LAKEPORT >> For the last three months, the Lakeport Hospice thrift store has been undergoing a major revamp, but they”re finally ready to unveil their improved quarters at a grand reopening on Dec. 3. Besides a significantly larger floor space, the store is also much brighter with all new fixtures, which the organization hopes will really put the merchandise on display.
The Hospice thrift store began working on the remodel when the corporate office, which shared the space with the Lakeport store, moved to another location. This freed up two-thirds of the building. With the new improvements, there will be plenty of room for shoppers in a space with more square footage and departments for specific items.
Before, shoppers looking for home goods had to share space with those picking out clothing. Now there should not be any space issues.
Thanks to the changes, the store has been able to expand to include two dressing rooms that it didn”t have before, two cash registers as opposed to the one, so that lines will move much faster, and a processing area for all of the work that needs to be completed in order to get donated items onto the floor. There used to be a significant percentage of goods in storage that simply couldn”t fit in the limited store space. The reopening will fix that problem. There”s even a space in the back for all of the Christmas items that they receive.
A brighter and more spacious shopping experience is sure to benefit shoppers and the larger community. The thrift store gives people an inexpensive place to shop for quality goods, which is especially important for a community like Lake County that hasn”t recovered as much from the economic downturn like other places in the Bay Area, said Christine Hutt, marketing coordinator of Hospice Services of Lake County.
“Our store is very important to this community partly because we”ve been here so long,” she said. “We have people who shop here who grew up shopping in the store.”
The reason the store has people coming back for years is their commitment to quality. “We don”t sell things that are broken or don”t work,” said Hutt. “We want people to feel that they”re getting good value for their money.”
The first hospices store in Lake County opened in Clearlake in 1981, a year after Hospice started serving patients. The store has been in continuous operation ever since. The Lakeport store opened its doors in 1995, and has also been in continuous operation.
A third location popped up in Middletown in 2011.
To ensure that items remain affordable, the Hospice store has a good number of sales and there are times when they”ll sell a bag of clothing for $5. Hutt said that this makes it easier on people”s pocketbooks, allowing them to reasonably purchase clothes for their kids and themselves.
But the store draws more than just people looking to stretch their dollars. Collectors and avid shoppers come in from all over the area to scavenge for discarded gems. Often the store receives valuable items that were collecting dust in someone”s garage, and the most seasoned of thrifters know this. People from the Bay Area make trips up Northern California solely to stop in every thrift store along the way, finding hidden treasures for themselves or their own antique shops.
As a non-profit, the Hospice thrift store donates its earnings to community programs such as bereavement services and summer camps. “The money all stays here in the community,” said Hutt. “We take the money and put it right back into the community.”
The store also uses its profits to help people who cannot afford to pay for their medical expenses. Hospices have a policy of never turning away anyone who needs medical care, regardless of whether or not they can pay.
“Hospices in any community serve people with life-limiting illnesses,” Hutt explained. “We use our thrift stores to help people pay for medical services that they need… They help us support our mission and our mission is to serve patients and their families when facing life-limiting illnesses.”
On top of all of the good Hospice stores do with their proceeds, thrift stores in general are very environmentally friendly businesses. “We sell things that might normally end up in landfills somewhere,” said Hutt. If someone doesn”t want their clothes or home goods anymore, the only thing they can do other than donate them is throw them out. Those items then end up sitting in a landfill for years. But thrift stores solve this problem.
Goods sold in thrift stores also use fewer natural resources than the manufacturing and distribution of new products, especially considering most items in thrift stores are collected locally. This greatly cuts down on the environmental damage caused by the transportation of new goods across long distances. “In terms of gross national product, we”re actually considered a very green business,” explained Hutt.
The grand reopening of the Hospice thrift store in Lakeport (1701 South Main Street) will be held on Dec. 3 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. There will be a ribbon cutting ceremony by the Chamber of Commerce at 6 p.m.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019
