First-class Secondhand: Thrift stores help non-profits close the funding gap.
By Joseph Amster
Before I was a writer and editor, I spent most of my working life in retail. The culmination of my retail career was the five years I spent managing the AIDS Services Foundation Orange County’s Dorothy’s Thrift Store.
I was hired to open the first store, located in Costa Mesa. After about a year, we decided to open a small, boutique store in downtown Laguna Beach named Dorothy’s on Broadway. Eventually, the Costa Mesa store would be forced by urban renewal to move to Santa Ana, and that location, managed by beloved community icon Stanley Tudor would close in 1991.
Meanwhile, Dorothy’s on Broadway thrived and became a fixture with Laguna locals. This small – 900 square foot – thrift store was known for quality merchandise, low prices and a fun atmosphere. In my five years as manager, the stores would bring in over $500,000 in sales.
I have fond memories of my time in the thrift store business, tempered with some sadness, remembering picking up the donations from so many in the community who decided to give their worldly goods to benefit the store after they passed on.
Mostly, I remember the volunteers, a dedicated bunch who worked like crazy to keep the merchandise flowing on to the sales floor, staffing the cash register and keeping the place tidy.
After five years, I left Dorothy’s on Broadway to become the editor of this publication. The store would continue for another few years, but became unprofitable and was eventually sold to another non-profit that continues to operate there.
When the store closed, I was given the first and 500,000th dollar, which I had proudly framed and hung in the store, as well as a large wooden Buddha, which always stood at the store’s entrance and whose belly is shiny from all the customers rubbing it for good luck. I also have memories of a store that became a favorite local hangout, friends I made over the years, and the knowledge that what we did there had a direct impact on making life better for people living with HIV and AIDS in Orange County.