HUMBOLDT — The Good Neighbour Store has started limiting donations to two bags or boxes per household at a time due to heavy donation levels.
“Our miscellaneous items, we’re coping with those,” said Susan Braun, co-ordinator with the store. “Our clothing is barely coping to be honest. We’re getting too much of that, but we’re doing what we can.”
The Good Neighbour Store is a non-profit thrift store that sells goods donated from the community.
Braun attributed the large donations levels to people having a backlog of stuff they wish to donate.
“I think it will eventually level off. We can’t handle taking truckloads of stuff just yet, we can only handle the two bags, two boxes.”
Under their new policy, all donations are being quarantined outside for 72 hours before being brought into their building.
“Dishes and things we always cleaned before, and shelves we’ve cleaned regularly before, so that’s kind of the same,” Braun said. “When we do open to the public we do have volunteers in here with disinfectant and they are disinfecting things people touch a lot.”
Donations are accepted from Wednesday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon p.m.
The public shopping hours have been cut in half, with shoppers only having access from 1 to 5 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday, and a maximum number of customers set to 18.
“That way our volunteers can work in the morning when we’re closed to the public. We’re trying to keep as safe as an environment as possible for our volunteers,” Braun said.
“I’m very pleased with the community response. Our customers have been very respectful whether they’re shopping, or whether they’re donating. They’re very respectful following our rules.”
