BIZARRE BAZAAR
NEWS
NEWS
Dear Volunteers, March was a bit slow, but surprisingly we did much better than last year. Thank you to all who helped us through this quiet month. We ended on a great note, and for April sales and customer volume are up. We had a couple of lovely customer comments online. These comments were complimentary about our friendliness and willingness to help, the cleanliness of our facility, and the great merchandise we have. Excellent job, volunteers! A fun project in community engagement - one of the Vice-Principles from Sandpoint High School has done a video of our prom dress collection to show the young women at school. We think this will encourage them to come shopping with us for all their prom attire. It is fun to see these young ladies trying on and vamping around in the lovely dresses we have. They are adorable! |
Important Items
- We are heading into garage/yard sale season, so we should see an uptick in donations on Mondays and Tuesdays. Sorters, we need you. (We could use some ironers for those summer cottons.)
- The bi-annual Team Leader/Department Head meeting was productive, with lively conversation amongst all who attended regarding a multitude of issues.
The biggest problem addressed was the difficulty of getting enough volunteers to sign up. Ah yes, the great conundrum. Most team leaders must send out frequent email blasts begging for help. This shop cannot operate efficiently with only two volunteers. The team leader does have the discretion of closing the shop when there are no volunteers. What they are asking for is a commitment, in advance, from volunteers for just 2-4 hours.
If you think of the mission of Bizarre Bazaar, which is to financially support CAL’s grants and scholarships, it is paramount that we have volunteers to support all the activities at the shop: Greeting customers and helping them, accepting donations and sorting them, cleaning and pricing donations, and keeping the floor filled with merchandise and tidied.
- The other issue discussed was that of volunteer purchased items. If you remember, last year the original policy of only being able to purchase items already priced and on the floor was relaxed so that items could be purchased from the backrooms (please no rummaging or digging through the stock).
it is important that another volunteer price the item, the price must be what we would offer it for to the customer, another volunteer must enter the sale, and the price tag must be attached to the item. Cashiers have expressed discomfort when being told to ring up an item they cannot see or see the price tag on.
- On to housekeeping – we have had an exterminator place mouse bait throughout the store after two sightings of some healthy-looking rodents. These traps are pet, volunteer, kid proof, are black, and triangular. Please do not remove the traps! And kindly clean up your food crumbs, food waste, and secure any open food containers. Last week a plethora of crumbs, open Cheeto bags and cookie boxes were found in the Break Room. We cannot control these critters if there is a constant food supply for them. Please empty the trash every day, including Sunday. (The trash container in the clean-up area frequently gets missed.)
April, May & June Volunteer Calendars
are available online now!
>>>> Online sign up <<<<
You can sign up on-line or if you have difficulty with that contact our Volunteer Coordinator,
Robbie Gleason
208-627-2983 or northidahogirl50@gmail.com.
There is also a paper calendar near the pricing station at Bizarre Bazaar.
are available online now!
>>>> Online sign up <<<<
You can sign up on-line or if you have difficulty with that contact our Volunteer Coordinator,
Robbie Gleason
208-627-2983 or northidahogirl50@gmail.com.
There is also a paper calendar near the pricing station at Bizarre Bazaar.
We would also be delighted to see you, our volunteers, as well. Please sign up on our Volunteer Scheduling Tool! We look forward to seeing you. Please remember to sign up for a shift, or two, or three….We have had feedback that it has been difficult to log into ClubRunner and the scheduling screen. Robbie Gleason (208-627-2983) has been very helpful in getting people back on line.
Your managers and team leaders are always happy to see you come through the door. With summer - and tourist season - upon us, we hope to see more of you! More volunteers mean less work and more fun. We thank you for being there, for doing the work, for helping our customers, and for the joy you put out there. Bizarre Bazaar volunteers are the best!
With great appreciation,
Cherie Warber, Carol Visger, Donna Hutter, Ann Nichols
