At 102 rue Eddy in the Hull sector of Gatineau, the Comptoir St-Vincent de Paul de Hull has been quietly furnishing homes and clothing families across the Outaouais for more than half a century. Founded in 1965, the store sells donated furniture, appliances, clothing, and household goods at prices the organization describes as scaled to what people in difficult circumstances can actually afford, generally landing around a quarter of standard retail value. Rather than operating as a purely charitable drop-in shop, the comptoir functions as a self-sustaining social enterprise: it receives no government subsidies, covering its own operating costs through sales while still keeping prices low enough to serve its core clientele.
The store is open seven days a week, with hours running Monday through Friday from 9 am to 5 pm, Saturday from 9 am to 4:30 pm, and Sunday from 10:30 am to 4:30 pm, making it accessible to shift workers and weekend shoppers alike. Beyond the retail floor, the comptoir offers furniture pickup and delivery service across Hull, Aylmer, and the wider Gatineau area, a practical detail that matters for donors trying to get rid of a large item and for customers without a vehicle capable of hauling home a couch or dresser. Donations of clothing, furniture, appliances, and other household goods in usable condition are accepted on an ongoing basis, feeding a rotating inventory that changes week to week depending on what the community brings in.
What sets this comptoir apart from a typical secondhand shop is its role as an employer. The organization currently provides jobs to roughly 38 people, drawn from close to ten different nationalities, turning the sorting room and sales floor into a genuine point of entry into the local workforce for new arrivals to the Outaouais as much as a shopping destination for budget-conscious residents. Surplus revenue generated by the store flows back into support for vulnerable members of the community and helps fund the broader work of the Societe de Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, the Catholic charitable organization the comptoir operates under, extending the store’s impact well past the walls of the rue Eddy location.
For anyone furnishing a first apartment, replacing a broken appliance on a tight budget, or simply looking to divert a used couch from the landfill instead of the curb, the Hull comptoir offers a practical, community-rooted alternative to buying new. Its steady seven-day schedule and delivery option make it easier to work around than many volunteer-run thrift operations, while its six decades of continuous operation in the same Outaouais neighborhood have made it a familiar name to generations of local families. The organization’s own description of its purpose, reselling goods at prices scaled to what people with limited means can pay, sums up both its retail model and its social mission in a single sentence.
The Comptoir St-Vincent de Paul de Hull is a donation-funded thrift and furniture store on rue Eddy in Gatineau’s Hull sector that has sold affordable secondhand goods and employed local workers from across the Outaouais region since 1965.
