Main Street Mavericks Business Spotlight: Heartland Thrift Shop

On day three of our Main Street Mavericks trip, we found ourselves in Corvallis talking to Heartland Thrift Shop. This particular thrift store is a nonprofit that helps fund the local humane society.

There are many aspects of running a small business that look the same whether you are a for-profit or non-profit. But are there any glaring differences?

Check out our interview with manager Tiga Evans.

Q&A With Heartland Thrift Shop

Tell us about this non-profit small business!

This thrift shop funds the animal shelter here in Corvallis, Oregon.

We bring about 30 percent of the operating budget in for the animal shelter. The rest comes from financial donations. We sell pretty much everything that you can imagine. If we can make a dollar on it, we will. We sell pet supplies, books, clothing, toys, games, little, small furniture, and a lot of kitchenware and accessories. You name it, we sell it.

The unique thing about this store is that we are completely run by volunteers except for myself and my lovely assistant, Rebecca. We’ve been around since 1995. So we’ll turn 30 this March, which I’m very excited about.

Tell us the best thing about working for Heartland Humane Thrift Shop.

Oh, the community. We have about 80 volunteers. They put in about 1,400 hours a week of volunteer service every month. They work their little buns off. It’s so sweet. A lot of them have been here for 20 years.

What is your favorite thing here?

Right now, it’s John Wayne. I am in love.

What’s one challenge you’re facing, and how can the community help?

Our community helps us so much because it’s a nonprofit. They can volunteer. We always need more volunteers. If anyone wants to share their time with us, we will find a spot for them.

What are the big differences between running a non-profit vs. running a for-profit thrift store?

I don’t have to worry about payroll or making sure we cover our costs.

Like, all the goods that we get are free, so we can choose our prices. And because of that, we can keep them very cheap and accessible to everybody. And that is part of our success, actually. So yeah, there’s a luxury. I don’t feel like I run an actual business.

What is the most random or just the wackiest thing you’ve had donated?

We get some things that I probably can’t say. One time, though, a live frog came in, and I think it was the boxes from the garage.

But every day, we get funky stuff, and that’s the fun of it. It is like you’re digging through boxes, and you’re like, what the hell is that? Okay, and then you look it up online.

Clothes are 20 percent of our revenue. It’s also the thing we get rid of the most because Fast Fashion is happening, and things don’t last, so we have to throw things away because nobody else wants to.

How often do you leave here with something?

Oh God. I have an office, so I build a pile up, and then every couple of weeks, I buy it all. But the novelty has worn off a little bit after three years. I usually just sit on my desk and look at it for a little bit, enjoy it, and then put it back on the shelf.

But, I will say that the volunteers usually buy something at the end of every shift.

Yeah, you’re literally treasure-hunting all day.

Vendor Round-Up

Which of our vendors and partners is assisting Heartland Thrift Store on its small business journey?

What site does Heartland use for eCommerce? We have a WordPress website. And we sell on eBay.

What POS do you use? Square.

Who is your credit card processor? Square

What do you use for accounting software? Quickbooks Online.