Aylmer Society of Saint Vincent de Paul thrift store closed for months-long revamp

Tashi Farmilo

The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul thrift store at 56 rue Principale in Aylmer closed on July 31 and is expected to reopen in the coming months following renovations and a rebranding to the new Chez Vincent banner.

Word of the closure spread through Aylmer's community pages within hours, and Bryan Kovac, president of retail for the Society's National Council of Canada, wants residents to know the rumours of a permanent shutdown are wrong. "The store's not going anywhere," he said. He described the closure as an improvement process the organization is carrying out across the province, tailored to each location. He did not give a firm reopening date, saying the Society hopes to finish within two to four months, with the end of the year as a worst-case scenario, and does not want to rush the work or drag it out.

Kovac was candid that the store had been struggling compared with others in the network. The building is close to a hundred years old, he said, and had been kept running on a patch-and-repair basis rather than a proper refresh. Instead of walking away from what he called an ideal location, the Society decided to invest, pooling money shared by other local councils across the greater Outaouais region because the store has the potential to turn a profit that feeds the Society's charitable work. "It's not something that we would want to give up and then regret later on," he said.

The overhaul is tied to a national rebrand, launched around two years ago, that aims to bring the Society's roughly 128 stores across Canada under one banner. Kovac said the organization runs on a decentralized model in which almost every store is its own incorporated entity, managed loosely like a franchise, an arrangement that can leave the national, provincial and local levels with little visibility into one another. The rebrand, he said, is about far more than new signage. "It also restructures how we communicate between stores, how we represent the brand as a unified body," he said. The National Council is now working to unify the administration of stores across the region, a process he said will take time given the tangle of separate legal entities involved.

Every store will eventually get the same treatment inside, outside and in the way it operates, Kovac said, but the work can only be done a few stores at a time. The Society starts with two kinds: healthy locations with the capital to move quickly and struggling ones worth saving. Some Gatineau-area stores have already put up the new signage, he noted, though that reflects only the visible branding, not a fully standardized business model. Since the Society is already renovating the Principale Street building and bringing it up to code, he said, it made sense to modernize it at the same time. "If we're going to strip up the tiles, put new floors in, repaint the walls, change the cash system, let's do it in the style of what we're putting in the new stores," he said. The goal, he added, is a modern shop that still feels local rather than like a big-box outlet: "We still want to have that Aylmer taste, that Aylmer style."

For shoppers and donors, Kovac stressed that the store's charitable purpose is unchanged. All revenue goes toward the Society's mission under strict guidelines tied to its Canada Revenue Agency charitable status, which is verified annually. "Everything, a hundred per cent, goes toward our mission," he said. Charitable proceeds support actions such as, food banks and social housing, and the local Aylmer council partners with area grocery stores on vouchers, carries out home visits, and provides school supplies and backpacks for children.

The most immediate problem with the store being shut is what has appeared at the curb. Residents have kept dropping off clothing, furniture and household goods and, with no staff on site, the items have piled up along the side of the road. Kovac urged people to stop leaving donations at the location, explaining that anything left outside sits exposed to the weather and that goods soaked by rain generally cannot be accepted, since the Society will not risk bringing mold into its stores. A first sign asking people not to leave donations was torn down within a day, he said, and the pile grew quickly as a result. A larger, sturdier banner is now going up, and an older heap of trash left by the previous management was due to be hauled away. A truck driver who already collects surplus clothing from stores across the network has added the Principale Street site to his route, mainly to keep it tidier. But Kovac was clear and asked residents to simply hold off until the doors reopen.

The reopening, when it comes, is meant to be a celebration. Kovac said the Society hopes to mark it with a community event that welcomes people in to see the new space, and asked Aylmer to stay tuned. "It's very important for people to know that this is being done to improve the service that we offer to the community," he said.