Orbiting Trends in Cold Lake is not a typical secondhand shop, even though the racks of gently used clothing and shelves of household goods look much like any other thrift store from the sales floor. The store is a social enterprise operated by Stepping Stones Crisis Society, a local organization that runs a women’s shelter and a Second Stage Housing Program for families rebuilding after crisis, along with broader crisis intervention services for the community. Every purchase made at Orbiting Trends flows directly back into funding those programs, meaning a shopper picking up a jacket or a set of dishes is, in the same transaction, helping pay for shelter beds and support services for people in the region who need them.
The store restocks daily, so its selection of clothing and household goods changes regularly rather than sitting static for weeks at a time. That daily turnover comes from an ongoing stream of donations from the Cold Lake community, which the society then sorts, prices, and puts on the floor as quickly as it can move through incoming donations. Shoppers hunting for budget-friendly clothing or basic household items can expect a different mix of merchandise nearly every time they visit, which is part of what keeps regulars coming back to check in rather than treating the store as a once-a-season stop.
Orbiting Trends keeps a clear, published schedule: it is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended hours until 6 p.m. on Thursdays, and it closes on Sundays and statutory holidays. That six-day-a-week presence, anchored by one late evening for shoppers who cannot make it in during the day, makes it accessible to people working typical weekday schedules as well as those who prefer weekend browsing. Anyone with questions about donations, hours, or the programs the store supports can reach the society directly by phone, with a dedicated extension for the store itself.
The name Orbiting Trends nods to the idea that fashion and household goods circulate rather than simply getting discarded once a household is done with them, a philosophy that lines up neatly with the store’s dual purpose of keeping usable goods in circulation while raising money for crisis services. Cold Lake, a smaller community in northeastern Alberta anchored by the nearby air force base and a resource-driven regional economy, benefits from having a resale option that does more than recirculate clothing. It functions as a visible, ongoing fundraising engine for a crisis society whose shelter and housing programs might otherwise depend entirely on grants and one-time donation drives. Shoppers who might not otherwise think of themselves as charitable donors end up supporting those programs simply by shopping for things they would have bought somewhere else anyway, which is precisely the point of the social enterprise model Stepping Stones Crisis Society built the store around.
Orbiting Trends in Cold Lake, Alberta is a social enterprise thrift store run by Stepping Stones Crisis Society, open six days a week and restocked daily, with every purchase directly funding the society’s women’s shelter and Second Stage Housing Program.
