DID YOU KNOW?
Did you know that when you shop with Unique Thrift Stores, you not only are getting quality goods at affordable prices, but are also benefiting non-profit organizations? While we are a for-profit business, we buy a large portion of our merchandise from local and national non-profit organizations that raise funds through household items/clothing donation programs. Our Non-profit vendors rely on the sale of these donated items to provide a consistent revenue stream to fund their much-needed programs and services. For the past several decades, Unique Thrift Stores has been a bulk purchaser of used merchandise from the Military Order of the Purple Heart Service Foundation (“MOPH”) and the Vietnam Veterans of America (“VVA”). We also purchase clothing and household goods collected from Little City Foundation, Helping our Heroes, Dupage PADS and several branches of the YMCA. Between 2006 and 2008, we paid over 19 million dollars to our non-profit partners and vendors.
It’s a win-win-win scenario. Our non-profit vendors can rely on us to buy their donations in bulk quantities, which provides them with the revenues they need. We are provided with sources of used merchandise. Our store teams spend lots of time sorting through all the used merchandise to find those select items our customers are interested in and that meet our quality standards. Through our investments in processing, retailing and merchandising, we can give a second life to many of these items and keep them out of our landfills. The merchandise we are unable to sell is primarily sold to brokers who ship used merchandise around the world to various developing nations or who sell the merchandise to material wholesalers who make commercial rags and other fiber based products. We do our best to find as many uses as possible for this merchandise and are always looking for new ways to re-use and recycle.
If you would like to schedule an at-home donation pickup with a non-profit organization or locate collection bins, please Click here.
To learn more about the Vietnam Veterans of America household items/clothing donation program, please click on a link below.
To learn more about the Military Order of the Purple Heart Service Foundation clothing donation program, please click here.