Hundreds of people stood in the hot morning sun waiting to shop over the weekend, but it wasn't for some fancy new device.
Line ups formed before the 11am grand-opening of the new 22,000-sq.ft. Habitat for Humanity ReStore on Edinborough St. near Ouellette Ave. Saturday. Windsor-Essex is now home to one of the largest ReStores in Canada and the first on the planet to be built to suit Habitat's needs.
Executive Director Fiona Coughlin says the Innovation Centre, Skills Lab and Youth Mentorship Hub are one of kind, but residents lined up for deals on new and used building materials in support of affordable housing.
"They were enjoying that this new store is air conditioned, the last store wasn't. They were very patient. We were quite nervous with that crowd because we didn't want to have a Black Friday kind of craziness, but everybody was patient and calm and waited in line," she says
Coughlin says she the crowd shows how much support is out there.
"We're working together and we're going to address affordable housing. That can't be done alone, it's a group effort," she added.
She says she's looking forward to getting people into the new training area.
"One hundred and eighty-three youth that we trained last year and we'll be training a lot more in this space," says Coughlin.
She says the ReStore previously re-claimed more than 400,000 tons of material every year; the new building will put that number closer to 600,000 for 2019.
The restore is open Monday to Saturday at 9am.