Local charity stores including Vinnies and the Salvos say they are ready for an expected avalanche of donations as many Canberrans spent much of lockdown clearing out the cupboards at home.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The charities have cleared warehouse space and brought all staff and volunteers on board, with the impact of 10 weeks' of Marie Kondo-ing in the homes of the national capital about to hit.
The Salvos and Vinnies charity stores re-opened their doors on Friday after lockdown, along with other non-essential retail in Canberra.
And there was a lot of pent-up desire to both donate and buy.
Samantha Shepherd, 30, of Gungahlin was at the Vinnies store in Phillip, beaming under her mask because she was once again able to get her "fix of Vinnies".
Before lockdown, she would visit Vinnies once a week to add to her varying collections, from glass to sculptures to vintage lolly containers. Then when the shops had to shut due to COVID restrictions, she was at a loss.
"I know it sounds strange, but it felt like a piece of me was missing," she said.
On Friday, she was back in her happy place, snapping up some items for herself and toys for her niece and nephew. "This is my thing to do," she said.
St Vincent de Paul Society Canberra/Goulburn director of commercial operations Lindsay Rae said all the local stores opened on Friday, except for Narrabundah which opens on Saturday. (The Mitchell store is relocating to Hoskins Street.)
"Our stores had queues outside when we opened," he said.
The shops were packed to the hilt with inventory.
"I've never seen them look better. There's some beautiful stuff," Mr Rae said.
Vinnies always expected to be hit with a massive amount of donations post-lockdown, once people were allowed to drop off their items again.
"We're ready for that. We've been preparing for that for weeks," Mr Rae said.
"All our staff are back on and it looks like the majority of our volunteers will return.
"We've cleared our warehouse in Mitchell and are encouraging people with bigger loads to drop them off at the warehouse, because it helps out logistics.
"So we've emptied the warehouse and increase the numbers in our sorting teams to deal with what we think is going to be a massive influx of donations."
The charity stores are the major fundraisers for Vinnies as it works to support everyone from the homeless to domestic violence survivors.
"They are essential," Mr Rae said.
Salvation Army area manager Bronwyn Vinen said many customers returned to the stores on Friday because they missed the staff and volunteers during lockdown.
"They just want to check in on the team. Let us know they are OK. And see if we're OK," she said.
"We did a big makeover of the basement at the Fyshwick store and there were quite a few customers taking photographs, they were so impressed."
Mrs Vinen said it was exciting to re-open the stores in Canberra, Queanbeyan and Goulburn. There would also be a new Salvos store opening soon in Gungahlin. They were all ready for donations.
"We're pretty comfortable with that and we know the Canberra region is very kind with their donations and the yield of it is 95 per cent. We're not getting a lot of waste and we're very fortunate," she said.
"A lot of it, we can bring it in our stores, price it and put it straight on our shelves."
Megan Doherty
I like telling local stories and celebrating Canberra. Email: megan.doherty@canberratimes.com.au
I like telling local stories and celebrating Canberra. Email: megan.doherty@canberratimes.com.au
