Posts Tagged ‘thrift stores’

Today is National Thrift Stop Day! What are you going to do to celebrate?

How about donating to or visiting a Salvation Army Family Thrift Store?

If you’ve been meaning to get rid of those extra clothes, books, and clutter taking up space in your house, today’s the perfect day to do it.

Or maybe you need to do some back to school clothes shopping or find the pieces for that do-it-yourself redecorating project.

Salvation Army Family Thrift Stores provide a convenient way to recycle new or gently used items and our discounted prices are wallet-friendly, both great benefits for you and your family.

But your support of our Thrift Stores also significantly helps us serve people in need!

Sales from our stores fund Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Centers where men and women learn life and employment skills that prepare them to re-enter society and the job market.

All great reasons to celebrate. Happy National Thrift Stop Day!

It’s almost time (we hope) to shed those burly winter coats and sweaters for some lighter, brighter spring outfits! The transition of storing away cold weather clothes and bringing out warm weather threads is the perfect time to clean out the clutter in your closets and drawers.

And if you need some motivation for such a project, The Salvation Army and Stein Mart are offering incentive through their national Give & Receive clothing drive, March 4-6. Shoppers who bring clean, gently used garments in good condition to any Stein Mart store during the Give & Receive event will enjoy great discounts while helping those in need.

For each item donated, contributors will receive a coupon for 20% off any item.* Towards what can you use some savings? Clothes, shoes, home décor? All of the above? Well here’s your opportunity.

This is the third year that Stein Mart and The Salvation Army have teamed up to help those in need. Approximately one million pieces of clothing have been donated by Stein Mart shoppers to help replenish The Salvation Army Thrift and Family Stores. All proceeds from the Thrift and Family Stores directly support The Salvation Army’s Adult Rehabilitation Centers, where over 340,000 men and women turned their lives around in the past year.

Do something good for your family and others less fortunate at the same time by bringing in your new or gently used clothes for the Give & Receive drive. This takes ‘retail therapy’ to a whole new level.

Read the Give & Receive press release here.

For more information about The Salvation Army, visit www.salvationarmyusa.org. To learn more about Stein Mart or to find a store near you, visit www.steinmart.com.

*Coupons can be redeemed at Stein Mart stores March 4-6, 2010. Limit four coupons per customer. Customers can donate as many items as they like. Tax receipts are available for donations.

A Salvation Army thrift store in Houston, Texas, is displaying a strange ware – by thrift store standards.  According to the Houston Chronicle, the store is showcasing a small collection of artwork all attributed to renowned artist Salvador Dali – complete with certificates of authenticity.

The collection, the article continues, was the second of its kind “donated by an anonymous woman who deeply believes in the Salvation Army’s mission, said assistant store manager Carl Roberts.”

The first donation was sold on eBay, Roberts told the reporter.  “But this time,” Roberts said, “we wanted to give our community here something different, something to see.”

Isn’t that what the work of The Salvation Army is about?  Offering hope, changing the seemingly smallest of circumstances, so that someone can see…see their way clear of a difficult time…see the silver lining in the midst of a storm…see the hope in their despair.

The display of valuable Dali items will soon be rehomed.  The thrift store is accepting written bids for the collection now.  But in the meantime, they are available for viewing, showing something different to folks coming into a second-hand store and perhaps expecting the same ol’, same ol’.

…And that’s what’s refreshing about this story, and about the mission of the Army, even when people come looking for the same ol’ stuff, expecting nothing special, the Army offers them something different, something to see in themselves, in their communities, and in their future.

An anonymous woman who spent £5,200 (more than $8,500 US) in a Wandsworth charity shop has been dubbed “the mystery angel” by volunteers.

The woman, who begged her identity remain a secret, strolled into the Salvation Army in Wandsworth High Street just before closing time last Friday and almost bought up the shop.

Six exhausted workers stayed until 8.30pm helping her pack up the goods, which included everything from designer clothes to children’s desks.

Shop manager Richard Baggaley said: “We were a bit worried that she was a lunatic who was just going to say goodbye and leave, but she has paid.

“She’s gone from being the barmy lady to the mystery angel.”

The woman, a church-goer in her 60s, said she was collecting items for a school she was setting up in Kingston, Jamaica.

According to workers, she did not give details but simply said: “You have helped me in the past and I hope to make good use of these things for the future of those less fortunate than me.”

She bought an estimated 1,000 brick-a-brack items, including about 100 pencil sets, a leather reclining chair and several paintings.

She also cleaned out the designer rail, buying Ralph Lauren shirts for all of her new teachers.

The goods completely filled the Salvation Army’s three and a half tonne truck used to deliver the load later in the week.

Soon they will be shipped over to Jamaica in a giant metal container to start a new life.

Mr Baggaley said: “The first batch of customers who came the next day asked if we were closing down, because there was so little stuff on the shelves.

“The call from the Salvation Army now is, we need more furniture again – although people have already been very generous.”

By Eleanor Harding
Your Local Guardian.uk.com
United Kingdom