the Sheboygan ReStore: A Perfect Symphony

By Altrim Luma, Habitat Lakeside marketing intern 
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On any given Wednesday, you might decide to take a casual stroll through the Sheboygan ReStore. When you walk through the sliding doors, you’ll be greeted with a warm hello by Rachel, the ReStore manager. 
 
The place is buzzing with life. The sound of 80s classics echoes throughout the store. In the near distance, a man scavenging through wrenches nods his head to the beat, getting a wave of nostalgia from the music. Many people converse with their family and friends and marvel over beautiful pieces of furniture. A couple sits on a couch, testing out the comfort and smiling as they envision just how perfectly it will fit with their living room. An elderly man searches the hardware department intently, looking for the perfect bolt. To the right, a cashier is totaling items for a customer. On the counter sits a mix of various stuff: rakes, nails, screwdrivers, and more. The card reader beeps, a receipt is handed, and the customer smiles as they exit the store with their hands full of items.  

If you happen to wander toward the back area of the store, you’ll find a volunteer hunched over a bench testing electronic items by plugging them in, flipping switches, checking wires, and making sure everything works before it ever hits the shelves.  

Throughout your visit, you’ll likely catch a volunteer pushing a cart piled high with newly donated items, ready to stock the shelves. Their eyes scan the shelves for space, and they meticulously organize each item to ensure the store is filled with exciting new things every single day. As the volunteer sets a toy on the shelf, a child’s joyful screech fills the air as they catch sight of it. Encounters like this make any time spent in the Sheboygan ReStore truly heart warming.  

Behind the scenes, volunteers are hard at work unloading tables, chairs, and all kinds of items from the pickup truck. Also hidden from sight, a volunteer is pricing dozens of items that will soon be rolled out into the store. Oftentimes, a pair of volunteers will push out a heavy item and lift it onto the floor together, as nobody is left to lift heavy items alone.  

In an orchestra, no single instrument can play an entire song alone. In the ReStore, all of the different team members work together to make a beautiful symphony. All of these volunteers and their individual roles play a massive part in creating a smooth and joyful experience and atmosphere for ReStore shoppers.  

Even when you exit those sliding doors, the feeling you have is one you will not be able to forget. Perhaps it is this feeling, or the security in knowing that the store will have what you are in search of, that keeps customers coming back daily. And it is those frequent and familiar faces that transform the ReStore into something extraordinary: a community. 

When the final customer leaves and all the lights are shut off, the Sheboygan ReStore is peaceful as it sleeps. Tomorrow, it will open and once again, become a roaring, delightful orchestra. 

Rachel Hartlaub, Sheboygan ReStore manager, chats with customers on a recent Wednesday evening.