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Downtown Menlo Park will have another empty storefront, as the Goodwill Boutique at 711 Santa Cruz Ave. is set to close on Saturday, Jan. 11, after the store’s lease expired. One employee of the Goodwill started a petition in hopes of convincing the parent company to renew the lease for the location, or to open another store nearby.
Ashton Juarez, the creator of the petition, says that he wanted to show the management at Goodwill that the Menlo Park community wants the store to remain in downtown, and to show his coworkers that they are appreciated by the community. As of Wednesday, Jan. 8, the petition had 307 signatures.
“I wanted to show my bosses and their bosses that the Menlo Park community really adores these stores,” he said. “I wanted them to have a voice. … I am just hoping that they will either reopen the store here, or reopen in another location around here.” Juarez let this news organization know that he had been suspended for “insubordination” on Tuesday, Jan. 7. Goodwill San Francisco Bay declined to comment on the status of his employment.
Juarez, 24, has worked at the Menlo Park Goodwill for nearly a year after moving to the Bay Area from Utah. He said that his favorite part of the job is his coworkers.
“A lot of them are single parents, and some of them deal with criminal records and other stuff. … How dedicated they are to their work in spite of everything gave me so much motivation to be a better person,” he said. Part of Goodwill’s mission is to provide job training and career opportunities for those who are emerging from military service, incarceration, addiction or homelessness, or those who lack the education or work experience to break into the job market.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Goodwill San Francisco Bay confirmed that the store would be closing due to an expired lease, and said that the team members who work at the Menlo Park store will be able to join the teams at other Goodwill locations nearby. Goodwill San Francisco Bay declined to comment on whether a rent increase played a factor in the decision to not renew the lease.
“We are actively exploring new Goodwill locations for the future, all of which support our mission of providing life-changing opportunities for people in our community through job training and the power of work,” read the statement. “We are grateful for the amazing community in Menlo Park and encourage everyone to visit one of our nearby stores with great selections in San Mateo and Burlingame.”
Juarez said that though the employees were offered opportunities at other Goodwill locations, the closing of the Menlo Park store will still be hard for some employees who do not have cars. He said that the Menlo Park location was ideal for the employees who did not have access to cars as it was easily accessible by both bus and train.
“When we were offered other positions at Goodwill, I was like ‘oh, that sounds kind of neat, maybe this won’t be that bad,’ but it became clear to me that because not a lot of us have cars, these jobs are going to come to an end for some people,” he said. Juarez said that only three of the eight employees at the store drive.
In the petition, Juarez wrote that as far as the employees knew, the Menlo Park boutique was profitable, and was “one of the highest income-generating locations in (the local) Goodwill chapter.” Goodwill San Francisco Bay declined to comment further.
“I hope that small businesses in downtown areas with rising rent everywhere see the power of a strong community to help them through times of trouble,” Juarez said.
