Tucked into a modest storefront at 219 Church Road in Spruce Grove, Alberta, St. Andrew’s United Church Thrift Shop is one of those quietly remarkable community fixtures that started small and became essential. The shop traces its roots back to 1978, when the United Church Women launched a single weekend rummage sale in the congregation’s original building at McLeod Avenue and Main Street, hoping to chip away at the church mortgage. That first sale, held on five wooden tables dating to the 1930s with clothing hung on homemade racks, brought in donations far beyond what anyone expected, and organizers stretched the one time event into four consecutive weekends. What began as roughly twenty dollars a day in Saturday sales grew steadily into a genuine year round operation. By 1981 the shop had logged 9,448.65 dollars in annual sales, with more than 8,200 dollars of that going straight into the building fund. The following year the congregation’s twenty five thousand dollar mortgage was retired, with the Thrift Shop itself responsible for 13,700 dollars of the payoff. By 1988 the final mortgage payment was made, and cumulative Thrift Shop contributions had climbed to 121,100 dollars, representing roughly three quarters of everything the church had raised toward its buildings. When the congregation purchased property and constructed a new church in the early 1990s, thrift shop revenue again helped carry the load, and by 2005 the shop itself had outgrown its space and doubled in size after the church acquired the adjoining property. Today the operation runs six days a week, staffed by a combination of paid employees and more than 110 volunteers who sort donations, price merchandise, and keep the sales floor turning over. Annual proceeds now fund local, provincial, and international charitable causes, with yearly giving ranging from roughly 56,000 to 290,000 dollars depending on the year. Shoppers can browse Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., while donations are welcomed at the back door during slightly earlier hours, 10 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., the same six days. The shop is closed Sundays, Mondays, and statutory holidays. Because inventory turns over constantly with community donations, the selection shifts week to week, rewarding regular visits from local bargain hunters and treasure seekers alike. For residents of Spruce Grove and the surrounding Parkland County area, the thrift shop offers an easy way to both find affordable secondhand goods and support a nearly five decade tradition of neighbors helping neighbors. Few volunteer run thrift operations can point to a paper trail this long or this transparent, a shop that began on borrowed tables to help pay off a mortgage and has since directed well over a million combined dollars to church construction and outside charitable causes. Long before online reselling existed, this congregation figured out that secondhand goods could fund a building and a mission at the same time, and it has kept doing exactly that for close to fifty years. St. Andrew’s United Church Thrift Shop in Spruce Grove is a nearly fifty year old volunteer powered secondhand store whose sales proceeds have funded church construction and continue to fund local, provincial, and international charitable giving today.
St. Andrew’s United Church Thrift Shop
By standrewsunitedchurchthriftshop
Tucked into a modest storefront at 219 Church Road in Spruce Grove, Alberta, St. Andrew’s United Church Thrift Shop is one of those quietly remarkable community fixtures that started small and became essential. The shop traces its roots back to 1978, when the United Church Women launched a single weekend rummage sale in the congregation’s original building at McLeod Avenue and Main Street, hoping to chip away at the church mortgage. That first sale, held on five wooden tables dating to the 1930s with clothing hung on homemade racks, brought in donations far beyond what anyone expected, and organizers stretched the one time event into four consecutive weekends. What began as roughly twenty dollars a day in Saturday sales grew steadily into a genuine year round operation. By 1981 the shop had logged 9,448.65 dollars in annual sales, with more than 8,200 dollars of that going straight into the building fund. The following year the congregation’s twenty five thousand dollar mortgage was retired, with the Thrift Shop itself responsible for 13,700 dollars of the payoff. By 1988 the final mortgage payment was made, and cumulative Thrift Shop contributions had climbed to 121,100 dollars, representing roughly three quarters of everything the church had raised toward its buildings. When the congregation purchased property and constructed a new church in the early 1990s, thrift shop revenue again helped carry the load, and by 2005 the shop itself had outgrown its space and doubled in size after the church acquired the adjoining property. Today the operation runs six days a week, staffed by a combination of paid employees and more than 110 volunteers who sort donations, price merchandise, and keep the sales floor turning over. Annual proceeds now fund local, provincial, and international charitable causes, with yearly giving ranging from roughly 56,000 to 290,000 dollars depending on the year. Shoppers can browse Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., while donations are welcomed at the back door during slightly earlier hours, 10 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., the same six days. The shop is closed Sundays, Mondays, and statutory holidays. Because inventory turns over constantly with community donations, the selection shifts week to week, rewarding regular visits from local bargain hunters and treasure seekers alike. For residents of Spruce Grove and the surrounding Parkland County area, the thrift shop offers an easy way to both find affordable secondhand goods and support a nearly five decade tradition of neighbors helping neighbors. Few volunteer run thrift operations can point to a paper trail this long or this transparent, a shop that began on borrowed tables to help pay off a mortgage and has since directed well over a million combined dollars to church construction and outside charitable causes. Long before online reselling existed, this congregation figured out that secondhand goods could fund a building and a mission at the same time, and it has kept doing exactly that for close to fifty years. St. Andrew’s United Church Thrift Shop in Spruce Grove is a nearly fifty year old volunteer powered secondhand store whose sales proceeds have funded church construction and continue to fund local, provincial, and international charitable giving today.
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