— Contributed by John Wiens
“Thrift on Mill” — that is the official name of our new Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) thrift store located at 58 Mill St. West in Leamington, Ontario that opened its doors for business on January 29, 2016. Unofficially, some have dubbed it “Thrill on Mill,” others as the “T. O. M. Store” or simply as “Tom.” It is a large, roomy, newly converted building that formerly housed a restaurant and a specialty store. After its initial purchase, the building was further enlarged by a new addition on a vacant space abutting the original building. This new, all-on-one-floor store on Mill Street, with a very accessible back alley and large public parking lot, makes it a convenient and customer-friendly place of business.
Thrift on Mill is the new store replacing the former Et Cetera Shop on 19 Erie North that originally was founded under the leadership of the later Peter and Helen Epp in 1983. It also replaces a second store that opened sometime later at 55 Erie North, known as Furniture and More. They were stores, that in time, due to their success, outgrew their facilities.
These MCC thrift stores are much more than low price bargain stores or places of reclamation and recycling of used goods and clothing, or even places to find valuable antiques, arts, and relics. They are places of volunteering, of charity and goodwill, and some very generous donations, with all proceeds going for relief. They are places of community: where folks are friendly, kind, and helpful. Where volunteers that come from all walks of life, give their time. Many are retired seniors; others may do it for other reasons. Some are students volunteering their spare time. Outsiders may come in, not just to shop and browse, but to have a friendly chat with folks who are not rushed, but have time for them.
This is one story from a volunteer:
“I had noticed an elderly man, perhaps in his late sixties or even seventies, standing in the aisle. He wasn’t shopping or browsing. He was bent over, as if something was bothering him — like he was in agony or in pain. I went over to him and asked him if he was OK. He said, ‘Yes, I’ll be OK,’ but I could see that he really was not. I suggested to him that I would take him into the lunch room where he could sit for a while. He agreed. In the lunch room, I gave him a glass of water. He drank some with a ill that he took out of his shirt pocket. He confessed to me that he would get ‘these spells of pain in the gut’.
I sat with him. He then told me that his wife had passed away recently and that he was living with his son and his two-and-a -half-year-old grandson. The mother had abandoned her little boy and the baby’s father. He told me that he usually had to look after the boy, while the boy’s father was doing part-time work or looking for a job. He said that he found it very difficult to babysit his little grandson anymore, especially when he was not feeling well. He was concerned about his own health getting worse and ‘what would eventually happen to his little grandson?’ I noticed tears on his grizzled face.
I felt deep sympany for him, but didn’t know how to help him or even what to say to him. I awkwardly hadned him a paper towel and then remembered something that my pastor once said to me when I had been lamenting my own woes to him. And so I quoted him, ‘God loves you! After a long dark night there always comes the dawning of a new and brighter day.’
This is not an isolated story of complete strangers having a need to share their deepest concerns with folks who they feel can be trusted and who will listen to them with sympathy and without prejudice. Thrift on Mill: a store of its time!
Address
58 Mill Street West
Leamington, Ontario N8H 1S1
Phone
519-326-3665
Shop Hours
Monday to Thursday: 9 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Friday: 9 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Saturday: 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Sunday: Closed
