St. Vincent de Paul is hosting a grand opening for a new store in Cottage Grove Thursday. The organization hopes it will bring benefits beyond thrifty shopping.
Bethany Cartledge, St. Vincent de Paul’s Executive Director, said there was a store in Cottage Grove until 2000, and the nonprofit has had its eye on returning to the area for quite some time. St. Vinnie’s built the 15,400 square foot building from the ground up, which is unusual for the nonprofit. Cartledge said the location at 910 Row River Road was ideal, and so SVdP secured a SNAP Loan for the project through the Oregon Facilities Authority (OFA), with financing provided by Summit Bank to fund the $4.8 million project.
Cartledge told KLCC St. Vinnie’s prioritizes having stores in rural locations like Oakridge and Junction City because they can offer local jobs, affordable goods and more. "Every month we give out between $30,000 to $35,000 in materials from the stores, whether it’s beds, clothing, household miscellaneous," she said. "So whichever community we’re in, if we do a fundraiser there, all of those donations stay in that community.”
Cartledge said the new store will employ 15 people full time. She said it’s gratifying that some staff who live in Cottage Grove and have been commuting to another St. Vincent location can now live and work in the same community.
Doors open to the public at 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 14. There will be hourly raffles, and 50% off on clothing, books and some furniture through Sunday at 6pm.
