Whether you’re looking for a deal or just love to peruse eclectic wares, Boston is full of thrift and consignment stores. Thrifting for secondhand clothes is a growing market; a study by ThredUp, an online consignment store, found that thrifting is expected to grow by 127% by 2026.
There’s one shop that’s been dedicated to the craft longer than any other in Boston. For almost a century, the Thrift Shop of Boston, a nonprofit in Roslindale, has served its community with high-quality clothing, furniture, books and more.
But what sets the Thrift Shop of Boston apart from others is its devotion to supporting vulnerable children and families through the Home for Little Wanderers, the oldest child welfare agency in America.
On this week’s edition of The Joy Beat, we’re celebrating the work of the Thrift Shop of Boston and the more than $1 million they’ve given to the Home for Little Wanderers over the years. Chris Roth, shop manager of the Shop, joined GBH’s All Things Considered host Arun Rath to discuss their dedication to those is need. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
Arun Rath: First off, tell us a bit more about how the Thrift Shop of Boston came to be, because we’re talking almost 100 years ago — this was before there was any kind of social safety net, before FDR and the Great Society, or any of that.
Chris Roth: That’s right. Originally, it was started by a group of women in the 1920s — 1926. Their husbands worked and they were part of the wealthy class, the Brahmin class of the city. They wanted to give back to the community in some way.
When the Thrift Shop of Boston originally started in 1926, they weren’t raising money for a charitable organization. They were, collectively, within their networks of people and friends, collecting goods that they no longer needed and selling it in a retail space. It wasn’t until many years later that they started realizing, “Hey, this is a profitable business, and we can actually give the proceeds to a charitable organization.”
At that point — and I don’t know the exact details — the Thrift Shop of Boston was a consortium. There were many charities that they would provide their end-of-year money to, including many of the hospitals, including [Boston] Children’s Hospital, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, and several others.
At some point in the history of that consortium, the Home for Little Wanderers was picked up. I think that was in the early 1980s. The Thrift Shop had a volunteer who happened to be a board member at the Home, and brought The Home into the group. At some point in the late 1990s or early 2000s, the Home for Little Wanderers became the sole beneficiary of the Thrift Shop.
“There’s so much abundance in the world — there’s so much that’s being produced, and so many people have more than they’ll ever need, yet there are people in the community who have nothing.”Chris Roth, shop manager at The Thrift Shop of Boston
Rath: Tell us more about the Home for Little Wanderers and how it’s developed into what it is today.
Roth: I can’t really speak to the history of the Home, except that our partnership with them has really grown in the last 20 or 25 years. The work they do is extraordinary. They have an army of what I call “compassionate soldiers.” Really, they’re the social workers who are involved with the families’ lives.
The circumstances by which they’re entering into these homes and these families are very difficult. These are families that are living in really at-risk situations and need the support of professionals who can help keep that family unit together. I think the main focus of the Home is providing the tools and the resources to these families to help keep that child and those parents together.
Rath: Take us through how things are in the Shop today. I know you have a dedicated group of volunteers. What’s it like on a day-to-day basis and the passion that you bring into this?
Roth: At the Thrift Shop, we have a small staff — seven staff members. We have about 15 volunteers that come in regularly, year-round. Some of our volunteers work up to a few days a week. We receive donations from the community and sort the items by category. We’re very organized in the back house areas, as on the sales floor. It takes a group of people that work together.
It takes a lot of work to process these items. We’re getting tens of thousands of items. There’s so much abundance in the world — there’s so much that’s being produced, and so many people have more than they’ll ever need, yet there are people in the community who have nothing. Our job is to be the stewards of those items that come through.
People really want to support the Home for Little Wanderers. Other donors really just like supporting the local community. And we have donors that don’t want to throw anything away. They might find nice pieces that shouldn’t go into a landfill and bring them by the Thrift Shop.
There are all kinds of different reasons why people support us and an organization like this. It’s varied, but one thing is certain — our volunteer crew is just absolutely dedicated to this mission, and we really couldn’t be a profitable organization if it wasn’t for their work.
Rath: I’ve gotta say, it’s striking to hear you talk about working at that threshold — the dividing line between abundance and those who are in great need.
Roth: Yeah. It’s really clear when you work in a place like this. Post-pandemic, as everybody knows, the world has changed so much, and the glaring differences seem to be that much more pronounced on a daily basis — the experience of the customers and what people are going through.
It’s hard out there, so people do rely on us for basic needs. We try to do our best to keep prices low. We sell at high volumes — we’re selling hundreds of thousands of items every year. It takes a lot of work.
Our shop isn’t like walking into a box store, where everything is new and packaged. It’s all loose items, for the most part. So it requires a lot of hands on deck to make sure that it’s all processed appropriately so we can get the best stuff out for the community.
