If you’re anything like us, you visit opshops on the frequent. You always find yourself clearing some space out at home which means there’s a pile of preloved items ready to donate. You package them up, dump them in your car and then head off (sometimes they stay in the car because you’re a busy little human bee). You get to your favourite little place and instead of simply donating and dashing, you donate and then browse and browse and browse some more.
This is awesome. These are two practical ways that you are supporting your local opshop – donating your preloved but still-in-good-knick items and spending a little bit of your cash on other people’s donations. Depending on the shop you’re in, that cash might go to any number of different resources – paying staff a small wage, upkeep of the premises, council or rent rates and in the case of our little corner of Adelaide, some of our proceeds even head off-shore to support ministry opportunities and local people in Cebu, Philippines.
There are more ways to support your favourite little opshops, though! Here are 4 more simple ways that you can get behind local opshops as they play a part in reducing waste, recycling goods and reusing what’s already out there!
ONE: Share, share, tag and share!
This is a great one in our digitally connected world. Most opshops, bar maybe the few tiny ones, are on some form of social media even if it’s super basic. Get behind them! Give a like, give a follow and give a share when you can especially if you’re on your way there or you’ve just made a purchase. Tag them in it and get other people noticing their little place.
TWO: Volunteer.
This doesn’t have to be just your time, either. You might not have a few hours a week to spare serving customers or putting stock away (and if you do, YAY! Contact your local place and see what volunteering hours or opportunities they have available). You might be a super whiz at social media content or email lists and this might be something that is usual to the team at the opshop. Maybe you’re a tester and tagger and could offer your services for their electrical gear or you’ve seen the opshop is hosting a ‘fair’ or ‘sale’ coming up and you can spare the hours to help set up or pack down on that particular date. There’s no harm in asking what the needs are of the shop and it’s staff.
THREE: Donate.
Yep, simple as that. Perhaps tax time is coming and you’re looking to donate a little extra something somewhere good – your opshop could be that place. You don’t necessarily have to purchase something in order to financially support an opshop. Once off, or even regular donations make a world of difference to not-for-profit organisations and their volunteers.
FOUR: Go somewhere new.
We all have our favourite opshops – our go-to places that we donate to and purchase from, but what if we went that little bit further and visited somewhere new every once in a while? Head one suburb over and check out that new opshop, or make a day of it and hit the little well-established ones that fill our more regional communities (these are definitely where the treasures are!). You never know what you might find or who you might meet in the process of stepping outside your familiar areas.
So as we open our doors for the last term of the school year and brilliant Spring days, consider how you might support your local opshops (like us!) to continue to exist and be a presence in the local communities.
We are BACK on deck from Wednesday the 14th of October!
72 Candy Road, Happy Valley
Wed – Friday from 930am – 4pm
Sat from 930am – 1230pm
***THIS SATURDAY***
Junktion sausage sizzle in partnership with the local CWA chapter!
Come and check out homemade preserves and handmade crafts and support the CWA with their annual fundraising (coffee will be brewing as per usual and you can grab a snag for lunch too!)
a place to meet 
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