Dan Kuchar of Provo happened to drive by. Kuchar was looking to renovate an old, very large, jungle gym and swing set and needed, say, 10 gallons of stain in a dark color, nothing too specific.
It was that kind of flexibility that made him perhaps a perfect customer for ReStore.One of Utah Valley's most eclectic and humanitarian businesses, ReStore, owned and run by Habitat for Humanity, celebrated its first birthday on Saturday. The store is a sort of Deseret Industries-like business selling home renovation products. Everything here -- and there is a surprisingly large selection -- has been donated, and the proceeds go to help Habitat for Humanity build more homes for needy people.
You never know what you might find, said manager Rick McBride. He showed Kuchar stain in $2 quarts and also in five-gallon containers for various prices.
Mistinted stain and paint, donated by local stores, is one of the best sellers here, along with furniture new and used.
And mirrors. The store recently had more than 1,200 beveled oval mirrors donated by an out-of-state company, arriving in five crates. More than half of them have already sold for $15 apiece.
Another company recently donated 600 office chairs, which are selling for $20 each.
Lining the shelves here are toilets, sinks, cabinets, nuts and bolts, screws, tools, door knobs, hinges, vents, stair parts, structural brackets, myriad windows, molding, desks, framed art, an antique piano, an array of appliances, painting supplies, even a fireplace mantle.
All of it, even new items, is priced at a fraction of what it would cost in other stores.
ReStore benefits Utah Valley on several levels, said McBride and Kena Jo Mathews of Habitat for Humanity. Residents can find what they need for their home at bargain-basement prices, Habitat for Humanity gains funds to build new homes, what may have been tossed away is kept out of local landfills, and the whole process is recycling, something many customers say they feel good about.
Donors are spared landfill fees and receive a receipt for tax credit.
So popular is the store that it is celebrating is first anniversary in the black, having paid all its start-up costs out of profits, said McBride and Mathews. The store is now bringing in revenue to help build homes for needy families. When it comes to donations, it is easier to say what the store does not want than what it does, said McBride.
Toys, clothes, and dishes and other housewares are not accepted.
Otherwise, if it is an item that has to do with a home, and it is in good working condition, the store will almost always accept it, he said.
The store would like to see more donations of new -- not used -- carpet, new tile, even the small quantity leftovers of home projects, and new and used furniture and appliances, he said.
Marie Whitaker of Orem came with her mother, Karren Whitaker on Saturday looking for flooring.
They also browsed the furniture. Karren Whitaker said she too had first noticed the store while driving by and decided to explore it just to see what it might offer.
Mathews said Utah has one of the highest landfill rates for construction material in the nation, and the store came about almost accidently as people began to realize they could donate new and used materials to Habitat for Humanity instead of trucking usable items to the dump.
Habitat for Humanity in Utah County began collecting donations in the back room of Mathews' office, and then started having monthly garage sales with the items.
Those sales became so popular that Habitat began holding them weekly. And then, a year ago, UDOT offered Habitat the salvage rights to homes slated for demolition along 800 North in Orem as crews readied to expand that road.
Faced with such an abundance of saleable material, "we decided to take the plunge and open a store," Mathews said.
"Now, we get new stuff daily," she said. "It's a full community effort."
本文转自：China Industry News
本文链接：http://news.made-cn.org/post/Making-treasures-from-discards.html