Local thrift shop facilitates ‘learning to earn’
NORTH RIDING – Local thrift shop breeds positive change.
Loraine Ginns appears amidst clothing racks, with a bright smile and glasses which hold back her blonde hair. Ginns and her husband run Trader’s Corner, a second-hand clothing store located in Banbury Crossing.
After the couple returned from Mauritius, they made their way back to North Riding and were shocked to see how the area had dilapidated in the short space of time.
Ginns and her husband began Trader’s Corner as a winter pop-up shop where they would sell jackets which they had sourced from auctions, washed and repaired at discounted prices. The couple became more involved in the community of second-hand clothing and felt that the culture where bales would be purchased without the opportunity for shoppers to view the contents of the clothing in the bales was not right.
“You should be able to pick what you want and what you can sell for your bale.”
After two years spent ‘living in paradise’, Ginns was shocked at what awaited her once she returned to the concrete jungle she called home. With a different perspective, she was determined to become involved. She then thought about ways where she could help alleviate the poverty she had witnessed in a sustainable way. This was when she came up with the concept of sessions where she would invite and educate people who find themselves in the thick of poverty and unemployment, eager to use second-hand clothing as a means of income. Through her workshops, she empowers attendees where they ‘learn to earn’.
Ginns then re-purposed the back of her shop where she would sell the clothing at low prices in order for community members to purchase them and sell them at prices which retained their target audience. Here they can purchase clothes in bales, made up of clothing of their choice. The shop owner has sent an appeal to the Randburg community to donate clothing in good condition for her to continue the work she has begun. Ginns hosts the last workshop of the year on 14 December.
Those interested in being a part of the workshops or donations, can contact Ginns on ginns.loraine@gmail.com or 079 503 0737
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