Bare shelves at Sally Ann

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This article was published 12/06/2024 (527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Maria Sanchez walks out of the Salvation Army Thrift Store on McPhillips Street pushing a green cart that contains a silver juicer machine.

The 73-year-old shops at the second-hand store up to three times a week in search of a bargain.

“It means a lot because it means I can save,” Sanchez said. “(Then) I can use the money for my medicine.”

Sally Anns in Winnipeg experienced a 13 per cent jump in sales from the fiscal year 2022-23 to 2023-24.

As a result, they are struggling to maintain minimum inventory levels, said Ted Troughton, managing director of Salvation Army Thrift Stores.

The charity is calling for donations of essential items, particularly bakeware, pots, pans, small kitchen appliances and other houseware necessities.

“When you go into normal retail stores, things are costing more money,” Troughton said. “This give everyone an opportunity to come in… provide nice furnishings for their homes, their kitchens and it gives them the opportunity to make it a little bit more enjoyable when they have to spend that money.”

Troughton said more families and single people go to Sally Ann stores to try to make their money stretch further.

Harvest Manitoba is also seeing an increase in need, with a 150 per cent increase in food bank users between 2019 and 2023. Roughly 50,000 Manitobans access the food bank each month and they support an additional 50,000 people through soup kitchens, school programs and their Meals2Go program.

“The need is at a record level… and it hasn’t gone down,” said president Vince Barletta.

“Very few people have seen their incomes grow as quickly as prices,” Barletta said. “When you’re already living on the edge, you’re on a fixed income, you’re on a disability benefit, you rely on other types of social services and prices rise and your income doesn’t, that puts a huge, huge stress on you.”

Donations tend to drop off during the summer months, starting in June as Manitobans start thinking about their summer vacation plans instead of helping out organizations like Harvest Manitoba and the Salvation Army, Barletta said.

Numbers from the Salvation Army’s spring 2024 Canadian Poverty and Socioeconomic Analysis shows 26 per cent of Canadians remain extremely worried about having enough money to cover their basic needs.

The number of first-time food bank users rose from 43 per cent in October 2023 to 61 per cent in the first half of 2024, the analysis revealed.

“We’re glad that we can be there to provide support but we know that… the economy, housing, all those things that are happening right now are causing more challenges for people,” Troughton said. “We just want to be there to be able to provide some solution for people that are just trying to find a way to get by.”

Troughton said people should think beyond clothing when gathering items to give to the charity.

He said those who donate get a 20 per cent coupon for one of their thrift stores. They are also supporting the Salvation Army’s social services like shelters and food banks.

“You can go to your closet, your basement, your garage, maybe your storage locker and grab a couple of bags, a couple of boxes of donations,” Troughton said. “That’s really the driver for us and it keeps… our stores going.”

Mennonite Central Committee Thrift Stores are also seeing a jump in sales, but not a dip in donations.

“MCC Thrift Shops in Manitoba are experiencing an overall increase in sales and have not experienced a decline in donations,” MCC Manitoba thrift co-ordinator Krintine Heinrichs said in an email statement.

jura.mcilraith@freepress.mb.ca