Posted on: Friday, August 2, 2002
Bargain hunters' haven finds a home
By Paula Rath
Advertiser Fashion Writer
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| Shirley Engel of Makakilo found a nearly new mu'umu'u and a silver teapot in her favorite treasure trove, Central Union Thrift Shop.
Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser . . . Central Union Thrift Shop • 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Wednesdays and Saturdays
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Although the Central Union Church Thrift Shop has existed for 27 years, it has lived a rather nomadic existence without a real home to call its own. Until tomorrow, when the Women's League, a cadre of volunteers organized and motivated by manager Joan Bennett, opens the doors of a brand-new, built-just-for-them, 14,000-square-foot retail space.
The new space enables the shop to accept and store more donations. Because the parishioners mostly are affluent, the shop is often given the inventories of large estates, from furniture to books, jewelry and heirloom silver. An appraiser often is called in to help determine the value of items, though prices are always set below value. Sometimes companies that are going out of business donate their remaining inventories. Society matrons who will wear an evening gown only once deliver their clothes after the ball is over.
Spotted on the racks: a vintage dress made of Bemberg lace, several pairs of Cole Haan shoes, a violin, several Princess Kaiulani mu'umu'u and a Jessica McClintock wedding dress. A box being unpacked contained an entire collection of family silver: candlesticks, teapots, a coffee set and trays.
Shirley Engel of Makakilo, a nature photographer by profession, shops regularly at the Central Union shop. She began by looking for props in which to place the roses she photographed. Then she discovered the mu'umu'u selling for under $10, the inexpensive picture frames and the new electronic items such as egg beaters and hair dryers at rock-bottom prices.
The Women's League donates proceeds from thrift shop sales to mission projects, such as providing clothing to residents at the Institute for Human Services and to the homeless at Ala Moana Park, in conjunction with the church's feeding of the homeless there.
Find the Central Union Thrift Shop just off South Beretania Street on the diamondhead end of the church property.
