Lemont's Second Chance Thrift Shoppe celebrates 15th anniversary

LEMONT – Second Chance Thrift Shoppe, 44 Stephen St., recently marked its 15th anniversary.

Technically, it is the store’s ninth year as Second Chance, which took over for the Helping Hand Thrift Shop that occupied the space for six years.

Regardless of the name, the mission has remained the same: Selling affordable household goods and raising money for a nonprofit organization serving adults with developmental disabilities.

Bonnie and Ron Nalepa of Plainfield manage the store for Garden Center Services, which provides housing and other services for clients, including their son.

They were the original managers for the store when the Helping Hand Center opened the shop in 2000.

They retired from managing the store in 2005, and it went out of business in 2006.

Having switched their son’s services from Helping Hand to Garden Center, the Nalepas reopened the shop under the Garden Center in 2006.

“[Thrift shops] are a really good way to make good money for an organization,” Bonnie said.

Ron said the shop is an important source of income to help the Garden Center pay for its programs, especially with a lack of funding from the state.

“We provide, in a sense, enough money to them so they don’t have to borrow money,” he said.

The shop is staffed with four paid employees and 55 volunteers.

Bonnie said she describes the shop as selling everything household, as long as its nonedible.

All items are donated, and some customers receive vouchers for items through the Hope and Friendship Foundation.

“Lemont is a very favorable town to have a thrift shop in because we have both ends of the spectrum here,” Bonnie said. “We have those who can well afford to donate and are very generous in their donations, and we have the people who appreciate our being here because the prices are affordable.”

Like many of the small businesses in downtown Lemont, the thrift shop has seen increased competition from a larger store – in its case, the Goodwill Store that opened on State Street.

Ron said sales have dropped 8 percent every year since Goodwill opened.

Deja Vu Rack, a consignment store in Lemont that closed in 2013, cited competition from Goodwill as its reason for closing.

But Bonnie said their store is still making money.

“We’re not in the red, but we would like to be making what we were before,” she said.

She said it is hard to compete with the resources of a larger organization such as Goodwill, but she believes her shop has competitive prices and puts more effort into checking the quality of the donations it receives.

Volunteers check donated items to make sure they are clean and not damaged. Damaged items are given to the Salvation Army, which comes to pick them up once a week.

“We feel very proud,” Bonnie said. “We stand on that, that our merchandise is in good condition.”

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