If you are a regular at our North Mississippi Avenue store, you may have noticed our large window section has been moved to make room for a whole new area.
We recently received a Metro Investment and Innovation Program Grant to help fund the development of a centralized material processing and pricing area in our store. These improvements will enable us to more effectively receive, process, and sell reusable building materials to you—our community—at great prices. They will also allow us to increase equity in our service and empower store staff to focus on customer service and education about reuse.
Our Process Improvement Coordinator, Chris, has been hard at work to bring the processing area to a reality. It is still under construction, but will see gradual use over the next couple of weeks. In addition to developing this new space, the Metro Grant also allowed us to hire two full-time Donation Processing Specialists, Deshawnte and Will. They will be moving, cleaning, unboxing, assembling, repairing, researching, pricing, and stocking donated materials in an efficient and orderly manner. We’re thrilled to welcome them to the team!
How will this affect you?
Well, for our material donors, nothing will change. You will still be able to donate materials on the Mississippi Avenue side and in the alleyway. If you need a refresher on donating building materials to us, check out our Material Donation FAQs.
For our customers, you can look forward to a couple of changes. Gradually, you will see an improvement in more items on our floor being labeled with a price. Our Donation Processing Specialists will be able to properly assess more material donations and price them at 40%-90% off market value. With time, you will see more complete, finished, and organized products on the floor.
Overall, our goal is to ensure fair and consistent pricing and to find more efficiencies in our material processing—to make the customer experience as positive as possible. We’re excited to share these plans with you and look forward to making these goals a reality!
