St. Joseph's (formerly St. Vincent de Paul) Social Care thrift store has been one of my favorite…read morethrift stores for as far back as I can remember it being there. The people who work there have always been super nice and pleasant, and the prices are reasonable. It's off the main drag so it's kind of a "best kept secret" in Grand Forks.
Thrift stores typically aren't long on ambience, and as far as merchandise obviously they don't control what they get, so I look at two factors when deciding if I like the store: charitable impact on the community, and service to the customers. St. Joe's Social Care is particularly concerned with the fight against hunger, so your purchases support the food bank and also help to pay for lunches for kids whose families struggle to afford to feed them during the summer when school is out.
For service to the customers, St. Joseph's rates highly due to the logical arrangement of their merchandise.
Recently they rearranged their sections and gave the book department its own almost-like room. One thing I greatly appreciate about the St. Joe's book department is that, unlike most of the thrift stores in town, they do a great job of keeping the books organized by subject. Also in this area are the vinyl LPs, several crates of them, in fact. You stand a pretty good chance of coming across a Mantovani album, and an even better chance of finding an Andy Williams or Anne Murray album. Unfortunately, the LPs don't appear to be organized in any way, unlike the books.
Since they changed the orientation of the clothing racks, there is actually more room to comfortably browse the racks, and as we all know, the more comfortable it is to browse, the more likely we are to do so, and the more time we spend, and the more stuff we buy, and the more money the store raises for their charity. So that change probably made a greater difference than they may have realized.
The one surprising change they made, which I would not have advised and which I do hope they reconsider, is that instead of keeping blazers and other such jackets separate on their own rack, as they used to be, they are now mixed in with long-sleeve tops, so if you want to look for jackets you have to push along through all the tops. It wasn't helpful. It's the only reason I gave St. Joe's four stars instead of five. They'll earn the fifth star after they give blazers their own rack again.
Other than that, it's a neat little store, where one can find some wonderful goodies and support an important cause.
Disclaimer: I have not been paid or compensated in any way for my honest review of this business.
