Getting More "Volunteers"

[Bruce]

My store is always in need of more help and I think a good solution might have been found.
We''re located near a small college and many students come in to shop, some quite often. It was suggested to me by Michael to offer some of my regulars store credit for working in the shop. I first approached Sally and Madeline, they are both just 18 and go to Community College. They each now but in two 5 hour shifts and they got 2 other friends, a young couple, Brad and Jenn. I have 20 hours of work covered now and they really do a fine job. I pay the new workers $7 in credit per hour and pay out each week $140 in store credit, but I find it''s very worth it.
Pretty Cool Idea Brother! 

[Good Buddy]

Debbie runs a boys home thrift near Orlando and she got involved with local high schools community service programs to get more help in her store. She also works with the county her store is in and gets help from people, usaully teens, that are sentenced to community service. She works very closely with each coordinator and makes sure that all the participants work the entire time they are there.
The boys home the thrift store benefits has some extra land and they have a few RV hook-ups. They trade RVers access to the hook-ups in exchange for a few hours a week working inside the store. I personally see this idea as possibly being very beneficial to church thrifts that might have some land assiciated with the churches. But anyone with a larger parking lot and an extra electrical outlet or two can get a program like this started.

[Thrift-Zoid]

My store is always in need of more help and I think a good solution might have been found.
We''''re located near a small college and many students come in to shop, some quite often. It was suggested to me by Michael to offer some of my regulars store credit for working in the shop. I first approached Sally and Madeline, they are both just 18 and go to Community College. They each now but in two 5 hour shifts and they got 2 other friends, a young couple, Brad and Jenn. I have 20 hours of work covered now and they really do a fine job. I pay the new workers $7 in credit per hour and pay out each week $140 in store credit, but I find it''''s very worth it.
Pretty Cool Idea Brother! 

You don''t even have to exchange in a monetary rate. One of our local grassroots thrifts offered volunteers a small grocery bag of goodies in exchange for 2 hours of work. They were never short of volunteers, and they were pretty good about getting word out to the nearby jr. highs and high schools about what volunteering at the thrift store could do for student resumes for college and references for first time jobs.