With no thrift store in Whitehorse, NGOs band together to fill the gap

Months after Whitehorse lost its last remaining thrift store, a collective of NGOs are working on plans to bring low-cost shopping back to the city.

The Salvation Army closed its thrift store in the city in April. The closure followed a late 2016 closure of the city's "reuse store," leaving thrift shoppers frequenting the city's flea market to fill the gap.

• Good bye thrift store, hello Whitehorse Flea Market
• Salvation Army closing its Whitehorse thrift store
• Whitehorse scraps landfill 'reuse store'

The gap didn't go unnoticed by the city's NGOs, said Volunteer Bénévoles Yukon's Bruno Bourdache, a co-chair for the committee running the Community Thrift Store project.

He says that someone from the Humane Society Yukon and Little Footprints, Big Steps — independent of each other — approached him, with both asking about banding together to start a store.

That led to nine people from eight different community non-profits having monthly meetings, beginning in September. 

"Now we have a vision, a mission, common goals, and we said, 'yes. It's time to do a feasibility study,'" said Bourdache.

"We think by setting the groundwork initially, we'll have a leg up," says the Yukon Association of Community Living's Shonagh McCrindle, who is also a co-chair for the committee.

The Community Thrift Store project has put out a request for proposals on Yuwin, an online Yukon job board, in search of someone who can do a feasibility study and write a business plan for the proposed store. The posting is open until January 10.

One major issue the committee will need to tackle is how to keep operating costs down. Both the Salvation Army and City of Whitehorse cited high costs as part of the reason why their stores shut down.

The committee has been talking about how to run their thrift store a bit differently, to prevent people from dumping their trash on them — an issue cited by Raven Recycling when they closed their "free store" in May.

• Still too much junk: Whitehorse loses another 're-use' facility

"There's definitely not going to be a blind drop-off," said McCrindle.

McCrindle said that in order to be sustainable, the store will need to become a community space that people are accountable for. She suggested making appointments to drop off donations and having to pay for large drop-offs as potential solutions to the issue.