The Salvation Army Thrift Store teams are rearranging store layouts and spacing out products, striving to make shelves look full. (CNW Group/The Salvation Army Thrift Store – National Recycling Operations)
Liverpool’s Salvation Army thrift store closing to make room for community programs
The Salvation Army has announced it will permanently close its thrift store in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, later this month.
The store, located at 361 Main Street, will shut its doors on June 26, following what the organization calls a difficult but necessary decision.
Effective immediately, the store has stopped accepting donations. Closing sales are underway to reduce inventory, with any unsold items to be transferred to the Salvation Army thrift store in Bridgewater, which remains open.
According to Major Pam Goodyear, divisional secretary for public relations with the Salvation Army’s Atlantic Division, the decision was made after a thorough review of financial performance and space needs.
“Our thrift stores operate to support the funding of other programs in the community,” Goodyear said. “In this case, it was no longer viable to keep the Liverpool location open. At the same time, we needed more room for the services we continue to offer.”
The thrift store had only been operating out of the church facility on Main Street for the past two years, but Goodyear says it had increasingly limited their ability to deliver other community supports.
“It’ll give us more space for our emergency food pantry,” she said. “We also provide Christmas assistance, school supply programs, weekly luncheons, and one-time urgent help. Even our church activities were being limited because the thrift store was taking up that space.”
The Liverpool location employed one part-time staff member, who Goodyear says is preparing for retirement. She added that the Salvation Army will offer support and a severance package as needed.
While the thrift store is closing, Salvation Army Church and Community & Family Services will continue to operate in Liverpool.
More details about services and other thrift store locations can be found at salvationarmy.ca.
