Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Heaven’s Treasures plans grand opening
Someone once said the way you store up treasure in heaven is by investing in getting people there.
On a somewhat more earthly footing, there’s no doubt that getting people to Heaven’s Treasures Thrift and Value Stores will store up plenty of treasure for all concerned — the shopper, who finds the perfect treasure for hearth and home and keeps some deserving second-chance workers employed; the donor, who contributed the goods that keep the operation going, and the charities that earned cash on every transaction.
Heaven’s Treasures Thrift & Value Stores LLC announced in June that it had acquired the regional nonprofit thrift store chain Impact Thrift Stores Inc.
You could almost call it an inhouse arrangement, as Heaven’s Treasures CEO James Jones is the former CFO of Impact.
“I felt the need to go out on my own, and I did,” noted Jones at the Norristown store in Norristown Centre, 1700 Markley St. “Impact had been struggling financially and really had no ability to support any nonprofits for some time with the kinds of checks they had been accustomed to. As time went on it became very apparent to Impact they were not going to be able to be sustainable, and that’s when I came in. I have
a background in the corporate world, and my heart is in nonprofits, but you have to run things like a business. There were 200 jobs at stake and it was very probable that the outcome wasn’t going to be good. I sat with the board and we worked out a deal. Now we’re going to be running it like a business but with a heart for the community. That’s important to me.”
Keeping every Impact employee, like Myra Taylor, a supervisor at the Norristown location, on board for the new venture made the transition more pleasant for all, said Jones, who is planning a grand opening celebration in late September or early October that will include huge cash prizes and vacation giveaways.
“We are very thankful that we were able to keep 200 people employed by continuing to run the warehouse donation processing center in Montgomeryville and the three thrift stores in Norristown, Feasterville and Montgomeryville, in addition to our two stores located in Bristol and Hatboro,” he added. “I kept everybody employed and that was very important to me because a lot of times when people acquire a business they come in and say half to the left, half to the right. I tried make it as easy on everyone as possible.”
As the executive with financial authority, Jones was in a better position than anyone to realize that the only way to salvage Impact was to transform it from a nonprofit to a forprofit company that supports nonprofits.
“The one thing that a nonprofit can’t do is buy (new) material and re-sell it,” Jones said. “As a for-profit I can get things at significant discount and pass the savings on to the customer. We want to give value to our customers and the value part is that we buy new merchandise that’s been severely discounted and we will be giving large discounts to everything from couches to clothes to you name it.”
As the youngest of seven children, Jones said he grew up with an awareness of the value that thrift stores offer to those who are struggling financially.
“My dad worked three jobs and kept a roof over our head and clothes on our backs, so we were very familiar with what that struggle is for a lot of people,” he said. “And so we’re really looking forward to engaging the Montgomery and Lower Bucks County communities. It’s a benefit when you can reach 30,000 people in an area.”
At the close of the acquisition, Heaven’s Treasures also made a one-time gift of $25,000 to all of the charities that had recently been supported by Impact Thrift Stores, and announced relationships with several new charities, including Chariots for Hope, Chosen 300 Ministries and Choice One.
“These will be partnerships that will allow our customers to directly support one or more of these charities and receive a tax exempt receipt for their donations,” Jones noted. “These donated items will directly support each specific nonprofit as Heaven’s Treasures Thrift has an agreement with them for the collection of these items. It’s a win-win, as the donor still has a way to recycle unwanted, “gently used” items and get a tax receipt which bears a (nonprofit) status of their choice from these three partners. Secondly, the charity will financially benefit from these donations that are made on their behalf. We ask the donors, do you want to support orphanages in Kenya, homelessness in Philadelphia, or teen pregnancy in Bristol? We have an agreement with those charities where we pay them a certain amount per pound and they get the cash for that, and the customer gets the tax receipt. These agreements have been blessed by Harrisburg. As time goes on,” he added, “I will be supportive of other charities and creating other types of partnerships.”
Besides supporting charities and offering quality goods at affordable prices, Heaven’s Treasure’s core mission includes hiring “second chance” employees.
“Second chance means those coming out of addictions and, for the most part, incarceration or some issue with the law,” Jones said.
“It’s important to me that we’re not only offering good affordable merchandise, but it’s important that we have good people working for us, who are getting chances to grow in their careers,” he added. To find out the grand opening celebration date keep checking HeavensTreasuresThrift.com and the Heaven’s Treasures Facebook page. Heaven’s Treasures Thrift and Value Store is open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.