The nonprofit has two thrift stores in the Reno-Sparks area, and all employees are required to wear gloves, masks and take additional precautions, such as requiring donors to place their items in the storage bins themselves before the items are quarantined. Catholic Charities also is not taking any soft, or upholstered, furniture since it's more difficult to clean.įor the time being, all six neighborhood donation sites are closed since Catholic Charities, which has retained all of its current employees during the pandemic, is struggling to fill open positions at the neighborhood sites. Most items actually spend extra time in quarantine simply because staff can't get items out on the floor quickly enough. "Obviously these items are coming from people’s homes, and so we don’t know what the items have been exposed to," said Baxter, who noted that Catholic Charities rented an additional warehouse just to quarantine donations. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recent guidelines that say most coronavirus transmission is airborne, not surface-based. While many shoppers turn to second-hand stores during economic hard times, thrift stores say they are struggling to keep up with the new demands of a pandemic. Despite spikes in household and clothing donations, many stores have also seen a drop in customers, which means less revenue.Īdditionally, they are trying to do more to keep customers safe despite the U.S. "During economic downturns, thrift stores are critical because even people that wouldn’t typically consider thrift store shopping will come in," said Marie Baxter, CEO of Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada. The blue label hanging from each canary yellow bin means the items were quarantined on July 28 and they are not to be touched for three days to ensure they are free of any traces of the coronavirus in case they were previously exposed.
Kinda like that box of chocolates," said John Fisher, director of store development at Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada.
"You never know what you're going to get. Peeking out from the piles in the bins are a pair of plastic sunflowers, brand new foam slippers and a pillow cross-stitched with "Home Sweet Home." An entire room is filled with bins tagged with blue sheets of paper that read "Q-7/28."
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