Columbia Goodwill

From Service Dog Training

Denial of service by the Columbia, Missouri Goodwill thrift store.

A friend and I got thrown out of a Goodwill store because of the presence of my service dog. I chose not to fight it out with the staff because of the high level of ignorance demonstrated in our brief conversation. Instead I sent the matter to the regional director of Goodwill. His response is below:

I am VERY sorry to hear about the experience you had in one of our stores. My position within the organization is in providing services to people with a variety of disabilities and/or disadvantages. I can assure you that it is our mission and our ultimate purpose to serve individuals with disabilities/disadvantages. We teach ADA compliance and accommodation to area employers but it sounds like we may have some work to do closer to home. I don't supervise the stores but have already passed this issue to my supervisor, who does. He has over 28 years experience in serving individuals with a variety of disabilities and I am positive he will work to quickly address this issue. He may also look to contact you to discuss this further. Please feel free to contact me directly if there is anything else I can do to help.

I consider this matter to be resolved in a very positive way, though I'm still not a fan of the local Goodwill for a variety of reasons and probably won't go back.