Businesses across Saskatchewan have been affected by COVID-19 and Value Village is no different.  The thrift store has seen a decline in in-person shopping however they haven’t suffered a decline in donations according to manager Dawn Timm. 

The volume of donations they’ve received is “actually higher,” said Timm, because “our non-profit partners are unable to deal with the large volume of donations that have been coming their way, so we’ve actually been receiving more at the door by probably between 20 and 30 per cent.”  

The store’s daily operations have “absolutely been affected.”  said Timm. Value Village states that their top priority is for their customers and staff to feel safe in their store. “We’ve had to do a lot of different things in regards to cleanliness, safety measures and ensuring that our team are following things appropriately to keep themselves safe.” said Timm. “So that would be the biggest thing, I’d say that’s been affected since COVID. Our sales of course have been affected because we have less people in the store and less transactions but taking care of our staff has been the biggest change I would say.” 

One of the measures they’ve taken to protect customers and staff is quarantining donated items based on Occupational Health and Safety standards.  “Prior to us processing it and actually organizing and sorting through the product we actually quarantine it.” said Timm. “From there it’s also quarantined again before we roll it to the sales clerk because we no longer have our team members rolling product during the day. We also have door greeters that are educating our customers every time they come into the store about the safety guidelines that we’ve put in place.”  

Some of the other measures they’ve taken is the implementation of one-way aisles and using a “high touch cleaner” which is a person who works 12 hours a day disinfecting areas that are likely to have been touched. 

Value Village will not currently help donors unload from a vehicle where air space is shared in compliance with physical distancing protocols. Instead, donors are given bins to help them with the unloading process. Exceptions will be made for donors who have items in the back of a truck which is not considered to be shared air space. 

Donors are still given their 20 per cent discount. 

“It’s all about trying to keep positive.” said Timm. “ My team is extremely important to me. We have about 100 team members that work with us, they are my work family. My team and my customers are my priority so we are doing everything that we can and following anything Occupational Health and Safety puts in place.”