Thrift Store: Behind Scenes | soroptimistanacortes.org

How It Works

We receive items donated by our community into the intake-room where they are sorted and delivered to the different specified areas in the workroom for further inspection and pricing. Any items that do not meet our standards are then bagged and placed in the out-room and are donated to other charities.
Members and volunteers then price the items and place them into the retail area. We color code our price tags with four different colors of tags and pull outdated items after three months. These pulled items are then donated to other charities.
We have several “Soroptimisters” who volunteer along with many other community members. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact us via email.
We have a book committee who sorts, prices and places the books into the retail area.
All holiday items are stored until the specific holiday and then are placed into the retail area.
All summer we store winter coats, boots, gloves, scarves and mittens and begin to put them out into retail space in October.

History of the Soroptimist Thrift Store:

In 1966: Thelma Marino, Nina Antonious and Doris Tursi decided to ask the club to consider opening a thrift shop. The received a lot of opposition from the membership but when these three personally promised to guarantee that the club would not go into debt, the other members consented. That was the birth of the current thrift shop.

December 13, 1966: The first “Bargain Bungalow” rented a small house in the alley at 31st Street and Commercial Avenue and opened for business. There was a big celebration the first day that the shop earned $30.

December 1972: The club purchased the Salvation Army building located at 4th Street and O Avenue. Repairs and some remodeling were done by the Soroptimist members and their husbands.

March 1973: “The Soroptimist Thrift Shop” opened at the corner of 4th Street and O Avenue. This shop became the clubs primary service project by providing the community with clean, high quality, previously owned goods at a reasonable price. In addition, it generated funds for the club’s many other projects. The building also provided a location for the clubs other service project, the Home Health Equipment Loan Program.

Late 1990’s: The club had outgrown the little shop, so we made a bold move by purchasing a building site across the alley. At the same time, the Anacortes Public Library was planning a new building and their 2000 sq ft children’s wing (only 15 years old) was sold to the club for $1. That was a deal, so we bought it and moved it down the street. An additional 2000 sq ft room was built onto the existing building to create a work space and room for housing the medical equipment.

May 2002: The new Thrift Shop at 1107 3rd Street was completed and opened in May of 2002. What an exciting time it was for the club. Our new space generated more business and increased our community donations and scholarships. Unfortunately, our medical equipment space was the size of a large closet and we quickly outgrew the space.

2007-2008: We purchased a small property next door. We initially planned to expand the medical equipment room but later decided to also expand our retail space. Since this was a larger project, we hired an architect. The final plan also included an upstairs area.

2024: Our Thrift Shop is thriving. We have 90+ members and 40 volunteers who run the shop. We have over 2800 pieces of home health medical equipment to loan out to Anacortes residents free of charge. The Thrift Shop is open every Tuesday and Friday.