Box stores, high rent choke Calgary thrift stores
CALGARY, AB—While faith-based thrift stores thrive in many parts of Canada, second-hand shops in booming Calgary are falling on hard times.
Last year, Roman Catholic bishop Fred Henry closed all seven Interfaith Thrift Stores operated by the Catholic Church after losing close to $1 million dollars, due in part to competition from big box stores such as Wal-Mart and Superstore.
Henry, a one-time member of the board which operated the retail enterprise, claims the stores lost an average of approximately $275,000 a year over four years, and a further $130,000 in the first three months of 2007.
"We had to end the financial bleeding before it got worse," the bishop told the Calgary Herald at the time. "It was something that was not taken easily."
Henry blamed the losses on Calgary's changing landscape, saying the money that has washed over the city has sent more people to shop at big box stores and has "sucked away" their volunteer base and paid staff.
Last year's move was preceded six months earlier by the closure of The Salvation Army's largest thrift store, housed in a former grocery store and forced to close because they couldn't keep staff.
They continue to operate four, smaller shops in the city.
Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) operated two stores in Calgary in high need areas but was forced to close one of those shops located in the Forest Lawn area earlier this year.
"The rents killed us," says Debbie Sandland, Alberta thrift shop coordinator for the MCC. "We have one store open in the north east, but it's in a building we own."
Sandland says with a healthy volunteer base of 300 people, staffing the shops was not an issue. Unless churches in the south end of Calgary find it feasible to open another store to help fund missions work, she believes there are no plans to reopen a second location.
Even Alberta's Women In Need Society (WIN), which derives funding to operate women's programs through thrift shops, closed a store this spring in inner-city Calgary.
Retail business manager Jay Danychuck says the closure had more to do with the change in neighbourhood demographics than the economic climate.
"The city has grown in the last 15 years and the area became more urban. They've been promoting the downtown area—it was a natural progression," she says. "The big box stores have always been our competition. That hasn't changed over the years, and the rents have only affected us in determining where we will open a location."
Danychuck says WIN is scouting for a replacement location. Because WIN is not faith-based, Danychuck believes they have a broader reach to a "whole population with no religious affiliation." She says the society has a good philosophy and good values—to help women help themselves, a mandate which is supported by a broad customer, volunteer and employee base.
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