Thomas Street furniture shop goes from strength to strength

Any shoppers who frequent SVP in Mitchelstown regularly will be familiar with the continual rotation of stock in both the clothes and furniture shops, so it may come as a surprise to learn that almost all of the stock is donated locally. The furniture shop is busy on Monday morning when TheAvondhu visits, and is being stocked out by staff member Geraldine following the Christmas season.

An L-shaped sofa, and a rich green twopiece settee give a taste of what’s on offer, alongside three different kitchen table-and-chair sets. A set of six high stools are for sale, coffee tables, CD players - and a huge number of Smithwick’s branded mugs, for the ardent Kilkenny tea-drinker!

The furniture shop opened in July 2019, and so had barely found its feet when the pandemic began in March 2020. Still, as manager Michelle Guilfoyle iterates, the shop is very busy, with a reputation that is spreading. Visitors come from Mallow and Kanturk to bargain-hunt for quality furniture, and stock moves quickly. On the morning TheAvondhu visits, one lady pops her head in with a child in a pram - he’s decided he wants a tractor, so she’s coming to the shop to see what toys are in stock.

He has no joy on the day, but toys will be back soon, as the shop operates a pop-up section at the back that is stocked thematically - Christmas decorations dominated in December, and they will have baby items, or an Easter display, or a photography section, depending on the time of year.

UPCYCLING

Quality is of most importance, as the idea of a musty charity shop goes by the wayside.

“All of the sofas are cleaned, steamed, lintrolled and hoovered. We check all the pieces we accept, and won’t take anything with tears. I find that couches with patterns don’t sell very well so we don’t really accept those - people like plain pieces that will fit in with their room already. We have a volunteer who works here who actually does upholstery, so she will recover chairs that need it, and we work with a group in Forrest Hall that does upholstery too.”

The Forrest Hall group have recently upcycled a dressing table and set of drawers in rich blue and gold, and the pieces are now for sale in the shop in The Ozanam Centre.

“A lot of our stuff seems to come from Casey’s Furniture Shop originally. We keep most things for about six weeks before reducing the cost if they’re not selling - we almost never have to actually throw something out, it always sells eventually. And it always, always happens - a couch will sell, and then two or three people will come in looking for it at the same time!”

Ms Guilfoyle, who took over the management of the shop shortly before Covid hit, says that the stigma of shopping in charity shops is going by the wayside as younger customers take advantage of the new clothes and that can be found.

“With Covid, a lot of people were donating things to us that were never worn. Right now almost half the clothes in the shop are brandnew, with tags on. Also, when we’re cleaning the clothes we check every zip, every button - nothing goes out on the floor that isn’t wearable.”

Upstairs the hard work of sorting and steaming goes on. Clothes are categorised much like a TK Maxx shop, grouped by size and style. Jackets go from wool ones, to hooded, and along to raincoats. Racks of empty hangers await clothes, and anything that isn’t wearable or is patently out of style is bagged, sold, and will eventually be shredded.

“Menswear is the hardest to stock, as men tend to wear their clothes into the ground! Kids’ clothes too, as they tend to be worn out by the time the child is finished with them. We are very grateful for our donors, and especially to our regular people who donate paper bags, which we are always in need of.”

The shop has a large force of volunteers to help out, and are soon getting a sixth CE worker to join the staff.

The shop was originally a thrift shop on the top of New Square, and moved to its current location on Thomas Street in 1996. The furniture shop space was donated by a kindly anonymous donor, and the shop is going from strength to strength as word-of-mouth spreads.