to show you are a Bellingham resident, and it's best to bring a few empty grocery bags as well, because they tend to run out of boxes. Be prepared to wait in line an hour or more. They are open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 12:30-3:00 and Wednesday 5:00-7:00. Fridays towards the end of the month are always busiest. If you come earlier in the day, the line is longer, but the selection is better, too. Later, on towards 3 o'clock, the line is shorter, but the selection of food is less. Lots of grocery stores in Bellingham (Haggen, Trader Joe's, Price Chopper) donate their just-expired or just-about-to-expire bread, pastries and such to the Food Bank. A thousand praises on the volunteers and staff who keep this place running!

Shockingly nice thrift store! Not what I was expecting at all. Beautiful items, well displayed, at…read moregreat prices. And friendly, fun staff. What more could you ask for?

The ladies at the Assistance League of Bellingham rock! They are friendly and knowledgeable and…read moresupport some great causes. I was impressed with their selection and prices, will definitely go back. We need more volunteer-directed charities like this. Way to go!

The Anacortes 100 food bank is an excellent organization. I highly recommend it to folks who are…read morestruggling to meet their day to day food needs for themselves or for their families. Let's look at the basic fundamentals of how it works at Anacortes 100 food bank. First, you will show up once a week on either a Tuesday or a Friday from 10am-2pm. If you are new, next to the sign in sheet is a sign up sheet. Fill that out and give it to a volunteer behind the door. Rarely will a live person be out in the front to check you in. You will just sign in on the sign in sheet. Second, you will grab your bag of food. If you have a large family, they may give you two bags. Just ask how many you get if you are new to the program and have a large family. I have a family of 2, and I get one bag. Sometimes, they will have extra meat or dairy category additions, and a volunteer will ask you if you want it or not. This might take the form of milk, eggs, pork, or chicken. Third, after receiving your bag, check out the isle of bread and produce. Take what you can use. As far as I know, there is no official limit, but just keep in mind that there are others in line as well that need to have something to pick from. In other words, take as much as you need right now and not as much as your big empty freezer at home can take if you see what I mean. The produce is often past its prime, but it is sometimes usable. You just have to be dedicated to picking through it and be willing to cut off bad spots to eat the rest of the nutritious fruit or veggie. Sometimes there are extras also located on the two isles next to the food door, and you can usually take as much of that as you can use as well. The last example I remember is coconut water in several flavors. Fourth, there are shopping carts that you can take down to your car if you end up grabbing more than you can carry. Just be sure to return them, as there is no volunteers available to find and return missing carts. Once again, you can go once a week on either Tuesday or Friday. There is usually some special distribution for Thanksgiving and Christmas. For Thanksgiving this year, they handed out a food bag and a $25 gift certificate for meat at the local Safeway. What you are able to actually get each year for Thanksgiving or Christmas greatly depends on the funding they receive and the donations of local establishments. This may not be a thing you can count on next year, but I was blessed to have it happen to me this year. Thank you Anacortes 100!! Let's talk briefly about the line. It is usually longest in the morning when it opens as far as my experience goes. The line does not move very fast as there is really only enough room inside the small establishment for one or two clients at a time. Each client can take up to 5-10 minutes at times. This being the case, I usually come a little later than 10 so that I do not have to wait in the cold (more of a factor now in the winter). Last item I want to discuss is commodities. These are government surplus items that are given out once a month by the food bank. Usually this is an extra bag worth of food (at least it was in my experience so far, in truth, it probably varies in quantity). They give these out on the first Friday of every month. This is the only day that it might be worth trying to get there early as they do run out. I hope this post alleviates any fears of what it will be like going to the food bank and how its process works. At least, this is what I usually hated in going to new food banks was all the uncertainty of how to sign up and how it all works. I also hopes this inspires locals to contribute to this local cause through donations of food and money. It serves many individuals and families throughout Anacortes with basic necessities to get through the week with at least some food. Thank you Anacortes 100 for your good work!

The help they give is truly a blessing . The way they go about it , always with a smile and genuine…read morecare , it's the one place that kept my soul alive during the pandemic, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I wish I were more like some people. These people give me something to shoot for. They inspire me…read moreto want to give back. There are genuine people out there that lead a life with selfless ambition and restore all the faith I seem to lose through some crazy times. Blaine Food Bank has it all. Over the years, I have witnessed mostly the same team, work to make sure no one goes hungry. Today, I stopped by and saw a great sight. Not only was there more food than I have ever seen, the place felt alive and decorated beautifully and I stood there and thought, "These people are really something special". The staff are exceptional. Their friendly and non judgement demeanor make people comfortable. It can be really hard for people to ask for help. Right now, people need extra help more than ever and I can't tell you enough how grateful I am for what a fine job Blaine Food Bank has done. I love the new look. I love that you took the time to make the food bank look inviting and I love how helpful everyone is. It really shows how much you care. Thank you Thank you Thank you

Prices are fairly steep at this Habitat for humanity. There are a few deals to be found but you…read moremust search for them, but hey isn't that part of the fun?

Newly organized, constant discounts, rapid turnover of items. Our favorite place to shop!read more

It pains me to write this review of what used to be one of my favorite stores. And I was a sad as…read moreanyone when I saw they had to close over a year ago due to a fire. And just as happy when they announced they'd found a new space and were planning to reopen. I have to say, having visited there a few times now, I'm pretty disappointed. The new space is still downtown, but a few blocks west of their previous location. Where parking was free at that spot, it's metered at this one. When I think of all the vacant retail spaces in town, many with parking lots or at least free street parking, it leaves me perplexed. And the new space itself is so incredibly small and disjointed. It's separated into multiple, small rooms. Their inventory is but a shadow of its former self. And the prices have gone up. Wayyyy up. Perhaps most perplexing is the complete lack of classroom space, which they'd gone to so much trouble to add in their own space. Combined all of this with semi-surly, N95'd employees and well... to put it simply...I don't see the appeal in returning here anytime soon. For now, I miss the old Ragfinery and hope they turn things around.

Great place to browse. Great prices on recycled items!! Well organized and uncluttered areas make…read moreit easy to find what you are looking for and finding things you didn't know you needed

Awesome place. The only thing is that it has a strong scent that kind of makes you want to stay…read moreforever in order to figure out what it is

Visited this Goodwill location a few months ago…read more In short: the prices have gone up enough that it's almost not worth stopping by anymore. I'm sure rents have gone up and Goodwill is feeling the pinch like a lot of businesses/not for profits these days but when your closest competition is Value Village and your prices match or exceed VV's, that's a red flag to me. Our most recent visit was definitely our most disappointing one. I found a number of interesting looking games, two of which had multiple price stickers. These two were both card games and when I brought these to the attention of an employee I was told that the higher of the marked prices were the most recent. Each of those card games was priced at $10, which to me was ludicrous. On the other hand, large boxed games like Monopoly were less than that. Clothing was also more expensive than I'm used to in this shop and so I found very little of interest. The selection and quality varies widely as you might expect, so you never know what you're going to find. Plenty of parking out front and the staff were friendly enough.