About ReStore
Items can be donated or purchased at the ReStore, 896 Fairview Ave., Hamilton.
Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
To schedule a donation pickup or for more information, call (513) 893-1102
HAMILTON — Sure, it’s for a good cause. But that’s not the reason most shoppers at the ReStore say they’re there.
“It’s cheap, and it’s good quality stuff here,” said Jerome Alexander, a Hamilton resident shopping for plumbing fixtures for his rental property in College Hill.
Profits from the hardware and home improvement store in Hamilton’s Lindenwald neighborhood are used by Habitat for Humanity TriState to build homes for low-income people.
The wares are donated. Many are still-in-the-package donations from chain stores. Others come from contractors and people left with gently-used windows, doors, appliances and other items after a project.
They range from 10-cent cabinet knobs to 13-piece kitchen cabinet sets for $595. In between, the 17,000-square-foot sales floor has $50 used chandeliers, $10 gallons of paint, $15 brand new shutters and countertops for $3 a foot.
“In the past month we’ve probably had 100 brand new windows donated,” said warehouse manager Ted Ingram, showing off a $125 window he estimated would normally sell for more than $600.
Many of these, he said, are dropped off by window contractors who get stuck with the wrong size window after a job.
ReStore will be able to accept more donations of all kinds with a recent $13,700 grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The money will be used to buy a new forklift.
The state is supporting the program for its environmental value: all this donated stuff is being reused, not thrown away.
“All those materials, instead of having them go into a landfill and contribute to the trash problems we have ... if they’re reusable we take them in to the ReStore, clean them up and resell them to the public,” said Karen Bell, ReStore director.
With help from the ReStore, Habitat has built 137 homes in Butler, Warren and Clermont counties, Bell said.
Customers are happy to support Habitat, but “I think that’s secondary,” Ingram said. “I think most people are trying to save money.”
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2175 or jsweigart@coxohio.com.
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