Nala and Angel wait to greet shoppers at the Humane Society of Central Arizona Thrift Store – and to perhaps cop a treat for their effort.
But there are small sectors of the economy that are booming. Green technologies. Anybody connected with the health care industry. Nurseries, home improvement places and other businesses that provide stuff to grow a home garden. Oil spill cleanup folks. And thrift stores.
When things get tight, more people shop at thrift stores to help make ends meet. Even people who don’t really need to. It seems to make them feel better psychologically.
I know because I have been volunteering at the Rim Country’s newest thrift story – the one operated by the Humane Society of Central Arizona. It’s located at 404 W. Main Street between the firehouse and Artists of the Rim Gallery.
The shelter likes to bill itself as the little shelter that could. As the baby of Rim Country thrift stores, we think of ourselves as the little thrift store that could.
But don’t take us lightly. As more and more people discover us, we are fast becoming a thrifty little force to reckon with. People come back on a regular basis – some almost daily.
And people show their love for animals by donating the stuff they don’t want anymore. Some even give us things they could otherwise sell because they understand the importance of the cause we help to support.
The store is comprised of three rooms, one for kitchen stuff and miscellaneous tchotzkes, geegaws and gimcracks. Look those up in your Funk & Wagnall’s. And then look around you. Chances are you’ve got a few of each in your house and didn’t even know it.
The middle room is for clothes, shoes, tablecloths, towels, curtains and other things we used to call dry goods in the old days. What’s really cool about clothes at the HSCAZ Thrift Store is that everything is a buck unless marked otherwise – and very little is marked otherwise.
The final room houses the big stuff, everything from refrigerators and other appliances to pianos to wheelchairs to exercise equipment to furniture.
And throughout the store, you’ll find lots of pet stuff – as well you should. When animal lovers donate stuff to the store, you would expect it to include a lot of animal stuff. Like pet carriers, leashes, collars, food bowls, framed pictures, even a poster listing the things one learns from a cat.
But one of my favorite things about the HSCAZ Thrift Store is a sign at the entrance that says: “Pets welcome. Children must be on a leash.”
Another of my favorite things is that most days you will find an animal or two hanging out at the store. Walmart may have its really old guy greeters, but we go them one better. We have a really old dog greeter. That would be Nala, who, believe it or not, hails from Hawaii.
Nala is a big, black, mellow Lab-and-something mix. But it takes more than one greeter to welcome shoppers, and we have – excuse the expression – an entire stable.
Backing up Nala is Angel, a Shar Pei mix puppy who belongs to another volunteer. Angel, who spends a lot of time with Nala at the thrift store (see photo above) is learning the hallowed trade of greeter from the best.
Ric Landshut and I run the place on Wednesdays and Thursdays so store manager Penny McKinlock can have a couple of days off each week. My day is Wednesday, and I have “trained” Radar, the young Lab-Shepherd we adopted when we lost The Babe, to serve as official greeter that day.
I bring him because Radar loves people and kids – even babies. He also loves treats, just in case you want to stick a couple in your pocket when you come shopping.
Radar and I have found that volunteering at the thrift store has a major advantage and an equally major disadvantage. The advantage is you get to meet great people. Real people. Because people who shop in thrift stores are generally people without pretense. Not that you’re pretentious if you don’t, but you know what I mean.
The major disadvantage is that one is tempted to bring stuff home one doesn’t really need. But The Consort has made me a deal: for everything I bring home, I have to take something in and donate it.
Fair enough, and it’s a good deal for the store, too. It’s also a microcosm of the economic model I live by – a model that will never make me rich.
But then if I were, I would probably not shop or volunteer at thrift stores, and I’d be missing out on a lot.
Come on by and see for yourself. If you come on Wednesday, you can meet Radar in person.
And remember the treats if you’re so inclined. A cookie for Radar’s owner would also be gratefully accepted.
And don’t forget the other great thrift stores in the Rim Country. In fact, when you come in we’ll give you a map with all of them on it.
As Garfield the Cat would say in his best pirate imitation, “Thrift storing always be a good time.”
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