Everything is marked down Friday and Saturday at the Boomerangs Resale Shop, at 1133 N. Sherman Avenue, to celebrate the store’s second anniversary. Boomerangs opened in 2008 as an outreach of Door Creek Church.
Residents of the north side around the Northgate Shopping Center have enthusiastically embraced the store, according to manager Craig Gielow. “They tell us that the north side needed a store like this, and that it’s a blessing to be able to get high quality merchandise at low prices,” he said.
Boomerangs was begun in 2008 as an outreach of Door Creek Church, with the idea of providing quality used merchandise at a reasonable cost to Madison area residents, as well as generate income to support local faith-based ministries such as the Salvation Army, the Nehemiah Corporation and The Road Home. Gielow said that the store is still in the process of paying off it’s debt to Door Creek Church. But that should be taken care of by the end of 2010, and then payments will start going out to other ministries.
Resale Stores are More and More Popular
The Salvation Army has recently opened up its own resale store at 1721 Thierer Road. Gielow doesn’t see that as competition. “It’s good that Madison residents have another source for gently used merchandise,” he said. “I’ve discovered a lot of the resale store shoppers hit all of the stores: Boomerangs, St. Vincent de Paul, Goodwill, Savers, Salvation Army, etc.”
Furniture is selling at 30 percent off and everything else is marked 50 percent off for the two-day anniversary sale. At the end of next week there’ll be a celebration for the 60 volunteers who work in the store. Most volunteers work around two hours per week at the store, but some work up to eight hours per week. About 80 percent of the volunteers are Door Creek members, the other 20 percent are neighborhood residents who are helping out. Gielow and two part-time sales associates are the only paid employees.
Gielow’s background is in retail and wholesale sales. He worked at a furniture store before joining Boomerangs. “It’s a nice background for working at a resale store,” he said. “For one thing I know how to price the furniture.”
Gielow said about half of the donated merchandise comes from Door Creek members, and the other half comes from residents of the neighborhood.
“We make an effort to get to know the regular shoppers names,” he said. “We’re smaller, and we try to be a little different. Some have told us they’re glad we’re there because now they don’t have to drive all the way to East Towne Mall.”
Ministry Opportunities
In addition to providing quality merchandise at reasonable prices, Boomerangs has been able to provide some spiritual care for north side residents also. “We pray with them and for them, from time to time,” Gielow said.
One of the volunteers has started a bi-weekly Thursday night Bible study in the Sherman Glen apartments across the street from Boomerangs. In addition, within the last month Boomerangs has offered a shuttle service from the store to Sunday morning services at Door Creek Church, at 6602 Dominion Drive.
“I’ve put every bit of prior experience that I have into this one job,” Gielow said, talking about sales, marketing, dealing with the public and other aspects of the job. He said the past month, September, was their best sales month so far and October could be even better with the excitement generated by the anniversary sale. “It’s the biggest sale we’ve ever had,” he said.
(Photos and some information in the story came from the Boomerangs website.)