LEBANON — When Listen’s flagship Miracle Mile store reopened earlier this month, the flood of donations was nothing like Executive Director Kyle Fisher had ever seen.
“Springtime is usually our busiest time of the year, and you add on that we’ve been closed since the middle of March,” Fisher said, noting the typical rush of clothing, furniture and household items that comes with spring cleaning. “Then you add on that people have been sitting home for a couple months and cleaning out their basements and garages. … It’s been a very generous donation period for us.”
But the organization — which also has a store in Canaan that has reopened and two stores in White River Junction that remain closed — has had to process those donated items without help from volunteers. The two stores have reopened at limited capacity, and customers must wear masks inside the stores.
“One of the challenges for Listen is we’ve traditionally been reliant on the volunteers that come in. Obviously, with social distancing requirements, we’re looking to reduce the number of people in the building and keep them spaced out,” Fisher said. “It’s just our staff working without volunteers. That’s an extra challenge given the extra flow of donations at the moment.”
To that end, Listen has stopped accepting items at both the Canaan and Lebanon stores on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to give staff a chance to catch up.
Since the Miracle Mile store reopened, it’s not unusual for there to be longer wait times for drop-off donations.
Additionally, staff can no longer help people unload their vehicles. So well-meaning donors bringing a full U-Haul after an apartment cleanout might want to bring some people to help.
“Since we’re not able to help right now, those types of situations can clog up the donation process for everyone else,” he said.
To get in and out faster, Fisher recommends dividing up items ahead of time into three categories: soft goods (which include clothing), hard goods (think books or non-apparel sports equipment) and breakables (like glassware). Putting them in boxes you do not want back is also helpful.
“To the extent that people can show up with things to plop out of their trunks in boxes, that is a huge help to us and helps speed up the donation process,” Fisher said. “We’re asking people to limit their book donations to two boxes. We’re trying to give everyone a chance to bring their items.”
With the Listen Furniture Store in White River Junction closed, the staff there are no longer doing furniture pickups. Instead, they’re cooking meals for takeout community dinners in town. The volunteer teams that usually cook meals are not doing so during the pandemic.
“We’re taking COVID safety measures extremely seriously so we decided we wanted to open one store at a time,” Fisher said.
Another nonprofit, the Cover Store in downtown White River Junction, reopened a little over a month ago after closing in mid-March. The organization continued to accept donations during that time.
“We were very apprehensive. We had been doing curbside pickup and donations by appointment only,” store manager Mitch Ross said. “That worked OK. It brought some income into us.”
When the store shuttered in March, it was nearly filled to the brim.
“We had to be very cautious about items that we took in,” Ross said. “We really needed to have items we knew we could sell right away.”
Things like full kitchen cabinet sets, for example, tend to turn over fast.
Since Cover reopened, sales are around half of what they were prior to the pandemic. That makes quality control even more important — before accepting an item, staff evaluate it to make sure it’s fully functioning and too not broken or worn-down.
“These days, since sales are not at the same mark before we closed, we have to take all those things into consideration more than we normally would,” Ross said. “The biggest thing is we need to set eyes on things before we say yes or no.”
Customers are required to wear masks when coming to the store. Volunteers at Cover have also returned.
“It’s all based on how comfortable volunteers are,” Ross said. “If they’re not comfortable in the setting, we say don’t come in, come in when you’re comfortable.”
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
