After nearly eight decades in business, the Cathedral Thrift House, a non-profit thrift store operated by The Cathedral of St. Philip, is due to close later this year. Currently located at 1893 Piedmont Avenue, the Thrift House has moved several times in its 77+ year history.
The thrift store building measures more than 13,000 square feet and sits on .97 acres, according to Fulton County property records. Research suggests that Caruso's Italian Restaurant was the building's first occupant, followed by Nakato, which was first located at the Piedmont property in 1972 before moving to its current Cheshire Bridge Road home years later. Carithers Flowers would later occupy the building before it sat vacant for several years. The Thrift House relocated to the property from a nearby center - cleared for new apartments and a Sprouts Farmers Market - around late 2012.
The Thrift House employs a staff of primarily church volunteers and prices their donated goods - especially clothing for men and women - incredibly reasonably. They do this to make the store as accessible as possible. That said, costs to operate any retail store - even a charity - have only gone up in recent years with rent, insurance, and utilities among the significant expenses the store must cover, even as they have generally kept their prices below those of other thrift stores such as Goodwill.
"Since its inception, the Cathedral Thrift House has returned its net profits each year to fund non-profit Atlanta community charities and special projects at the Cathedral which benefit the wider community and our parish."
"Each year, the Thrift House volunteers and staff choose a local charity to receive 25% of its profits earned in the year just ended. Since the beginning of 2000, the Thrift House has donated over $350,000 directly to these not-for-profit organizations. The most recent recipients include The Boyce L. Ansley School, Respite Care Atlanta, and Kidz2Leaders. The remaining 75% of net profits is gifted to the Cathedral to supplement its community outreach budget."
The planned closure of the Thrift House comes about nine years after the closure of The Nearly New Shop, a thrift store that was operated by the Junior League of Atlanta for 68 years before their closure in 2017 at Toco Hills shopping center. Like the Thrift House, the Nearly New Shop relocated several times in their long history and at one point both operated stores within the original Lindbergh (Broadview) Plaza shopping center.
Do you have a space in Buckhead or nearby you'd offer the Thrift House so that they could remain in business serving the community? What's your favorite thrift store in metro Atlanta? What's your best thrift store find?
Please share your thoughts below.
2 comments:
I blame “Goodwill”! Their over expansion has put most of the locals’ favorite thrift stores out of business.
This is horrible. My wife has picked up some incredible finds for the both of us. We have also donated many items over the years. Sad indeed
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