Nothing Is Left To Waste At Second Glance Thrift Store

WEST HARWICH – The Second Glance Thrift Store off of Route 28 is an impressive space. Racks of clothing and jewelry greet the eye when you first walk in, but upon further exploration, the store extends to home goods like glassware and appliances, furniture, shoes, linens and more. Everything in the building was donated to the Family Pantry of Cape Cod, which sells the merchandise to raise money to buy food for clients.

 “We have volunteers that take all of the donations in, and then they have teams of sorters that go through what we can practically sell,” said Daphne Mike, the store’s assistant manager. 

 The Family Pantry accepts donations for the thrift store on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Although clothing of any condition may be donated, only the newest items in the best condition make it to Second Glance. Hence, the team of volunteer sorters must decide the fate of each item. 

“If it doesn’t make it here, they have a boutique at the Family Pantry, and that’s free for the clients,” said Mike. “And if it’s not good enough for that, we will recycle.”

 With this system in place, nothing goes to waste. Once the donations have been properly sorted, the best ones will be delivered to Second Glance. 

 “We get a delivery from them three times a week,” said Mike. “They have a huge sorting team on Thursdays, so we usually get quite a bit on Fridays. We can get anywhere from 10 to 45 bins. We get a huge range, size-wise and quality-wise.”

 The journey doesn't end upon delivery. The next step in the process is to price the items. So the clothes must be sorted again.

 “We have certain volunteers who know how to price. We stay in a range,” said Mike. 

Certain items may be priced higher if they’re of a particularly expensive quality and are brand new, but most of the time items run a typical price range. Pants and shorts, for example, are typically priced at $10 each. 

The volunteer work is crucial to the functioning and success of the store. It takes a significant amount of labor to sort and price the amount of items received. 

 “We have a tremendous amount of volunteers. We have at least 60 here,” Mike said. 

The work they do can be physically demanding, too, including moving bins packed full of clothing. 

Mike expressed gratitude and understanding of the tasks the volunteers take on. 

 “It’s heavy work, and it’s constant,” she said.

Once an item is appropriately priced, it’s finally ready to hit the shelves. Items are tailored according to seasonal needs, and so in some ways the staff is always thinking ahead. This feels especially true as foot traffic in thrift stores increases.

 “This is the high season for us because there’s that many more people on Cape, but as we’re getting more well known and people are getting more into thrifting, we can stay busy all year round,” Mike said. “It definitely slows down in the winter, but we’ll be busy right up through Christmas.”

 In fact, they might be so busy that they require more donations. 

 “When we think we’re coming up short, we put out an ask to the community and they’re usually good at responding,” said Mike. 

The store is a promotion of community focused sustainability, working in tandem with the Family Pantry to provide Lower Cape residents with access to high quality, affordable clothing, the sale of which helps put food on the table for local families. Their network of volunteers and staff works hard to make this possible, and the store’s expanse of merchandise speaks to that. 

To contribute to The Chronicle's Summertime Helping Neighbors campaign, click here or mail a tax-deductible contribution to The Family Pantry, 133 Queen Anne Rd., Harwich, MA 02645, or call 508-432-6519 to donate by credit card.