St. Paul’s Thrift Shop is once again pleading to the public to halt donations, as the shop is currently closed indefinitely, and possibly permanently.
The thrift shop first closed at the end of August after a spike in COVID cases in the Golden area, and has remained closed as long-time manager Jackie Casey departed to pursue other opportunities.
Maryann Emery explains that most of the volunteers felt unsafe due to the small space in the thrift shop and their age, making them more vulnerable to COVID, amongst other things.
“As well, arguments with some customers over mask wearing and other safety measures had gotten exhausting. We were very conscious of the potential danger to the seniors in Abbeyfield posed by unvaccinated customers.,” wrote Emery.
“We will re-evaluate the COVID situation in spring.”
Despite being closed, donations continue to pile up at the shop. However, there are no staff or volunteers to sort through them at present, and the bags of donations continue to get dropped off.
Emery says that these items present a hazard to the resident of Abbeyfield house, as they are both a tripping hazard on the property as well as a COVID hazard, and that the donations are taken to a landfill.
“We know the Thrift Store has provided a valuable service over the years but we implore people to respect this closure and refrain from leaving donations,” writes Emery.
“It seems that some people refuse to accept the fact that the shop is closed and continue to leave items, even when spoken to directly by Abbeyfield residents. This has been a problem for the last two months since we closed.”
Despite multiple posts to the shop’s Facebook page, donations continue to pile up behind Abbeyfield. The donation bin will be removed shortly in order to help send the message that donations are not welcome. The bin is currently chained up and locked, but persistent thrifters continue to leave bags of clothing outside the back of Abbeyfield.
All signage for the shop has been removed.
The other thrift shop in Golden, the Bargain Basement, has just reopened, and is not currently accepting donations. A Facebook posts indicated that after almost two years of being closed, the thrift shop is swamped with donations and are trying to catch up and clear space.
They are anticipating that they will be able to accept donations once again in early November, so hold on to your donations until that time.
The Bargain Basement will be updating their Facebook page when they are once again accepting donations.
Until the Bargain Basement donation bin is once again open, they too are pleading to not leave donations outside near the thrift shop.