Thrifty shopping

VALDEEN SHEARS

Years ago, migrating to the US meant adjusting to the cold climate. This also meant warmer clothing, obviously.

However, purchasing winter clothes from the tropics to live in blisteringly cold weather, didn't prove wise for mother of six, Carletta Anisa Figaro.

"Thank God for thrift shops in the States, which enabled me to buy effective winter clothes on a shoe-string budget. I was able to source much needed jackets, of surprisingly good quality at a fraction of their costs and this meant the world to me at that time because I was really trying to make ends meet for my kids. I know currently a lot of parents face that same situation right here in this country just to be able to balance meeting the needs for food and clothing for their children," stated Figaro.

The founder of She Chose Life Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, intent on assisting mothers and mothers-to-be, realised she could "kill two birds with one stone".

She decided to incorporate her need for funding with meeting the needs of John and Jane Public for drastically reduced, but quality clothing and items.

Out of this was born, a thrift shop, bearing the same name as her NGO.

Located at #15 Lukput Street, St James, the shop offers clothing, household items and what a smiling Figaro likes to call "knicks and knacks".

She formally opened its doors on September 1 and since then, the response, she said, has been quite encouraging.

"It's even more so fulfilling knowing that I found a way to meet my overheads for the NGO and provide a much-needed service, particularly when you look at the economy today and how unemployment (is) skyrocketing. People still have the need for clothing, but can't afford the brands and costly clothes in a lot of stores, so we here decided that we would offer them quality clothes they could afford, without affecting their rent or groceries money," she reasoned.

Since opening, Figaro said over 80 percent of her income from sales at the shop has been allotted for overheads, while the other 20 percent to pay stipends to volunteers and staff.

Word of mouth advertising and satisfied customers, it seems, has seen an influx of both visitors and paying customers, she said proudly.

However, while she remained adamant that only God could change her purpose, Figaro still threw out a call to corporate TT to get on board to assist the less fortunate. She noted that assistance can be in kind and not in cash and that those willing to help can donate/sponsor baby items and/or items needed by the mothers.

"Not every situation is due to laziness, some are genuine cases of circumstances going against them: retrenchment, death in a family, illness, loss of two income in a household for one reason or the other. Until you walk a mile in someone's shoe, you really can't judge them, can you?" she queried.

She remains hopeful, she said, for a bigger place, that the NGO and shop can call its "home", as she would like to expand and offer even more items than what the shop presently carries.

Contrary to belief, she added, there should be no shame in buying from a thrift shop, at least Figaro says not at hers.

Most of her items come from abroad through supportive relatives and other items she sources through garage sales.

Figaro is also a stickler for NGOs supporting each other, so she visits and makes purchases once a month at Living Water Community's garage sale.

She also subscribes to a particular standard when it comes to what she is willing to offer customers.

"We spend hours going through what we are given or purchase. While we open 9 to 5, weekdays and 7 to noon on Saturdays, my day starts at 3 am and often ends with me in the shop, sorting through mountains of stuff, cleaning the shop and tending to my kids. I wouldn't trade it for the world. I love what I do. Being able to put a smile on someone's face because they thought they barely had enough for one outfit and left our shop with two or three, that gives unbelievable fulfilment," she stated humbly.

The "our" she referred to are her daughters, Anastasia and Analiesa Vieria, two of Figaro's six children. She is also mother to another girl, 13, and three boys, ages two, four and five.

This dynamo of a woman, through the NGO, still finds the time to reach out to single, struggling or expectant mothers and assist in whatever way she can.