The Merrill Area Chamber of Commerce Spotlight on Business for the month of August is St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store located at 1004 E. Main St. Their telephone is 715-539-1131. The hours of operation are Monday-Thursday 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Friday-Saturday 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and closed on Sunday.
In March 2003, a great group of people saw a need in the Merrill community and created the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, St. Francis Xavier Conference. As a means for funding, the former Short’s 5 & 10 was acquired to create the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store. The property required a lot of renovation since it hadn’t been upgraded in years and to accommodate the needs of the growing thrift store. In August 2003, with a lot of community support, the store officially opened.
In 2004, the SVDP Free Clinic was added to the rooms above the store. This was formed by a group of local physicians that offer people that are not insured or under insured a way of seeing to basic health care.
St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store has steadily grown and has a mix of volunteers and paid staff. They have provided over a million dollars in financial assistance primarily for rent or utility payment, homeless lodging and medical co-pays.
In addition, over $71,000 in clothing, household goods or furniture has been given directly to those in need from the store.
St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store would like to thank all the volunteers, donors, customers and staff members for their support! It has been serving Merrill and the surrounding community for 15 years – from 2003 to 2018!
“St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store, is just one more reason to celebrate Merrill’s volunteers and the donors that make the sales happen!” concluded Debbe Kinsey, Merrill Chamber CEO. “They are an intricate fiber of the great stores that make up our downtown Merrill!”