A quality handbag or a barely worn designer blazer at Ella’s Closet in Cold Lake carries a second purpose beyond the price tag: every sale helps fund crisis support services for people who need them most. The shop specializes in gently used ladies clothing and accessories, leaning toward designer and specialty consignment pieces so shoppers can find quality brands at prices well below what they would pay new. Call ahead at 780-594-5777 extension 2 to check current stock or consignment terms before visiting.
Ella’s Closet operates as the social enterprise arm of Stepping Stones Crisis Society, a nonprofit crisis intervention organization based in Cold Lake that provides support services to individuals and families facing crisis situations. Rather than relying solely on grants or fundraising events, the society runs this retail storefront as a sustainable revenue source, with proceeds from every sale flowing directly back into the organization’s crisis support programming. Donors also have the option to direct a portion of their contribution’s value toward a charity or school of their own choosing, giving the shop a slightly different giving model than a typical thrift store where all proceeds go to one fixed cause.
Hours reflect a schedule built around working shoppers as much as anyone else: the store is open Monday through Saturday from 10am to 5pm, with extended hours until 6pm on Thursdays, and it closes on Sundays and statutory holidays. That Thursday evening window gives Cold Lake residents who work daytime jobs a chance to browse after work without rushing before close. The store keeps an active social media presence under the handle EllasColdLake on Instagram and EllasClosetColdLake on Facebook, where new consignment arrivals and community updates get posted between visits.
What distinguishes Ella’s Closet from a typical secondhand clothing shop is the framing the organization puts on the whole operation: it describes itself as more than just a thrift store, aiming to uplift and empower the community through both the goods on its racks and the crisis support work those sales fund. Customers reviewing the shop consistently point to the combination of affordable, high quality fashion and a genuinely friendly staff as reasons they keep coming back, a reputation that matters in a smaller city like Cold Lake where word of mouth carries real weight.
Cold Lake sits in northeastern Alberta, home to a mixed community built around the nearby air force base, oil and gas work, and lake tourism, and a consignment shop tied to a local crisis society fills a need that reaches well past retail. Shoppers get access to designer level clothing and accessories without the designer price tag, consignors get a way to pass along quality pieces they no longer wear, and the broader community gets a funding stream for crisis intervention services that might otherwise depend entirely on unpredictable donations. Ella’s Closet is Cold Lake, Alberta’s designer consignment shop for gently used ladies clothing and accessories, where every purchase directly supports Stepping Stones Crisis Society’s local crisis intervention work.
