Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore to close

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore, a shop known for selling household items at affordable prices, is set to close.

“You never know what you might find when you come in. Those donations, you know, you get that one thing that you never thought, oh, that’s a fantastic couch or that is a great table, I’d love to have that in my house,” said Mike VanWormer, executive director of the Thousand Islands Area Habitat for Humanity.

Habitat has run the ReStore on Water Street in Watertown since 2018.

After recent conversations with the organization’s board of directors, they’re pulling the plug.

“We really looked at how the store was performing and what we need in order to stay in business versus what we were actually getting foot traffic. It became apparent the store just isn’t paying for itself anymore,” said VanWormer.

He says the store sells community donations and then re-sells them at cut-rate prices.

All the money goes back to the local Habitat for Humanity’s mission, which builds homes for low-income families in Jefferson and Lewis counties.

But trying to rebound from the pandemic has caused most of the money to be used to just keep the lights on.

“It’s not an easy decision to make to do that but it’s one that we hope that will allow us to kind of focus Habitat’s mission moving forward in the future,” said VanWormer.

VanWormer says as they prepare to close the store, they will be having an “everything must go” sale trying to repurpose what is still left on the floor.

As for the space?

“Certainly we would love to fill the space and have somebody in here from the community that could utilize the space and make good use of it,” said VanWormer.

The store will close for good on June 10.

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