A little bit of curiosity is leading to some big things for the Good Shepherd Doggie Thrift Store in Berryville.
The thrift store, one of two in Carroll County that helps fund Good Shepherd Animal Shelter, will be moving to a larger, more efficient facility by year’s end.
The organization recently completed the purchase of the former Carroll County Newspapers building at 602 Highway 62 Spur – a move that will help Good Shepherd expand its services for the area.
“We are always looking for ways to enhance our mission and a few months ago one of my co-workers was asking about the old newspaper building,” said Cole Wakefield, executive director at Good Shepherd. “I reached out to see what was going on in that building and found out that [Rust Communications, the building’s former owner] was interested in selling it.
“Almost of curiosity, we went and took a look at the building, and it really was perfect for what we are wanting to do.”
?Wakefield said the Berryville thrift store is “very successful” at its current location at 207 Eureka St., but the new building will be more customer-friendly. The former newspaper office is 8,400 square feet.
“We will have an additional 2,000 to 3,000 feet, so our sales floor will be bigger,” he said. “Our current building is split-level and now we will be one story and that will keep people from having to go up and down stairs. It will be better for the customers, employees, and volunteers.
“The added space really comes in with our sorting and receiving area for donations which will enable us to receive more donations.”
Other programs Good Shepherd currently runs or plans to add also will benefit from the new building, Wakefield said.
“We will have enough space where we can add other things into the store such as a cat adoption room,” he said. “We will also run our community food program out of the back and continue to serve the county in a more efficient way.”
?“We are currently working with national non-profits and national retailers to get donated pet food and supplies and [the extra space] will especially impact Northwest Arkansas regionally.”
Wakefield said demolition work on the building was beginning this week.
?“If we bat a thousand and everything goes to plan, we hope to be in the new building by the beginning of the fourth quarter of the year. But we really have a set hard goal of Jan. 1.”
Wakefield said the current Berryville thrift store location will remain open until time to begin transitioning to the new address.
