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Last week, a young college-age woman was shopping at the Trading Post and I asked her if she had ever shopped there before. She replied, “Oh yes! I’ve been coming here for a years, and I LOVE it!! And I’m NEVER telling my friends about this place! My friends have to EARN the right to be told about the Trading Post. It is an absolute hidden gem! But if too many people find out about it, they will ruin it.”
That was a wonderful compliment……I think. Every so often, this exact sentiment is expressed. Last month, one of our shoppers came down with her daughter at an unusually busy time when the shop was chockfull of shoppers. She looked at me in astonishment and said, “What happened!? Where did all of these people come from? I said, “I don’t know. I guess after all of these years, we are finally catching on.” She replied, “Well, I didn’t tell anyone!” And her daughter said, “I didn’t tell anyone either.” Neither wanted to be implicated in the word getting out! It is so amusing how so many shoppers want to keep the place all to themselves!
I guess there is such a thing as too much business, but so far, we’ve kept it at a manageable pace. Of course, the more shoppers we have, the more merchandise we have to keep putting out, so the Trading Post can be a hungry beast! Fortunately, donations from church members and people in the community have been regular and generous. We do our best to keep up with sorting, washing, repairing, testing, polishing, tagging and displaying every sellable thing that comes our way.
We are often asked what kinds of items the shop is in need of, and of course the answer to that question is always changing with the ebb and flow of random donations. But here are some of the items we could use more of as of the writing of this article:
1) Jewelry (even broken)
2) Men’s shoes
3) Pots and pans
4) Yarn
5) Candles
6) Purses
7) Children’s Books
8) Office Supplies, Stationery & Greeting Cards
9) CD’s
This list may be entirely different one month from now, so future articles will list other items we could use more of. If you have things to donate, they may be dropped off inside the Annex Building during open hours: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 am to 4 pm.
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