Trinity Episcopal Church Thrift Shop

Very cute little shop. Great prices and deals all the time. The workers are always nice.

Gosh, our family used to love Trinity thrift store and writing this review makes me incredibly sad.
Trinity Thrift Store advertises each Wednesday evening what new things are available each week on their Facebook page. We are a family of 6 and, in the past, we have found so many needed, useful things for our home at a great price. We also love that our purchases help support the Shepherdstown community.
My husband has always gone every Thursday morning, waits outside for opening, and buys items based on what is shown on the Facebook site (and always finds more on top of that!). He also has volunteered to help around the shop when needed and asked to by volunteers. He even removed the plastic partition by the register when asked by a volunteer for help.
Unfortunately, the past few weeks he has waited outside only to find many of the items that we have been hoping to purchase have been taken by volunteers who enter the building early to make their selections before the patrons. While we certainly appreciate the volunteers and their efforts, it is frustrating to do everything we can to try to purchase an item that was advertised on Facebook only to find that we have no opportunity because the volunteers got to the items first. I can certainly understand there being rewards for volunteering, but it’s also an incredibly disappointing experience when the items advertised aren’t actually available to patrons upon opening the next day.
Last week, there were just 2 items advertised on Facebook that we were hoping to purchase. My husband and I decided to get a babysitter for our 4 homeschooled children so we could have a rare, thrifting date day. We arrived at Trinity 30 minutes early and were the first in line (other patrons also wait outside early on Thursday mornings). When the door opened, I immediately went to find the items. Upon asking the volunteer where they could have disappeared to, she informed me that, again, she had entered the building early and decided that she was taking the items. What a disappointment and, for the first time since we found this little shop, we left without purchasing anything. We were a little frustrated but, not wanting to make it an issue, we left without another word. We later found out this volunteer reported us for asking about said items. It’s incredibly sad that a such a sweet little shop treats its regular (or any) customers that way. If the shop’s policy is that volunteers get the first choice on items, it would be great if they could, at the very least, share those policies with their “valued patrons”. We are also wary now of donating items to this shop. Since volunteers are taking items from the top, it makes me sad that families like mine aren’t even given an opportunity to purchase these items. It’s even more sad that the shop is church affiliated and they continue this practice with community donated items.
We are still hopeful that one day, Trinity Thrift Shop will decide to change their policies (or even just POST their policies so they are clear to their patrons to avoid expectations of availability of items). Ideally, it would be SO great if maybe their volunteers could decide what items they would like to purchase prior to advertising those same items to their patrons.