The boutique opened on Jan. 18, sparking mixed reactions from consumers.
On Jan. 15, Pay attention Neighborhood Products and services, a secondhand retail store chain that makes use of its proceeds for local community assignments, announced on Fb that it would be opening up a boutique part in their Lebanon thrift retail store area on Jan. 18. According to the put up, the room will operate as a way for far more highly-priced garments to be concentrated in 1 area.
“Our key mission is to provide a area wherever affordable clothes is out there for everybody in the Higher Valley,” the post said. “However, we’ve read from some individuals that they’d like to see a place in which some of our increased excellent, far more pricey apparel can be seen collectively.”
This selection has prompted blended reactions from clients. Recurrent shopper Sarah Stewart, a Hanover resident and nonprofit fundraising expert, claimed she thinks the boutique opening was a excellent shift on Listen’s component because she thinks it will generate much more earnings to fund community operate.
“Their most important mission is not the thrift retailer,” Stewart claimed. “That’s 1 of the approaches that they pay for their serious function, which is supplying out heating subsidies and housing subsidies, and running a food items pantry and accomplishing neighborhood foods.”
According to a recent Valley News write-up, Hear allocates $1.25 million a year to run its social provider systems — around 25% of the income of their 3 distinctive thrift store spots in Lebanon, White River Junction and Canaan.
According to Stewart, another advantage of the boutique is its probable constructive environmental impact, citing water use and squander established by the vogue business. Stewart hopes the boutique may draw far more people today to Listen, escalating sustainable vogue buys.
“If the boutique encourages individuals who would commonly keep absent [from Listen] because they imagine it is junky to basically go in and buy issues next hand, I assume that is awesome,” she claimed.
Stewart pointed out that lots of persons who shop at thrift shops are resellers who get goods at decrease selling prices just to promote them on the internet at increased types.
“This keeps a lot more of the cash for Pay attention,” she stated.
Even so, others explained that they imagine Listen must not be using large selling prices to sell donated garments.
Tess Bowler ’25 said that she feels that having a boutique presents Listen’s designation as a thrift retail outlet an inaccurate label.
“The main price of a thrift store is not generally to make a financial gain,” she said. “It’s to provide secondhand garments to men and women who most likely can’t manage it.”
Joann Kwolek Dundas, a repeated Listen shopper and longtime assistant supervisor of multiple Salvation Army thrift shops, said she is a supporter of the boutique.
“It undoubtedly can operate,” she claimed. “It all relies upon on how they price matters. You know, it is a thrift store, and it is supposed to enable individuals that are not capable of paying out the bigger charges, so it’s possible they ought to just retain costs in the center somewhere.”
Dundas included that if pricing is as well high, the product will not offer in the typical thrift store circulation, so she believes that obtaining a section “more suited” for specific forms of outfits will be helpful.
“They know their client base, or they should really, so they ought to be equipped to really significantly gauge what they can sell a little something for,” she claimed, introducing, “I feel the boutique could be a seriously fantastic point.”
Pay attention administration did not react to requests for comment despatched to the retailer e-mail.
