Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Napanee’s Salvation Army Thrift Store will soon find a new building to call home.
The charity has opted to sell its current building, located at 12 Mill Street E, and will instead operate from a soon to be determined leased location.
“We are looking at finding a new home for the store that will be larger and will just allow us to do what we do better to support the community,” explains Abby Mills, director of community ministries with the Napanee Salvation Army.
A ‘for sale’ sign now stands outside the building which has led some in the community to think the Thrift Store would be closing forever.
“I can understand why they would (think the store was closing),” said Mills. “We have been pretty much closed throughout the pandemic, although there was a brief period where we tried online sales. The reality is that the building does not work well for us as a store, particularly in the light of the COVID restrictions. If we were to open right now, in that building, we would be limited to only two customers at a time which just makes it not feasible for us to successfully run a business there.”
The building is a historic one, as Mills estimates its been owned by the Napanee Salvation Army for at least a century, used in various capacities over the decades.
What made good business sense even just two years ago however has been turned upside down courtesy of COVID-19 lock down measures. Though they operate as a non-profit, the Salvation Army is in the same boat as many other commerce. The pandemic has forced them to re-evaluate their day-to-day and in the end it could just work out as a blessing in disguise.
“Looking down the road the ideal situation for us would be to find a space that would have both the Thrift Store and our family services located together and just have one location in the community,” said Mills.
Running the Thrift Store on Mill Street as well as the family services office on Richard Street can be a challenge at times. That’s why the plan now is lease a space that would be big enough to accommodate both and they could then sell their other building as well, which would mean a new location for the food bank, among other services.
“When I was in Belleville we had both together and it worked so well not only on the administrative side but on the public side it works really well because anything you could need from us, it’s there in one spot,” added Mills.
As they search for a new location, Mills is asking anyone from the community with items to donate to just hold on for a little while longer. They hope to have their shop set up in the very near future. Money raised from the Thrift Store goes towards supporting the Salvation Army’s many programs.