Soon there will be no more Habitat ReStores in St. Joseph County.
Since 2005, nearly two decades, Habitat for Humanity of St. Joseph County has operated a ReStore, like hundreds of other Habitat chapters around the country. Under the model, the organization sells donated home improvement items in retail stores and uses the profits to help build homes for people in need.
But they recently closed their Mishawaka store on Grape Road, fetching prime dollars from used car retailer CarMax, which plans to open a new location there. And on Nov. 1 they’ll close the South Bend store at 2411 S. Main St.
Habitat President and CEO Jim Williams says several factors have converged to force the closures. Donation of items has declined as more people sell them on Facebook instead. And it’s been harder to staff the stores because Habitat couldn’t afford to match the rising wages increasingly being paid by other stores. When they tried, they had to raise prices, which drew complaints from customers.
"Your local car wash is paying 15 to 17 bucks an hour and you're trying to hire cashiers and truck drivers as a nonprofit like the ReStore, it becomes a real challenge," Williams said.
Williams said it was a tough decision to close the stores.
"Our board of Habitat had to look at it strategically and say, is there an easier way for us to raise funds than running a ReStore? And they came to the conclusion that actually at this point, the juice is not worth the squeeze."
