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Community Corner

Impact Thrift Expands to Bucks County

The 10-year-old nonprofit will create more than 40 jobs when its Feasterville store opens in April.

Impact Thrift will open its first Bucks County location in Feasterville's Bucks Crossing shopping center this spring.

The idea for Impact Thrift - which started out in Hatboro more than 10 years ago - was inspired by co-founder Paul Baur's lifelong commitment as a Christian: to help serve others. Impact is a nonprofit that has an entire purpose of supporting others, Baur explained.

"Everything gets sold," he said. "It's all gotta go to charity."

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Baur said that the nonprofit looks to create win-win scenarios by relying on the community to bring donations and looking for them to come and shop so that Impact Thrift can use its profits to support charities. In fall 2010, Impact reached a major milestone - $1 million donated to area charities

"It does take a whole community effort," he said.

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Currently, the Feasterville location is an empty warehouse still under construction, but Baur said they try to make the stores look as much like a department store as possible. Part of the reason for doing so is to attract people who might not ordinarily shop at a thrift store because of the "smelly," "dark" and "dingy" image often associated with them.

"We try to do away with that image," Baur said. "We are clean, well-lit, with higher quality merchandise."

Impact Thrift carries everything from furniture, clothing to "brick-a-brack"—trinkets to decorate the home, plates, silverware, etc. In the past, people have even donated cars, boats, motorcycles, hot tubs and house hold appliances.

"Literally, we have some of everything," Baur said. "It makes the stores an interesting place to shop. We're not a typical thrift store. We're larger."

The Feasterville location, which is located next to Staples, will be the largest store out of the three other locations in HatboroMontgomeryville and Norristown. Because Impact has grown, two of the Montgomery County stores had to be relocated, so it made sense to choose a large space for the new store.

Impact Thrift's Feasterville spot may even be the largest thrift store on the East Coast, according to research done by Heather Hamilton, assistant to the CEO at Impact.

The unofficial plan for Impact's expansion is to open a new store every two years. Baur explained that it usually takes six months to a year to find a location, and that the Bucks Crossing site was all kinds of perfect.

"It's a large space in a busy part of town," he said. "The corner of Bustleton and Street Road is fabulous. And most importantly, the price was right."

The cost of rent is important because if it were too high, there would be less money to support charities, Baur explained.

When searching for a location, Baur said he tries to stay within a 10-mile radius of an existing store. That way, Impact can tap in to the current donor base and some existing shoppers will check out the new location.

Since "Hatboro gets buried alive with donations," there is a warehouse space filled with sorted items that will help open the Feasterville location. And the size of the space might push the need to open another store back an additional year. Right now Baur is focused on getting this location up and running before thinking about the next spot for expansion.

Originally, the new store's estimated completion was slated for November or December of 2011, but things fell behind schedule.

"Things are backed up a little bit, but that's OK," Baur said. "God's timing's best. My timing's not always so good. This is our slowest time for donations, so opening when it's the slowest is probably not a good idea."

If everything continues to go accordingly, Baur hopes Impact will open in April, right when donations start to ramp up because of spring cleaning. The grand opening is tentatively set for April 21 and will include a ribbon cutting, activities for children and parents, refreshments, coupons, discounts and more.

Community Jobs

Impact Thrift has been able to create jobs in the community. Originally, Baur said they hoped to work strictly with volunteers, but that the job was too labor intensive to rely on volunteers.

"It takes a lot to get the production done," he said. "We created a lot of local jobs in the community and try to pay more than competing retail stores."

Currently, Impact Thrift employs 130 people, and with the addition of the Feasterville store, 45 to 60 more positions will become available. From truck drivers to sales clerks to managers, there are positions for people in all stages of life, Baur said. 

Impact Thrift prides itself on helping the community, but even more so its employees. Baur said that because Impact has grown rapidly, employees have the opportunity to grow as well.

"We have employee training," Baur said. "Not only do you come to work, you come to grow. Whether you stay with us or not, you learn things that take you anywhere." 

There's room to move up in the company. For instance, Baur's assistant, Heather Hamilton, started working part-time in book keeping, left to have children, came back as a volunteer, and eventually moved up to be an assistant who dabbles in marketing.

"We focus on employees and developing them," Baur said. "You can start and work your way up to assistant manager and store manager positions. That is exciting to see. We want to make it a wonderful place to work, but it is still work."

Workshops

Since the Feasterville location is going to be so large, with two smaller rooms, Hamilton and Baur hope to run workshops in the evenings to teach people how to re-purpose old and used furniture.

"Things that are destined for the dumpster are going to get a second chance," Hamilton said.

The plan is to show people how easy and inexpensive it is, Hamilton said. For example, creating a mosaic table-top or an old coffee table into a dog bed are just a few ideas of re-purposing furniture that Hamilton hopes to teach.

By employing members of the community, donating proceeds to local charities, and getting the community involved by donating and shopping at Impact, Baur said they hope to continue to run a great business, but that isn't the only priority.

"We strive to make it the best business we can, but that's not the bottom line," Baur said. "We're speaking to lives and investing in others. We want to realize and develop potentional."

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