New monthly and yearly sales record

March was a record month for the ReStore.  Not only did we have our best month ever we reached our best sales year ever with three months remaining in the fiscal year.

Most of our customers come to us after hearing about us from a friend or relative.  Thank you to everyone who talks about the ReStore.  It is mainly through your efforts that we continue to grow.

Delaware Home & Garden Show

The ReStore will once again have a table at the Delaware Home and Garden Show.  The home show will be next weekend, March 29th and 30th, at the Chase Center on the Wilmington Riverfront.  On Saturday the home show will run from 10-6 and 11-4 on Sunday.  Home improvement and other companies and organization attend the Home Show to have an opportunity to discuss their company with potential customers.  It is an opportunity for consumers who are considering work on a home to talk to various companies who can do the work.

ReStore staff will be manning the table to discuss the store and how to donate.

DIY class and store sale on Saturday

Saturday, March 15th we will have a Do-it-Yourself class at the ReStore.  From 10am-2pm Habitat construction staff will be teaching how to install hardwood flooring.  We have a great deal of new hardwood flooring available for sale.

Saturday will also be a sale day.  Everything in the store will be 10% off the posted price.  This could be the optimal time to pick up supplies for spring and summer projects and maybe add installing new floors to your list of planned projects.

Friendly facebook competition

Ever since the ReStore began its facebook page we have noticed that our likes are growing faster than the New Castle County Habitat's facebook page.  Considering that everyone has heard of Habitat for Humanity but not everyone has heard of the Habitat ReStore we felt it would be quite an accomplish to equal the affiliates like count.

It has taken a few years but we finally caught up a few weeks ago.  Since then the lead has gone back and forth a few times.  In the past few days we have started to open up a lead.  At this time we are ahead by 27 likes.

If you haven't already please check out our facebook page.  We update regularly with sale items that are unique or of a high quality.  We also add information about upcoming store events and sales.

Hardwood flooring at the ReStore

We have received a huge amount of hardwood flooring.  Currently we have Oak Natural on the sales floor. Maple, French Oak, Black Water and Butterscotch Oak will also be available for sale soon.  The flooring is wrapped in 16.3 sq. ft. quantities.  The Oak Natural is $24 per bundle.  The price on the rest of the flooring will probably be slightly higher.  We expect to have more out tomorrow morning.  Call the store, like us on facebook, or stop in the store for more information.

Snow days

We are hoping we are done with all the snow and ice that has hit the Wilmington area this winter.  The ReStore has had to close or open late a few times due to the weather.  Not only do we lose a sale day but people are less likely to be doing work around the house in bad weather so a difficult winter hurts sales even on days we are open.

We are also having logistics nightmares trying to re-schedule donation pick-ups.  Even if we are open and going on pick-ups we are having trouble getting to some due to road conditions.  On days we are closed we have to rearrange all the pick-ups from that day.  Since we are booked up for two weeks we have to move the postponed pick-ups to a day that is already fully booked.  Tomorrow we have the day double booked and will rent a truck to be able to go on all the extras pick-ups.  If it snows tomorrow as expected we will have even more trouble squeezing tomorrow's schedule into other days.

The weather is supposed to improve after this weekend so things should improve at the ReStore.

Miss Delaware USA's visit to the ReStore

Today's visit from Miss Delaware USA, Kelsey Miller, was a big success.  Kelsey greeted customers and signed autographs.  We had a large number of people coming to the store to meet her.  We appreciate her giving her time to help promote the ReStore and the work that we do to support Habitat for Humanity's building efforts in New Castle County.  Good luck to Kelsey in the Miss USA pageant this summer.