It’s a ‘win-win-win situation’ at Holmes thrift stores

It’s a ‘win-win-win situation’ at Holmes thrift stores
Rhonda Edgerton

Isaac Troyer unloads donations from a vehicle at Save & Serve in Millersburg.

                        

The COVID-19 pandemic did not slow down the thrift stores in Holmes County. If anything, after the initial lockdown, the stores have been doing more business than ever.

“We’ve been very busy receiving more donations than ever,” said Marilyn Yoder, manager of Share and Care in Berlin.

Yoder said their store continued accepting donations when the other stores initially remained closed for the coronavirus.

“We got a whole lot of things then through our 24/7 drop-off. People were all stuck at home and cleaning out their closets and cupboards and brought us all the stuff they were no longer using,” Yoder said.

Yoder said the store had added an additional work area in the back of the store right before the virus hit. “Our timing couldn’t have been better, in hindsight,” she said.

Harvest Thrift Store in Sugarcreek also has been seeing an increase in activity.

“Since we’ve opened back up, it’s been a great situation all around. People are able to clean out their homes and do the good deed of donating very nice items that often end up going to people who have maybe had their employment cut or are struggling with the virus in other ways,” said Kathy Marner, store manager.

Marner said while the store was busy, she did lose a couple of volunteers who made the decision that it might just be too risky for them. “They were mostly older folks who were concerned about their age, and maybe they had some other health conditions,” she said.

The store has tried to be as flexible as possible with its volunteers, according to Marner, doing such things as adding times for the volunteers to come in a few hours before the store opens. “Everyone is getting lots of hours,” she said.

Marner said the store also is doing lots of cleaning, wiping down frequently, bleaching the carts, and supplying wipes and hand sanitizer for customers, and they installed Plexiglas at the registers.

“We appreciate the generosity of people so we can continue supporting all the places we support like missions and our prison ministry,” Marner said.

Judy Talcott, president of Goodwill of Wayne and Holmes Counties, said they closed their stores on March 20 and didn’t reopen until April 12.

The store was able to keep its four full-time employees on staff during the shutdown, and another 12 part-time employees were laid off temporarily, according to Talcott.

“All of our employees have been trained very well in all the sanitization procedures we now have to take,” Talcott said.

Talcott said donations are at nearly twice the number they were a year ago. “We are having some trouble finding employees for our Millersburg store, though. Therefore, we are not at full hours yet. We are currently working 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day,” she said.

In all of this, Talcott said her organization has stayed focused on generating money to fund its mission.

“We’re here to help the people in our community build connections to better jobs and brighter futures. We believe in the power of work,” Talcott said. She added that people can visit their website at www.goodwillconnect.org.

Eric Raber manages the Save & Serve Thrift Store in Millersburg. “We are really lucky. We have great community and volunteer support that’s allowing us to work through this,” he said.

Raber said the store is making safety its number-one priority. “We have been following all the CDC, state and local health departments’ guidelines to a tee,” he said.

During the shutdown Raber said the store closed because they didn’t feel sure they were able to ensure everyone’s safety until guidelines were put into place. “We think we’ve got a pretty good feel for it now,” he said. “We’ve addressed every area we can think of and then some.”

In the store many changes are apparent. Plexiglas partitions separate the cashiers, carts are continually sanitized, hand sanitizer is plentiful, and employees and customers wear masks.

It might be in the store’s back, though, that Save & Serve’s safety efforts are really noticeable.

For one thing, all donations are quarantined for 72 hours when they first come in, Raber said. “We’re doing this out of an abundance of caution,” he said.

The store’s processing area reveals physically distanced breakroom tables, Plexiglas dividers between stations, a health check-in reminder, new touch-free sinks and cups marked for sanitized or used pens.

“We don’t think there’s anything more important than the safety of our 500 volunteers and hundreds of customers,” Raber said.

Raber said he believes the word’s getting out that they are very safety conscious and that customers can come in and feel comfortable in the store. “We have a win-win-win situation here with the community, shoppers and volunteers,” he said.


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