 Now we have a really interesting topic I want to kind of spend the rest of our show with you on and this is the concept of a thrift store you're opening a thrift store I want to hear all about it. I also want to start with the question. Where was this as a part of your master plan. And what happened with the pandemic. Is this something that you came up with or during the pandemic. Give us some background on this. Great. Yeah, so this has been probably around three years in the making. So it's not a pandemic decision. No, no, which, you know, putting it out there. This is quite the undertaking. This should not be a pandemic decision. But not like the nonprofit show. That should be a pandemic decision which I'm so glad that it is. So our thrift store which is named Sophie's thrift which is named after our our shelter dog who recently passed away from cancer but so we have Sophie's thrift store which benefits the Licking County Humane Society that is opening up here at the end of the summer. But the process has been something else to kind of do this we've been looking really within the last five years or so we've been looking for additional revenue streams. Because we have been expanding so much and we really do you know our tagline is is more than a shelter we want to be more than a shelter to our community offering spay and neuter offering wellness clinics. But that costs money and so we were looking for different revenue streams and we started to work with a consultant that particularly, you know, focuses on thrift stores for nonprofit benefit. And so it has been, you know, about three years working with the consultant to find the perfect space. And even just to do the research to see whether or not would work here where we are. Exactly. Yeah, because if you're, you know, surrounded by a bunch of different thrift stores it's it might not be the best best pick but it, it all panned out for us and we are today, we are taking our box truck that we just got and putting our first load of shipments into the thrift store that hopefully will become an additional revenue stream so we can continue that mission of trying to save as many animal lives as possible. And it helps our community right and so not only are we helping animals and helping our communities animals in the process but we're providing another, you know, another space for lower cost clothes home goods furniture for our community that, you know, truly desperately needs that additional retail space, and we're doing it through using reusable items so, you know, outlining our environmental commitment to so it was, it was kind of a no brainer once we got all that research together and figured out that this this is actually feasible. I love the diversion to the landfill initiative as well I know it's not ever really the number one priority, but that is a secondary benefit that speaks volumes you know it's been really nice. I live in a community where there's a couple of streets that if I were to drive down it's kind of like McDonald's or Starbucks you go about a mile and there's just thrift stores everywhere. And most of them of course benefiting you know having that social impact back into the organization. I'm curious with this one in particular. Is it attached to your location is it out and you know into another area and what is kind of the size and I don't know like tell us a little bit about what you're looking to do with it. Absolutely. So we, we looked at a bunch of different options do we build a barn and call it Sophie's thrift you know right next to our shelter, you know, we really had this open, open view of what it could possibly be. But then, literally this space kind of dropped in our laps where it is, it's removed from the shelter but only about five minutes away. It's part of a. It's part of a, you know retail shopping center. And actually, it was a big lots location that separated out into a couple of different places. So right it's perfect for retail and we have about, I don't know maybe, you know, two thirds of a traditional big lots area so it's. That's big restore. Yeah. But that's what our community needed. We are so blessed to have, you know, our community support us that we were able to do this to within our price point because we had to be judicious of what place we were going the least to be able to actually make this happen and truly meet our mission to raise money for the shelter. But that's what it's going to look like so we are opening up a big honking thrift store here at the end of the summer and it's, it's been a labor of love but it's been a labor it's been a lot. It's hard to open up. Yeah, we know that. I'm curious sorry Julia is there any programming that will also be done at this thrift store. I'm thinking of another organization that you know they do training in their gift shop it's not. They have a charity but it's not you know, and I wonder if there will be any programming done in the store. And that's a great thing about having your own store is you can do whatever you know you you'd really like in the limits of the shopping centers you know, concerns but yes we hope to have adoption events there. That would be the ideal thing and particularly you know it gives us other space in order to do to do different partnerships with our community to you know so perhaps we have a featured item or featured section or something along those lines. We also have one of those really cool, like old school display windows like you would see back in the day and those big department stores we have one of those cool display windows. So that gives us limit less, you know, option of even you know putting a kitten or two in there for you know a couple of hours and and having folks see those adoptable animals. That's the first thing that kind of came to mind, but I think there really are so many options that we could, we could use this space for. Now how are you going to navigate the aspect of volunteers and there's so much sorting in a retail environment not only, you know the bringing in items but merchandising them, managing it, dealing with shortage, all of those things. I'm assuming just off the top of my head it's about a six to 8000 square foot space. It's pretty large yeah yeah and so we're going to need to have a lot. Yes, yeah. So how's that working for you. The really interesting thing is we we approach this by reaching out to people reaching out to our community and even our current volunteers. You know we know that working with animals is very fun, but it can be tough for a lot of people and it can particularly be tough with you know allergies or what have you. So this is a great opportunity for those folks who love what we're doing for the pets for our community, but and want to support us some way. And then volunteer at the thrift store. We also have a number of volunteers that that are younger in age that are looking for these kind of, you know retail business focused experiences. And so that's been a neat way so I think that's been our approach is kind of saying well what what type of folks would want to volunteer at this location that might be a little bit different as the reasons to why they would want to volunteer at the shelter and we've tried to to market in that way to those folks in our community. Brilliant. Wow, interesting so how many, what are the hours like how many hours a week are you going to be open do you know. We're a retail store we are it's which is surprising not a lot of, you know, humane society or even nonprofit thrift stores are open every day we're going to be open every day Monday through Saturday it's going to be from 10 to eight I think it is. And then Sunday from noon to six. That is a commitment. Wow, those are lots of hours. It's a commitment. But you know we have we have such a space we have such a large space, and we have received so much feedback from our community of folks who want to support us through donations that if we have the if we have the goods, we're going to stay open so people can can get those at an affordable price so we'll cross our fingers but that's what we're starting off with we're jumping in. I'm proud of you. Are you thinking that this is going to be a primary source of revenue for you or what are you looking at, in terms of the percent to total of what you can be, what you're going to be looking at because this is not without costs I mean 100% right so people will likely be able to find here within, I think it's starting year two will be able to start to see some increase in our, you know, shelter revenue, you know, thanks to the thrift store. In the long run we're hoping that it will be about half of what we are bringing in through grants and sponsorships and donations now. I mean that's our that's our dream, right. We'll see how that goes. You're really leaning into this I mean you're really seeing that this is going to be your primary cultivation within your community then. Yeah, because it really does allow us to stay local in that way, if that makes sense right so we're able to find additional red revenue by also being such an integral part of our community, which, of course we we love our grantors and we're going to continue to ask for that because we still have that story to tell that we need those certain like medical needs costs and so on but this is much an undertaking and with what a, you know, hopeful like pillar it's really going to be in our community. We want to reap those reap those benefits as much as we possibly can because when it all comes back to it it's it's Sophie's it's you know our shelter dogs thrift store who we cared for, you know, for her entire time here with all of her medical medical concerns, and we need a thrift store so we can continue to do that for as many animals as possible for other Sophie's absolutely Sophie's and that diversification of revenue is so critical, but also I see it as the diversification of awareness and outreach to the community. Over the course of this episode and I have a feeling we went back and watched the other one that's been almost a year ago now. I have really reiterated what the community needs and so it is so proven in what you're sharing that, you know, this wasn't a pandemic decision this has been a long haul a heavy lift, a lot of energy and resources and into the viability of this diverse, diverse revenue stream. And I love hearing that there's so many opportunities. I've had the privilege of working with other organizations that have a thrift store or something similar. And the opportunities are just unbridled when it looks you know when you look at that kind of opportunity, I'm using that word again but you know there's there's ways to share your, your vision and your mission along the walls and then branding and signage on the receipt your point of sale. Hopefully you know there's a round up opportunity that you know if it's whatever it is you can add the rest to to round it up to a dollar that will go towards medical expenses. So all of this ties back to, you know, to the organization. And that's what I've been geeking out about, you know, as a communication professional and especially one who who's very visual. Oh my gosh I've loved to do I've loved developing the that that signage that's going to go around. It will be so clear that the purchases that they're making today are feeding shelter animals the purchases they're making today are providing shelter for homeless pets in our community. So that mission will not go unnoticed.