At 33 Bridge Street in Carleton Place, Ontario, a small storefront called As Good As New has been raising money for domestic violence services since 1980, making it one of the longer-running thrift operations in the Lanark County area. The shop is run by Lanark County Interval House and Community Support, known locally as LCIHCS, an organization that operates a shelter and a range of community support programs for women and children fleeing domestic violence. Every dollar spent in the store goes directly toward funding that work, and the shop describes itself as one of the organizations biggest single sources of funding, which makes an ordinary thrift purchase there also a direct contribution to the shelter and its wraparound services.
The store sells quality used clothing and general secondhand goods, and it applies a simple screening standard to what makes it onto the sales floor: staff and volunteers ask whether an item is something they would be comfortable giving to a close friend before it goes out for sale. That standard keeps the merchandise a step above a typical catch-all donation bin, since anything too worn, damaged, or dated tends to get filtered out before it ever reaches a customer. Shoppers looking for gently used clothing at affordable prices, along with the occasional household item, will find a rotating selection shaped by that quality bar rather than sheer volume.
As Good As New is run entirely by volunteers, which the organization points to as the reason 100 percent of proceeds can go toward the shelter and its community programs rather than being absorbed by paid staffing costs. That volunteer model is common among small-town charity thrift shops but is worth noting here specifically because of how directly it ties everyday retail sales to a very concrete local cause. The store keeps a fairly detailed weekly schedule: Monday hours run from 1 to 4 in the afternoon, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 10 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon, and Thursday extends later, from 10 in the morning to 8 at night, with the shop closed on Sundays. That Thursday evening window gives working shoppers and donors an option outside the standard daytime hours available most other days of the week.
One operational detail sets this shop apart from many donation-based thrift stores: rather than allowing bags to be left outside after hours, As Good As New asks donors to hand items directly to a volunteer during open hours, a policy meant to prevent donations from being damaged by weather or picked over before staff can sort them. The store also marks occasions like National Thrift Store Day and sells branded LCIHCS merchandise alongside its regular secondhand stock, giving supporters a way to show their connection to the cause even outside of a typical shopping trip. Centrally located on Bridge Street and connected to the local chamber of commerce, the shop functions as a visible, everyday part of downtown Carleton Place rather than a peripheral charity outlet. As Good As New in Carleton Place is a volunteer-run thrift shop that has funded shelter and community support services for survivors of domestic violence since 1980, offering quality secondhand clothing and goods with proceeds going entirely to Lanark County Interval House and Community Support.
