The Store that Builds Homes
Several years after Atlanta Habitat for Humanity completed its first build, the ReStore opened its doors.
The ReStore is the retail arm of Atlanta Habitat for Humanity that sells mostly donated items. The goal is to generate as much revenue to support Atlanta Habitat’s mission.
Beyond creating access to quality affordable housing, the ReStore ultimately limits the waste being sent to landfills and acts as a direct revenue stream back to Atlanta Habitat.
There are two types of donations: corporate and residential. Residential donations are delivered during loading dock hours or scheduled through pickups. The corporate donors can schedule their drop offs.
“When we first opened the restore, it was just a big rectangle,” Chris, Director of the ReStore recalled. “You walked in the front door, the loading dock was in the back and the problem that we had is the trucks would drive up with deliveries and all the customers would run to the back of the store and start negotiating prices or wanted to see what was on the truck.”
Back then, the ReStore and the warehouse shared the same space, the ReStore immediately did better than any of the original projections and expanded to take over more of the warehouse.
“We let construction know that we would be taking over more of their warehouse. So, we actually about doubled the space a couple of years in and created an l-shaped store,” Chris said.
In 2009 when Atlanta Habitat moved to its current location, the ReStore upgraded to the freestanding metal building on the corner of Chester and Memorial.
The new location allowed for a larger variety of items to be sold, doubling down on the missions to keep these items out of landfills.
“Most of the time people don’t realize that there’s a lot of decor that you can get, like cute flower pots and picture frames and different things to decorate your house but people are also surprised that we have things like toilets so I’d say it’s like the best of both worlds,” said Megan, General Manager of the ReStore.
As the years go by the ReStore has continuous exceeded expectations.
South Fulton
In 2021 Atlanta Habitat opened the South Fulton ReStore. This freestanding metal building was built on six acres of land .
“We also got a tax credit offset and we put in another freestanding metal building like the Atlanta one. I think they learned a few lessons on kind of the back end of the building, so there’s a little bit different set up in South Fulton. Now they both work very well and efficiently in terms of our operation,” Chris said.
The two stories try to remain nearly identical but cater to their customers. The South Fulton location is surrounded by newer homes and tends to attract more contractors while the Atlanta locations tends to be a little more random.
Reduce, ReStore, Recycle
One of the more hidden components of the ReStore is the waste management process.
There are plenty of items that are being redirected away from landfills every day because of the ReStore, but there are items that can’t be sold that often end up in the donations such as appliances that need to be disposed of properly.
Jack, Atlanta Habitat for Humanity Waste Manager directs things to be recycled as much as possible.
Styrofoam, metals, plastics and batteries are all the materials that pass-through Atlanta Habitat’s ReStore that can be recycled.
“We have made quite an impact by diverting about 20 dumpsters from the landfill, just in recycling, and that doesn’t include the furniture and the things that we sell that you see behind me. This is just simply the recycling that we accumulate that passes through our doors.” Jack said. “I would say we’ve probably diverted about 1/3 of our total trash here from this campus into the recycling stream.”
Buy at a bargain; advance affordable homeownership; help save the planet. Whether you’re buying a lamp or a couch, a purchase from the ReStore makes a powerful impact.
