The Rummage Room Celebrates 58 Years with Reopening

By Alicia Tang

The inclement weather on Tuesday, September 6 posed no challenge to the classically beloved Rummage Room as undeterred locals and out-of-towners alike found their ways into the second-hand shop. The store had just reopened celebrating its 58th year serving Old Greenwich after being closed for a month of preparations.

During the Rummage Room’s annual hiatus, staff members work on repainting and refurbishing display furniture as well as restocking the store.

“I love The Rummage Room because the people that work here, the volunteers, and that we’re doing something good,” says store manager Leanne Meyer. “I’ve worked at a bunch of other places before, but this [The Rummage Room] focuses more on the community.”

It seems as if that love for the store has become contagious to the neighborhood as well. “When we opened at 11, we had like 25 people waiting outside,” exclaims Meyer. The line had queued in spite of the rain. “After today, what we’ve sold, we have to restock tomorrow morning,” she says.

“All the volunteers are like a family… and the donations that we get are very good.” From whimsical little trinkets and tableware to vintage jewelry to designer bags and coats–the Rummage Room has it all and more.

There is a certain psychology to organizing the store as well, shares Meyer. “If you walk into a store that is messy, you’re going to treat it that way. If you come in and it’s neat, you have a little bit more respect.”

“We try to do color-coding in here too,” Meyer says. “Because there’s so much stuff, it’s crazy to look at when you first come in, so if you break it up into colors, it makes it a little easier.”

With Tiffany glasses lining one window display and a gramophone adorned with painted florals in the other, a find at the Rummage Room can be unexpected but always unregrettable.

Though the pandemic precipitated an incline in customers visiting the shop, it also caused the number of the shop’s employees to drop significantly. “We had to cut our hours down because we can’t get cashiers,” Meyer says. “Without the cashier, we can’t run. We’re usually back here sorting [the donations].”

The store, which operates out of the Women’s Fellowship of the First Congregational Church of Greenwich, directs its proceeds towards charity organizations. They have pivoted in the last year to focus on charities that pertain to food and mental health as necessitated by the pandemic, but ordinarily caters to charities that serve women and children in particular.

​​ “The pandemic created a significant shift in needs, and the process became one of great challenge – and reward,” said Sheila Bennett, Co-chair of the Allocations Committee, which is responsible for distributing the revenue of the shop between charities. “It is because of the board, staff, volunteers and donors at The Rummage Room that we had the ability to continue the legacy of distributing the much-needed funds, even during these unprecedented times.”

“There’s a lot of people that have moved here in the last year because of Covid, moved out of the city, and they still don’t know about us,” Meyer says. In the future, she would like to focus on getting the word out, to attract not only more volunteers to adequately serve the influx of customers but also more donations as the shelves are emptied by fervent shoppers.

To keep up with the raging demand that Tuesday, Rummage Room employees and volunteers buzzed around the crowded shop, reorganizing as shoppers enthusiastically dig and sift, eager to find treasure. As Meyer focuses on the customer experience, she encourages customers to be leisurely in their shopping. “They’re coming in for one thing, and then they realize we have great stuff–so then they start staying,” reflects Meyer proudly. “Your average is probably about 30 to 45 minutes, but we have shoppers visiting for hours.”

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