Secondhand stores help various organizations
<p>Hayden resident Ann Wyttree, a behavioral therapist, explains at Safe Passage how she likes shopping at thrift stores for her job as well as for personal items. "I especially love it when [thrift stores] support teachers," Wyttree says.</p>
<p>Pattie Nelson of Coeur d'Alene shops for books on Monday at Idaho Youth Ranch Thrift Store in Coeur d'Alene.</p>
When donating or buying secondhand items, there are lots of things to consider, like what kind of an organization is selling these items and where the profits go.
What persuades people to choose one thrift store over another varies. Some people choose stores with larger selections, others choose based on the best prices, and some make sure their money goes to a good cause.
Most thrift stores in the area are nonprofits — all their proceeds go to whichever nonprofit organization they support and donations are tax-deductible.
Then there are for-profit thrift stores. Most of these donate money to causes they feel are important. For-profit thrift stores often accept donations but can’t give tax deductible receipts.
If people are more concerned about helping the local community, there are tons of thrift stores that benefit local causes and nonprofits that take donations, but there are others that don’t.
Even though they are stationed throughout Coeur d’Alene, the blue donation boxes on the street benefit the Northwest Center, a Washington-based organization that helps kids with disabilities. All the proceeds from selling donated items are still going to a good cause, but it’s out of state.
The St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store has locations in Post Falls, Coeur d’Alene and Osburn. The executive director of the nonprofit, Jeff Conroy, said it is the largest homeless-serving agency in the region.
“One hundred percent of the profits we make from our thrift stores stays in our community,” he said. “We helped 3,700 people last year because of those thrift stores.”
Conroy is a strong believer in nonprofits. He suggests people who want to donate or contribute to a nonprofit via a thrift store should know where their money is going — and if they don’t, ask.
The Coeur d’Alene Exchange Thrift Store is a for-profit thrift store owned by Nathan Bark and his family, who bought it last November.
The store donates all it can, after paying for bills and taxes, to benefit Coeur d’Alene schools. Over the past four years, it has given $60,000 to the district’s PTAs and PTOs. The money has been used to help students and teachers when the district is restricted by its budget.
Bark and his wife ultimately want to turn their store into a nonprofit youth or community center where people can go for shelter, food or clothing.
“If we were a nonprofit, we’d have to set up a board of directors and basically lose our ability to dictate how that would happen,” Bark said. “Whereas if we are owners… it’s something where we get to control where the store goes over the next five years.”
Another for-profit thrift store that accepts donations is the Rathdrum Thrift Store and More. Chris Prim owns the store with her parents, who bought it three years ago.
According to Prim, the thrift store donates whatever it can at the end of each month to Shriners Hospital for Children in Spokane and St. Jude’s Hospital. She said they don’t release numbers, but they “donate heavily.”
The God-A-Have-It Thrift Store in Post Falls, another for-profit store, has only been open for two months. Annett Desjardins opened the store mainly for her daughter, a recovered addict. The store gives her daughter a place to be and a way to make money.
“It’s working,” Desjardins said. “It’s not making a whole lot of money, but it’s supporting her and her 4-year-old child.”
Desjardins hopes, within a year, to make the store a nonprofit that helps recovered addicts.
Most shoppers, it seems, don’t really care if a thrift shop is for-profit or nonprofit, as long as the deals are good or they know their money is going to a good cause.
“The intent is there,” said Ann Wyttree, a behavioral therapist from Hayden who was shopping at the Safe Passage Thrift Store. “[The stores] give average Joes work and they have things to help people, like utensils and cheap furniture. My opinion is they’re there for people to get what they need, if they’re moving into a new place or going to a job interview.”
Jeff Ault, a Coeur d’Alene man, chooses which thrift stores he goes into based on past experiences, the organization of the store and how big the selection is. When asked if he takes into account if the store is for-profit or nonprofit, he replied “I should, but most times I don’t know.”