The New to You thrift store is settling into its new digs in uptown New West.
After years in Sapperton, the charity thrift shop relocated to 706 Sixth Ave. and opened uptown in October 2021.
“Things are going really well,” said Lindy Kirkwood, president of the Royal Columbian Hospital Auxiliary. “We have a lot more customers, which is great. The expenses are higher, but it is so much busier.”
The new location, which is near the New Westminster Public Library, Royal City Centre and Sixth Avenue businesses, is generating a lot more foot traffic than its previous location. The new space is about 850 square feet larger than its former location.
“Nobody has a problem getting around our store, whereas in the old store it was a problem,” Kirkwood said.
Kirkwood gives a huge kudos to all the volunteers, both auxiliary members and their friends and family, who helped the store relocate to its new space. She said the move would never have come together so beautifully if not for all of their efforts.
New to You is currently open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“We are doing really well,” Kirkwood told the Record. “What I really needs is more volunteers. I have got about four or five since we opened, which is great. We’d love to open longer but we just can’t without more people.”
Kirkwood said the store is staffed by “some really great people” but additional volunteers are always needed.
“We are looking for people to work a minimum of four-hours-plus a week,” she said. “Almost every day of the week we need somebody – Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday; we need people on all of those days.”
In addition to volunteers, New to You welcomes donations of clean clothes and working household items.
“We have been restricting donations to two bags or two boxes because we were a bit overwhelmed for a while. But we feel like we have kind of got it under control, so we have decided that we will limit it to two bags of clothing but no limit on other things,” Kirkwood said. “Really, that’s our lifeblood – donations.”
Clothes, certain red-tagged items and glass kitchenware are 50% off in January.
“Our biggest money maker is clothes,” Kirkwood noted.
The Royal Columbian Hospital Auxiliary raises money for RCH through the thrift store, as well as the lottery booth, the gift shop and a book cart at the hospital. Between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2020, the group raised $165,000 for the hospital, with the thrift store contributing around 40%.
“Come and shop,” Kirkwood said. “We are happy to be in uptown New West.”
Anyone interested in volunteering at the store can fill out an application at www.tinyurl.com/RCHVolunteer or call the store at 604-515-4815.
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