If you judge the Reuse It Centre on financial sustainability alone, it’s a flop.
After nearly two years of operation, the pilot project isn’t making enough money to survive. In fact, the secondhand shop is recording a monthly deficit of about $1,000.
When the centre was first proposed to council, with a request for the release of $65,000 from environmental stewardship reserves to act as seed money for the project, it was expected the centre would break even by the end of its second year.
With the existing deficit, that goal hasn’t been realized and, you might say, the project has proven itself unsuccessful.
But if—instead of focusing solely on the financials—the centre is judged on the cumulative benefits it provides the community, as well as the environment, it paints a much different picture—a picture of success.
There isn’t yet a document outlining all of the centre’s benefits—and there might never be one—but it doesn’t take much thought to see the value in its service to the community.
On the social level, the centre provides transient seasonal workers with a place to pick up cheap furniture and household items to fill their homes. It also provides them a place to drop those goods off once they’re through with them, keeping the space around our dumpsters free of clutter.
And environmentally, it provides a second, or possibly third, fourth or fifth, life for these items, keeping them in homes and out of the landfill. Accompanying that environmental gain is also a financial gain: the less waste making its way to the transfer station and the landfill, the less the municipality pays for those services.
Some argue that the Jasper Buy, Sell and Trade Facebook page provides the same value as the Reuse It Centre, and, of course, it’s hard to deny the success of the page, but one visit to the Reuse It Centre or the United Church Thrift Shop shows that it doesn’t do the whole job.
If the buy and sell filled the need, there would be nothing for the centre or the thrift shop to sell, nor would there be customers to buy the goods sold in the two shops.
Although the Reuse It Centre hasn’t yet found its way into the black, its sales and ability to keep furniture and household items out of the landfill, prove there is a need for the service within the community.
With a little more time and subsidization, we believe the centre could be sustainable. Since moving to its new location in the Anglican Church basement, its monthly deficit has decreased to $1,000 from between $5,000 and $3,000. With a little bit more time and exposure, that deficit could disappear all together.
Jasper is a town with low wages and a revolving door of newcomers. Having a shop where people who live paycheque to paycheque can find the things they need to comfortably live is a must.
We hope that, in time for the municipal budget process, the Jasper Environmental Stewardship Society will present the municipality with a business plan outlining all of the centre’s benefits, so that council has all the information it needs to decide whether or not to support the centre into the future.
With such a plan in hand, we believe council will see the undeniable value the service provides.
