Bargains and Blessings Thrift Shop reopening with a new look

Janelle Clausen
A collection of stuffed animals sits atop a rack of clothes, waiting for the store to open. (Photo by Janelle Clausen)

For a team of volunteers at the Episcopal Church of Resurrection’s Bargains and Blessings Thrift Shop in Williston Park, reopening on Oct. 7, it has been a longtime “labor of love.”

They have assembled tables, lined new shelves with goods and tagged dozens, if not hundreds of items for sale. The space is also larger and more open now, volunteers said, with light tan walls, white door frames, and a fully carpeted floor.

The Bargains and Blessings Thrift Shop has a variety of items like purses, clothes and this teddy bear sitting on a chair, ready to greet people coming in by one of the stairwells. (Photo by Janelle Clausen)

“The arrangement, the decor of the place, is completely different from the way it was before,” said Irene Genovese, who has volunteered for the church for decades. “And I just can’t wait until we open.”

The thrift shop typically closes in the summer every year. What changed in that time this year, though, was that they cleaned out the place, received a new bunch of donations and installed new shelving, Parish Administrator Patty Hayes said.

But what hasn’t changed in all its years, Hayes said, is how important it is to the community.

“My understanding is it has been here quite awhile, so there is a need for it,” Hayes said. “They found that there is a need for all types of people.”

There are also many more goods available for sale, volunteers said. Both up front and in stockpiles in a storage room, there are racks of men’s and women’s clothes, shoes, and homeware, as well as books and toys in the children’s corner.

A sampling of donated goods that can be found in the storage room. (Photo by Janelle Clausen)

They also have jewelry, clean comforters and home accessories and goods, ranging from chairs to vacuum cleaners.

“We get donations that overwhelm us at times,” said Ruth Hanshe, who first started as an alternating volunteer in the shop. “Now that they’ve renovated it and changed it around a bit, we hope to have more merchandise in there.”

Both Hanshe and Genovese also said it’s a friendly and social atmosphere. They typically saw between ten and twenty people a day – although it varies with the holidays, when they sell decorations en masse – and got to know them as friends.

Sometimes a group of women would even go to the local Wendy’s together, she said, and brand themselves as the “WoW women” – or “Women of Wendy’s.”

“I find it very nice that people come in, we talk, we socialize, and it helps the church… and it brings in the community too,” Hanshe said.

Previously open from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, the thrift store has extended its hours to 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

 

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