A local thrift store can keep its doors open after what looked like a difficult financial situation was saved by community donations.
According to Lake Trail Thrift store owner Matthew Jon Townsend, the winter months are always a difficult time for the $2 per item shop. But this time around, things were looking even more grim.
“Wintertime has generally been the toughest time for us, we operate in the negatives for the most part,” said Jon Townsend.
“I’ve been fairly fortunate to maintain other work on the side to keep it afloat. Come this winter, we had a few weeks where there was no income coming in from my second job.”
Jon Townsend says the thrift store costs about $12,000 per month to run, and they only had about $6,000 to pay bills and the hydro bill was coming soon.
As a last-ditch effort, he reached out online to see if the community could help him pay the $2,000 rent and hydro bill, and it cashed in.
“It was an overwhelming response. We have never had a day with sales like that, we sold almost completely out of inventory by the end of our day,” said Jon Townsend.
He adds donations made by citizens tallied up to $1,600, meaning they could keep the doors open and the lights on. The donations also showed an overwhelming amount of care in the community, he said.
“We had one individual come in and bought 500 articles of clothing and brought it down to the warming shelter and donated it all,” said Jon Townsend. “It was just an all-around day for people giving and caring.”
Jon Townsend adds the reason he runs the store as a $2 per item thrift store is to give the maximum amount of accessibility to people in the area who need it most.
“There’s a lot of people in this valley that struggle to put the $2 together even,” said Jon Townsend. “This place really helps them get by, being able to get clothes for their kids or housewear.”
