In the Chicoutimi and Jonquiere area of Saguenay, Quebec, La Friperie de Coderr operates as one of three storefronts run by a nonprofit thrift network built around a job-training mission rather than pure retail. The Saguenay shop sits alongside sister locations in Alma and Dolbeau-Mistassini within Groupe Coderr’s network, and the organization estimates its combined retail floor space across all three stores at more than 15,000 square feet.
Shoppers browsing the Saguenay location find secondhand clothing for men, women, and children alongside toys, books, small household goods, luggage, and sports equipment. According to the organization’s own site, roughly 3,000 new items arrive across the network every day, and merchandise is rotated on a monthly cycle so that returning customers consistently find something they have not seen before. The company frames this constant turnover with a tagline that translates to much more than just clothing, a nod to the fact that the racks are only part of what the store offers the community.
What sets Coderr apart from a typical consignment shop is its underlying employment mission. Groupe Coderr has operated for more than two decades and now employs roughly 40 permanent staff, many of whom joined through the organization’s own insertion and training pathways aimed at people who are far from the traditional job market, receiving social assistance, or otherwise without steady income. Donated goods, drawn from an estimated 110,000 donations received annually plus roughly 20 donation boxes placed around the territory, become both affordable retail inventory and the raw material for hands-on job training in sorting, pricing, display, and customer service. Local businesses can also request a Coderr donation box on site, a service the organization positions as a simple way for area employers to support environmental diversion and workforce reintegration at the same time.
For Saguenay shoppers, a browsing trip doubles as a small act of local economic support. Every purchase helps fund training placements rather than flowing to a single private owner’s bottom line, and every donated bag of clothing is diverted from landfill and given a second working life. The store’s spot within the broader Chicoutimi-Jonquiere urban core makes it an easy stop for residents already running errands in the area, and its price points are aimed squarely at budget-conscious families, students, and anyone looking to furnish a household affordably without buying new.
Because Coderr operates three sister stores rather than a single flagship, no one location can claim to be the only Coderr option in the region, but the Saguenay store benefits from sitting inside the region’s largest population center, giving it a steady flow of both donors and shoppers. Visitors interested in exact hours or the current donation drop-off schedule are best served by checking the Friperie de Coderr website or calling ahead, since hours and inventory categories can shift with the season and with what has recently come through the door.
In short, La Friperie de Coderr in Saguenay is a mission-driven secondhand store where every rack of clothing, shelf of books, and bin of toys supports local job training and environmental sustainability as much as it supports a good bargain, making it one of the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region’s most community-rooted places to shop secondhand.
