Seattle Children\u2019s Hospital Thrift store is doing just fine these days, thank you very much.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what store manager Suzanne Dunnell finds herself explaining multiple times each day, to confused shoppers who keep asking if she is closing the downtown Kent store.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing just fabulous, but all these people are coming in and saying, \u2018why are you closing?\u2019\u201d Dunnell said last week.<\/p>\n
The reason? People are confusing the Children\u2019s Hospital shop with the American Cancer Society Discovery Shop, a downtown thrift store in the process of closing its doors this past week, at its location at 225 First Ave.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are a half a block south of us,\u201d Dunnell said.<\/p>\n
In spite of a recession-driven economy, Dunnell said her shop has managed to weather the storm. That\u2019s due mostly to a steady supply of repeat customers who have made the shop a destination for the past 15 years it\u2019s operated in Kent.<\/p>\n
\u201cOurs is pretty stable,\u201d Dunnell said of the store, which has been operating from its storefront at 215 W. Meeker. \u201cWe\u2019re pretty much a destination store – there\u2019s not a lot of walk-by traffic on Meeker Street anymore. We have very loyal customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, just one street away, Bill LaVergne, director for the Discovery Shops for Washington and Oregon, on Tuesday was wrapping up the thrift store\u2019s final day of business.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our last day,\u201d said LaVergne. \u201cWe\u2019re just waiting for a company to come and pick up some light fixtures.\u201d<\/p>\n
LaVergne expressed disappointment over the shop\u2019s demise – \u201cbasically this end of town died when the city opened their new shopping center (Kent Station) up the street\u201d – but noted it won\u2019t be the end of the Discovery Shop era for the Puget Sound region.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of volunteers are going over to our West Seattle store, and other locations,\u201d LaVergne said, explaining there are 10 Discovery Shops in the Washington-Oregon area.<\/p>\n
LaVergne said the Discovery Shop, which gave its proceeds to cancer research and related programs, had a presence in Kent for nearly 20 years.<\/p>\n
But diminishing foot traffic, limited promotional funds, and finally a recession, combined to make it unworkable to keep the doors open.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat it was costing us to operate the shop, and putting the money in for cancer research, was pretty negative,\u201d LaVergne said. \u201cFrom a business standpoint, it was not feasible to stay open any longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Dunnell said she\u2019s expecting to see Seattle Children\u2019s Hospital Thrift Store continue on a positive course.<\/p>\n
She wants to continue giving her regular customers a healthy assortment of items.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have really nice clothing, furniture, glassware,\u201d she said. \u201cOur furniture is almost new. A couple vendors donate to me regularly.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kent store is one of six Seattle Children\u2019s Hospital Thrift Stores. Bainbridge Island, Port Townsend, Olympia, Shoreline and Redmond also have shops. Proceeds from their sales go toward funding uncompensated care at the Seattle-based hospital for children.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Seattle Children\u2019s Hospital Thrift Store<\/p>\n
HOURS: Monday-Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.<\/p>\n
LOCATION: 215 W Meeker St., Kent<\/p>\n
CALL: 253-850-8216<\/p>\n
WEB: www.seattlechildrens.org\/ways-to-help\/shopping\/locations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Seattle Children\u2019s Hospital Thrift store is doing just fine these days, thank you very much.
\nThat\u2019s what store manager Suzanne Dunnell finds herself explaining multiple times each day, to confused shoppers who keep asking if she is closing the downtown Kent store.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":7070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-7069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7069"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7069"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=7069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}