Thrift and Fund is the thrift retail program run by the Low Entropy Foundation out of its Burquitlam location at 552 Clarke Road, unit 408, in Coquitlam, British Columbia, a neighbourhood that straddles the Coquitlam and Burnaby border near the Burquitlam SkyTrain station. Unlike a standard secondhand shop, Thrift and Fund exists specifically to bankroll the foundation’s broader community mission, which centres on helping people grow personally and professionally, build confidence, and connect with others through structured local programs, so every purchase made in the store has a direct line back into that work.
The shop stocks a wide mix of gently used clothing, accessories, shoes, home decor, and toys, priced affordably enough to make sustainable shopping an easy default rather than a sacrifice. Its retail hours run Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., a schedule generous enough to catch both after work shoppers during the week and weekend browsers looking for a leisurely visit. Donations follow a separate, slightly narrower schedule, accepted Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on weekends from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with Wednesdays set aside entirely for internal sorting and restocking rather than public donation drop off.
What distinguishes Thrift and Fund from a typical charity thrift shop is how tightly its revenue is tied to specific, named programs rather than a general operating fund. Proceeds support youth development initiatives, family healing work, housing support services, and career coaching, meaning a single secondhand purchase might help fund a young person’s mentorship, a family’s counselling session, or a job seeker’s coaching appointment. The foundation frames the store as serving double duty: a sustainable shopping outlet for the neighbourhood and a volunteer training ground, since community members can get involved on the retail floor itself, sorting donations and assisting customers as part of the same personal and professional growth mission the store’s proceeds fund elsewhere.
Because it sits inside the Burquitlam district, an increasingly dense, transit connected pocket of Coquitlam near the SkyTrain line, the shop is well positioned to draw both longtime area residents and newer condo dwellers who have moved into the neighbourhood’s recent wave of development. That location, paired with genuinely broad opening hours across all seven days of the week, makes Thrift and Fund an easy stop for a wide range of shoppers rather than a destination reserved for a narrow weekday window.
For Coquitlam area shoppers who want their secondhand purchases to fund something concrete and local, Thrift and Fund offers an affordable, well stocked option with hours flexible enough to fit almost any schedule. Thrift and Fund is the Low Entropy Foundation’s Burquitlam thrift shop, turning everyday secondhand purchases into direct funding for local youth, family, housing, and career support programs.
