The Housatonic Habitat for Humanity”™s ReStore ”“ the nonprofit home improvement store and donation center ”“ is on the cusp of an overhaul.
But it”™s not a matter of rearranging the furniture and slapping a coat of paint on the 11,000-square-foot facility at 51 Austin St. in Danbury. Instead, the organization ”“ which sells its wares at steep discounts to fund affordable housing options in the area ”“ has engaged a New Canaan design and concierge service, DesignDot, to completely redesign, style and curate ReStore”™s layout.
And even that isn”™t all, according to the Danbury operation”™s executive director Fran Normann.
“Part of what we”™re hoping to do is to invite other companies and nonprofits in to create their own space and energy here,” she said. “We”™ve already been in talks with some of them about not only selling product here, but creating a whole marketplace. They could take space here once a month or once every six months.”
All proceeds would still go towards Habitat”™s mission of dedicating its revenue stream to building homes, Normann said.
The philanthropic spirit also possessed Meghan Wunderlich, DesignDot”™s owner, who said she initially reached out to Normann without having actually visited ReStore.
“It was an even better fit than I”™d imagined,” Wunderlich said. “We want to make more design available to more people, using a holistic mindset. We enjoy working collaboratively as designers, and we were looking at how we could continue down the path to sustainability. And Habitat for Humanity obviously is a really strong brand in that space.”
Normann said that she began looking at redefining ReStore a couple of years ago.
“As we continued to grow, I felt we really needed to take a look at what we were doing ”“ not as a charity, but as a nonprofit thrift shop,” she said.
That included fully embracing the online marketplace, where various algorithms revealed that ReStore”™s shoppers were no longer mostly older bargain-hunters going antiquing.
“That”™s not who we are now,” she said. “We”™re still looking to reach those traditional shoppers, but we”™re also taking another look at millennials. Everybody is becoming increasingly online shopping savvy, and younger people especially have no problem looking online and purchasing something.
“It”™s the wave of the future,” Normann said, “but that hadn”™t necessarily been true here.”
ReStore”™s turn to online retail only began in earnest when the pandemic shutdown began, Normann added. “We saw that it wasn”™t going to stop anytime soon, and we increasingly found out that putting up photographs of an item on Instagram and others like that would result in people buying online and driving here to pick it up.”
In addition to upping ReStore”™s online ante, Wunderlich is experimenting with different layouts for its roughly 6,000 square feet of merchandise space. One concept involves “stacking” different supplies vertically.
“There are huge ceilings, lots of floor space, and we want it to be flexible enough that it can be changed as needed,” she said.
When the actual work will begin remains uncertain, Normann said.
“We”™ll need to figure out the right time frame, and the construction will be done by volunteers, so there”™s the matter of finding the right people,” she said.
In any event, Normann said, “we remain dedicated to helping people afford new homes.”
