St. Vinnie’s reopens Thursday

The retail floor has expanded considerably, to 22,000 square feet, said store manager Travis Biggs, who grew up in Lyle but has worked for St. Vincent for five years in Eugene.

New store hours will be 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. There will be 13 staff, which is down from the 20 previously, but most sorting and pricing will be done in Eugene.

“The clothing and stuff I’ll send off there and they’ll hanger it and sort it and give me the good stuff,” Biggs said.

Most of the staff are re-hires from the previous store. Four will be new employees.

“Some stuff will stay there and some stuff will go away,” he said. “If it’ll sell better at another store, it’ll go there.”

Biggs hopes to, at a minimum, increase sales by 10 percent over sales under the previous ownership.

Lane County stores are also known for Scotland-sourced items, including furniture, and those items will be carried in The Dalles store, Biggs said.

The grand opening fare will include cookies, popcorn, coffee and lemonade.

With some walls knocked down from the previous layout of the store, more floor space will be devoted to retail. Other changes include shifting the donation drop-off from the rear alley of the store to the west side of the store.

Double doors were added there to enable bringing in more donations quickly.

Both store parking lots, on the west and north, were repainted, and three changing rooms were built, as well as a handicapped-accessible bathroom.

Some flooring was replaced and the exterior was repainted. All of the work was done by local contractors.

“It looks a lot better. I could be prejudiced because it’s my store, but I’m sure it looks great, you’ll be amazed,” Biggs said.

Experts on product layout have come in to arrange displays, and the multiple windows of the store are being put to use to display items on grids.

Biggs said pricing will be a bit higher, because they are switching to unit pricing, where all items of a certain type, such as adult shirts, get the same price. For example, adults shirts cost $3.99 and children's shirts are $2.49. Certain starred items will be exempt from that pricing.

Seniors will get a 10 percent discount every day, and everyone who brings in a donation will get a coupon for 20 percent off a regularly priced item.

Biggs encouraged the community to attend the grand opening and shop the store. “We’d like them to come save some money, shop at St. Vinnie’s and look for treasure and help friends and neighbors in need.”

The store is paying rent to the local St. Vincent de Paul Society, and will also turn over a portion of sales. The local store had to close when sales dipped too low and costs mounted.

The local charity was able to pay off its bills with the lease arrangement with Lane County, and is hoping to maintain its charitable functions with income from the store.