Demand up but donations down at local thrift shops

As we seem to continue to dig deeper into our pockets to pay for just about everything these days, some are turning to thrift stores in a bid to keep costs down — but so too are donations.

When you first think of thrifting you may think of popping tag but the main need right now isn’t clothes, it’s household goods.

“We’ve got folks that are newcomers to our area and that’s definitely putting more of a need out there,” said Karla Musselman, thrift coordinator at the Mennonite Central Committee Ontario.

Speaking on The Mike Farwell Show on Friday, Musselman said that also comes on top of the normal spike in demand thrift shops tend to see heading into September.

“As we’re all well aware, we’re a university and college town and [with] the transition of students, we definitely have those peaks both for donations and for buying and we are moving into [a] ‘need’ stage,” she said.

So demand is up but Musselman says donations are continuing to trend the other way, especially as more locals look to scrimp and save to help make ends meet.

She said it may simply be that people are holding onto what they have longer but it could also be that they’re opting to sell them themselves, either online or in a yard sale.

“Things that maybe they wouldn’t have bothered to do prior, if they’re finding things are a little bit tight, taking the extra time to do that might be why we’re seeing this decline,” Musselman said.

That said, if you do have any household items no longer needed, Musselman said they’d be happy to help take them off your hands.

“Anyone that has extra things that can help us by providing us some household goods–I mean, of course we’re [also] accepting clothing–we’d be very thankful for that.”

She also said proceeds do go to support the organization’s charitable programs here at home and globally.