Collins Childrens’ Home opening Thrift Store
A new thrift store is coming to downtown Seneca. The Collins Children’s Home plans to open a new thrift store on February 9. “I have been at Collins Children’s Home for five years and we have talked about it on and off since before I came on board and we just had an opportunity that presented itself.” Alena Pelfrey is the executive director of the Collins Children’s Home and she feels the new store will provide a financial boost to the non-profit agency. “All of the profits for this will go back to the Collins Children’s Home. Our recycling program, which at one point accounted for a significant portion of our funding, in loosing that has impacted the Children’s Home, I guess in combination with some of the other factors with our economy.” Pelfrey recognizes a few of the many people that have helped get the thrift store off the ground. “We have had some great people helping us out. Ben Smith with Small Business Development at Clemson University had his group sit down and do a feasibility study to determine for one thing there are a number of thrift stores on the same street that we are on, would that be a negative or a positive and apparently that is a positive. I guess like going to Commerce, you have many different stores in one place, so people that enjoy going to thrift stores are going to like having that little cluster where they can hit each thrift store during the day. And then we have a partnership with Perry Ellis, they have given us racks and shelves and almost all the materials inside to help us get set up and run this right.” The Collins Children’s Home is still looking for assistance, explains Pelfrey. “There is about 3,000 square feet. We will take anything from clothing, that is men’s, women’s and children’s’; household items, furniture, just a combination of things. Of course, with it being a thrift store and being solely supported with donations the inventory is going to change but we are very excited about that. We hope to have it manned with volunteers, so if there is anyone out there that would like to be on our rotation, just give us a call at (864) 882-0893. We would love to have you.” The Collins Children’s Home plans to open the new thrift store at 504 West North 1st Street on February 9.