Allegheny West: Church Thrift Store Sells, to Give

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Eleven years ago, Rev. Roger Riggins pondered what to make of all the extra space in the building that houses the Word of Life Worship Center in Allegheny West.

“I was standing there one day and I just sensed in my spirit, the thrift store came to me,” said Riggins.

A minister of 30 years, Riggins has been a resident of Philadelphia and a member of the clerical staff at Word of Life Worship Center for the last 15 years. Since 1999, he and other volunteers have run the Life Outreach thrift store, a charitable branch of the church next door.

The profits from the thrift store go to missions in Philadelphia like victims of house fires and are sent overseas to countries like Haiti and Jamaica.

“I never did a thrift store [before] so I didn’t know how to do it,” Riggins said.  The wisdom of God, he said, enabled the store’s development.

“[God] told me not to buy [the items], that he would call [the public] in to give to me and so from that point on we never purchased anything.”

In the beginning, many of the items were gathered from helping with clean-outs for people in the area who were moving.

The store’s inventory is made up of donated clothes, shoes, furniture and appliances among other things. “People began to come and give and they kept giving. As we give back, they give more,” said Riggins.

“Sometimes it comes in such abundance we want to tell them to stop,” he said, laughing,“but we can’t because its necessary.”

In tough economic times, Philadelphia residents have flocked to the local thrift store as a means to shop on a budget.

“You know, we meet people right where they’re at,” said Riggins. “Probably, we have the best prices in the city.”

A special deal, called the “$5 bag,” allows customers to fill a plastic trash bag with as many pieces of clothing they can and purchase it all for only $5.

“The thing is, if you know how to roll them and fold them real neatly, you can get a lot. Sometimes maybe $50 worth of clothing for $5,”he said.

Riggins said the program has especially helped many single mothers. “They come in with newborns and are able to get big bags full of children’s clothes and save so much money with that,” he said.

Customers come from all over the area to enjoy the low prices the secondhand store has to offer. “As the word gets out there that we’re here, we’ve seen an increase in customers,” said Riggins. College students, police officers, firefighters and vintage lovers are just some of the different kinds of customers who frequent the store. “We reach a wide scale of people from diverse backgrounds.”

Even with all the good done with the funds produced by the mission, Riggins said the store is more than a means to sell merchandise to make money, it is a chance to reach out, communicate with the community and create an atmosphere of peace and serenity.

“I have people that will come in and they just kind of hang around a long time [and] linger, because they say they feel such peace here and they feel comfortable here,” he said. “It’s a tool for ministry too, so we get a chance to minister with people and pray for people and counsel if need be. We make ourselves available to people. That’s our goal, helping people.”

Deborah-Lynn Smith recently moved to Philadelphia and has become a frequent shopper at the Life Outreach mission. “This is a wonderful store and if we don’t come once a week, it’s usually once every other week. I might be starting a job soon, so we might be living here,” Smith said, laughing. “This is a great store, the staff is always friendly. I never walk out of here empty handed. I always find something.”

“I think [people] are very gracious,” said Riggins.  He added that the store has grown into a profitable and effective operation. “Its changed a lot of lives.”