Newly relocated Salvation Army Thrift Shop doing brisk business
SYDNEY — The relocation of the Salvation Army’s Sydney Thrift Shop was the right move for the religious charitable organization that uses the money generated from the store for its food bank and other community service programs it provides, says Maj. Corey Vincent.
“Business has been through the roof (since the move),” he said Tuesday.
Vincent has headed up the Salvation Army in Sydney for the past few years, and it’s been his goal since he took over to move the thrift store into a building the Sally Ann owns rather than pays rent.
Up until February the thrift store, which sells second-hand clothing, furniture, children’s toys and other household items, was located at 152 Victoria Rd. The shop, with its three full-time and two part-time employees, now operates out of 443 Prince St., the former Ashby Video location.
A grand opening celebration was held at its new location on Monday.
The Salvation Army purchased the building for $360,000 in January 2018 and began the work of transforming the building right away. It originally expected to open the building in May of last year.
But it didn’t turn out that way due to project delays, said Vincent.
“We were looking for the right architect and there was some confusion there about whether or not an architect was needed. We decided to go with an architect,” he said.
Vincent said the contractor also uncovered issues of “moisture” at the front of the building that needed to be fixed.
There was also a lot of paperwork involved in the construction process.
“The Salvation Army is a big organization and so (we made) sure everything was done right. We didn’t want to make any mistakes. We wanted the building to be a success. In the long run it was all worth it.”
Some of the $1 million bequeathed to the Salvation Army by Harry Wall Ryder, a local engineer who died in 2005, was used in the purchase and renovation of the building.
A photo of Ryder, who wanted money from his estate to go toward helping the less fortunate in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality, is affixed to the wall behind the store’s front counter to acknowledge a contribution that was essential in relocating the thrift shop.
“Without that donation it probably would have been nearly impossible to have that location, that building. It’s a big thank you to (Ryder’s) legacy,” Vincent said.