A Carrollton thrift store will celebrate another anniversary in the coming weeks. Re-Thread Thrift Store, located at 1561 South Park Street, on December 3rd will celebrate three years of being in business.
A non-profit organization with a unique twist, Re-Thread started as the brain-child of owner Michael Wahl, who was looking for a way to fund his ministry while also supporting the community. After seeing the success of another thrift store in Douglasville that directly worked with his church to fully fund a ministry in Haiti, he decided to open Re-Thread to fund his ministry, DriButts.
“Re-Thread was started out of the concept of our non-profit DriButts, which provides diapers for developing countries. We work in some of the roughest parts of the world helping with sanitation and hygiene, and providing our cloth diapers to moms and babies. These diapers can be washed in a bucket, wrung out, and dry in just a few hours. They last for four years,” Michael told us in our interview with him. “We help moms and babies around the world. That’s where our passion comes in,” he added.
When coming up with the name for the thrift store, Michael wanted something that would reflect the passion and mission of the store. “Re-Thread Thrift came up in the sense of what if every act of kindness spreads love, and we repeat that act, we re-thread. We’re going to take the generosity of Carrollton, take it in, and re-thread it into DriButts and DriButts into the world.
That’s how Re-Thread was born,” he said.
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Re-Thread has a variety of items for sale from clothes to toys to books and even some antiques. In fact, that’s one of the passions Michael brought to the story. “I love fixing up old funky machines, jukeboxes, and record players,” he said. He then sells them in the store.
However, there’s one section of the store that is his biggest passion project, which is the Do Good Marketplace. “All the products on that side of the store do exactly that. They help change a life. Necklaces that help fight sex trafficing, mugs handmade by moms that have a job now so they can keep their kids, candles made by refugees, and chocolate and coffee farmed and crafted by individual farmers,“ he said. Currently, there are about 14 to 15 ministries represented in the Do Good Marketplace, but they’re always looking for more to add. “I’ll call and ask ministries, ‘What do you have a lot of that you need to get rid of that this cash flow would help you? Do you make or sell products to help a ministry? Let’s talk about putting it in the Do Good Marketplace.’ And we’ll usually buy that stuff to help put money directly into their ministry,” Michael added.
Re-Thread also accepts goods and clothing donations from the community, where most of their inventory comes from. While they prefer clothing donations to be in season, they will accept any and all clothing. In particular, they always have a great need for men’s and boy’s clothing.
In reflecting on the last three years, Michael said that things started out really slow and the place was pretty empty, but they’ve built the store up step-by-step and are excited to be celebrating another anniversary. ”Three years is a big deal for any ministry or business. We’ve not only made it. We’re thriving and we’re growing massively,” he said. However, for him it’s more about helping the community and the ministry more than being a store. “We’re not a store first and we’re not just a nonprofit. We are a ministry that can empower you to help, and that’s my heart anyway. Why should I preach a message for us to do? Why don’t I actually share a story that everyone can be a part of. And to me you’re way more effective doing that,” he added.
While exact plans for their three-year anniversary celebration are not set yet, the store will continue to have their other regular sales in the meantime. In the middle of each month, Re-Thread will run a sale while also having a special food giveaway and their wheel of discounts for customers to spin. Also, at the end of every month, they run a three to four day sale where all clothing is $1.00. “It’s our give back to our community,” Michael said.
At the end of the day, what means more to Michael is about the experience people have when coming into the store rather than his making a sale. “In the end, we’re not asking people to buy anything from us. We’re asking people to come experience it. And I feel like when people see what our mission is, what we’re trying to do, and why we’re trying to do it, that we become a store that they want to come shop at because they see the purpose behind it. Come see our story and what we’re about,” he said.
To learn more about Re-Thread Thrift Store, visit their website or their Facebook page.
