Important News from the RAPS Thrift Stores

Top priority is safety of customers, volunteers and staff

New, expanded opening days and hours

Massive amounts of stunning new inventory

Temporary policies in place for donations

 

Revised hours

The RAPS Thrift Stores are now open Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Strict protocols for social distancing and continual disinfecting are in place. Our top priority is the health and wellness of our customers, staff and volunteers.

Since our partial reopening, stores have been open two days a week, alternating between locations. In future, we intend to open again Fridays and Saturdays.

We are working on getting our online store open soon!

Supply and demand – both huge!

Response to the reopening has been astonishing. Always a popular destination with savvy consumers, the RAPS Thrift Stores are especially popular now due to pent-up demand, but also because during the pandemic we were inundated with an unprecedented amount of new products. In addition to the usual donations (we think there was a lot of “spring cleaning” going on during the COVID shutdown!) we also received two massive lots of products.

Two separate corporate supporters donated thousands of amazing new items which can be found at our two thrift stores.

These include thousands of new kitchen and dining room sets. (You read that right: thousands of dinettes) and furniture of all descriptions, collectibles, antiques, figurines, artworks, including a Bill Reid and other B.C. aboriginal works, a trove of scripts from Canadian-shot films, records, sports cards, silverware, kitchen supplies, lighting, pet supplies, great brand name clothing including names like Dolce and Gabbana, Armani and Gucci, musical instruments and vast numbers of odds and ends.

Because RAPS is known for having the lowest prices among Metro Vancouver thrift stores, we are a destination for the sharpest eyes among bargain-hunters. That means our turnover is always fast. Because we have had limited hours and can only admit a small number of people at a time into the stores, people have been lining up outside, sometimes for close to an hour.

Last week, people were arriving with lawn chairs before the stores opened, waiting for first dibs. Shelves are refilled throughout the day, as fast as staff and volunteers can replace fast-disappearing items.

Donations

We are enormously grateful for the kindness of our animal-loving supporters who choose RAPS Thrift Stores for donations of household items, clothing and the whole range of awesome things that come through our doors.

Due to the incredible volume we are dealing with right now – and the extremely limited space we have available for storage – we are forced to limit the receipt of donated items. We cannot accept furniture right now. We are also not able to pick up items at this time.

Donations are accepted two days a week at each location – but only until our bins are full and we are forced to gratefully decline additional donations.

Donations are accepted:

Francis location — Mondays and Wednesdays

Granville location — Tuesdays and Thursday

If we are not able to accept your donation on a given day, we ask people to go to the other store the next day. Thank you for your generosity, patience and understanding.

The RAPS Thrift Stores are a vital part of our organization’s financial sustainability. While some thrift stores are actually for-profit ventures, 100% of revenue generated at RAPS Thrift Stores go directly into services to animals. Plus, we are operated primarily by volunteer labour, making your donations to the stores and your purchases even more powerful saving and improving the lives of animals.