It's the king of the thrift stores, with $38 million in total revenue last year, more than 900 employees and 24 stores throughout an eight-county region.

And now, Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania is getting a face-lift.

Hundreds of shoppers in Peters made that discovery Aug. 8 with the opening of the newest Goodwill store on Route 19 in the former Prizant Carpet Warehouse building.

The retail arm of the 90-year-old charitable organization is getting back to its roots, with a new look and new policies designed to attract more customers to high-quality, donated goods.

With about half of its annual revenue stemming from retail sales, the organization laid out a new focus in recent months, which included dropping new items and furniture that had been added recently in many stores.

Some high-end donated merchandise had been featured at the Goodwill online auction Web site, but it will now be sold in local stores, said David Tobiczyk, vice president of marketing and development.

Stores are better lit and incorporate department store layouts with new signs.

"Really, it's our back-to-basics approach," said Brad Burger, acting vice president of retail.

Hundreds of customers lined up around the 12,000-square-foot store on Route 19, where they found something never before seen at a Goodwill store: defect-free clothing sorted by size and a brightly lit showroom with simple fixtures and easy-to-understand unit pricing.

Most of Goodwill's other 23 stores have already been outfitted with the changes, as so-called "blitz" teams descended on them, removing new goods, sorting apparel and restocking shelves overnight.

New items were rolling out of the store's donation center every 15 minutes, as part of a new policy to be certain goods make it to the retail racks minutes after they are donated.

Another important new guideline is the organization's "It's Only Fair" policy, which prohibits employees or volunteers from purchasing items sold at the store where they work.

"The fair policy is to ensure that goods donated at this store remain in this store," Mr. Tobiczyk said.

Clothing with stains or other defects is shipped to a distribution center, where it is shredded and converted into trunk liners, which Goodwill sells.

No apparel is wasted, although the organization spends about $600,000 a year to toss out broken items, like furniture and glassware.

A few customers said they missed rummaging through mismatched apparel for that special item, but most said that having clothing sorted by size was the most important improvement in the store.

"I love it, I really do," said Susan Zoog, of Canonsburg, an experienced bargain hunter, who was impressed with the quality of the items for sale.

"Look at this mattress. Can you beat that?" she said, referring to a stack of new mattresses wrapped in plastic, priced between $149.99 and $329.99.

The mattresses and some discount department store merchandise is still purchased new by Goodwill.

Also for sale were donated items like a new computer desk for $25, a white wicker bench, and a set of 200-thread-count flat sheets for $2. The price tag on the linens showed a clearance price of $27.99 at Kaufmann's.

Five minutes after a sectional couch hit the showroom floor, it was sold for $299.

All of the items have been donated by local folks, who began dropping off donations a month before the store opened. The store also has a drive-through donation center.

"This is a fabulous store," said Mary Louise Joseph, of Wheeling, W.Va. "I was stunned when I saw it here."

"I think that this area is amazing," said store manager Nicholas Hilton, who has worked at other second-hand stores in the South Hills. He said the high-traffic location and demand for discounts in the current economy should spell success for the Peters store.

But not everybody is happy with the changes.

Nearly all adult apparel is priced at $3.99, and senior citizens receive 15 percent discounts daily, a change from weekly sales and discount days.

Jennifer Melnick Carota, a member of the Bargain Divas of Southwestern Pennsylvania, said the discontinued sales were a disappointment to her and her group.

"That kept me coming back because it was more fun," she said of the sales.

As a result, she said, her group shops less often at the Goodwill store in Belle Vernon, where they are based.

About 90 percent of the revenue from store sales, auto auctions, a computer store on East Carson Street on the South Side and other enterprises is used to fund the organization's human services programs, which include employment-related education and work force development services for people with special needs.

Part of the organization's mission also includes overall assistance for people with disabilities, including support for needy people and seniors to purchase clothing and household items.

Nationwide, local Goodwills provided employment and training services to 1.1 million people, generating $3.2 billion in revenue last year.

For more information about Goodwill stores or programs, visit www.goodwillswpa.org.