The Good Shepherd Humane Society provides a vital service to the people and animals of Carroll County, caring for stray, abandoned and unwanted dogs and cats.
The Good Shepherd Adoption Center seeks to place as many of those animals as possible into loving homes, and the organization works to promote responsible pet ownership and humane treatment and reduce overpopulation.
Those endeavors come at significant expense and one way Good Shepherd offsets those expenses is through its two thrift stores.
Good Shepherd’s thrift stores are located at 602 Highway 62 Spur in Berryville(theformerCarrollCounty News building) and at 124 W. Van Buren Ave. in Eureka Springs.
Cole Wakefield, Good Shepherd’s executive director, said the thrift stores generate 40 percent of the organization’s revenue. Recently, the stores have undergone some changes.
“Our old manager (Janet Chupp) retired last year,” Wakefield said. “So now we have an assistant manager at each store.”
Glenda Allison is the assistant manager at the Berryville thrift store. Felecia Lagers is the assistant manager at the Eureka Springs store.
“For the first time, we really have a staff person that is focused on each store, which has really enabled us to get the most potential out of each location,” Wakefield said. “And so we’ve seen a lot of changes.”
Wakefield encouraged the public to visit the thrift stores.
“If you go to either one of the stores, you’re going to see a lot of changes in the stores,” he said.
Among those changes is lower prices.
“We’ve tried to really focus on the value of our pricing, pushing prices down, to keeping our selection moving. So you should now be able to go into the stores and see new stuff when you go in. We’re really trying to enhance that experience and make them into real thrift stores.”
Wakefield said the changes have generated positive responses.
“It’s been great,” he said. “People seem to be really encouraged by the changes, and excited about them. And we just want to share that with everybody. If you haven’t been to one of the Good Shepherd thrift stores in a while, you should definitely stop by because I think that they will be pleasantly surprised. Glenda and Felicia and Eureka have just done amazing jobs with focusing on their stores. And I think people should come in and take a look and they’ll be be surprised by the variety and and the value they’re going to find.”
Wakefield said the thrift stores accept donations from the public.
“We are always in need of donations,” he said. “We do encourage people that items should be functional and in decent shape. If it’s not something that you would buy because it’s dirty or damaged, then it’s probably not something that we’re going to be able to sell, and then we just have to throw it away and it costs us money and time to process that. So we want to encourage people to give, but to be judicious and thoughtful about what they’re asking us to process.”
Wakefield also encouraged those who’d like to donate to the thrift stores to do so during donation hours. Donations are accepted from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
“We’re volunteer- based and we’re limited on volunteers,” Wakefield said. “If you drop stuff off outside of donation hours, it may sit in the weather or it may cause issues. So we really want to encourage people to only donate during those hours. But we definitely do appreciate every single thing.”
Speaking of volunteers, Wakefield said Good Shepherd can always use an extra hand.
“Like a lot of places post-COVID, volunteering has been dragging to return and we’re feeling it,” he said. “Plus a lot of our older volunteers are not able to pull as many hours as they were before. So we really just need to get more people in the store. Of course, the great thing about our stores is you can volunteer one day a week or you can volunteer seven days a week. We have opportunities available.”
The Berryville thrift store is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Eureka Springs thrift store is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
