The ball is rolling at Society of Saint Vincent de Paul locations across Windsor-Essex to get the stores back in operation.
The Society's Windsor-Essex Central Council General Manager, Rosanne Winger, says the store on Lauzon Road will be the first to reopen Thursday morning at 10 a.m..
Winger says it's going to be a phased in approach to get all five locations open.
"We have all our plexiglass in place, we have our PPE, we have our social distancing signs, reduced hours, so that we can come in early and sanitize the store every day prior to opening it up for customers," she says. "The next store will be our Essex store, which is also a larger format store, so there's more room for customers in it."
Winger says all drop-off depots and donation bins are still closed.
"I know people have been holding on to their stuff and donations are like gold to us. That's how we run our stores and that's how we raise our money for our charities. So we're working really hard to get all that in place, but we want the person who is bringing the donations to be safe and we want our staff to be safe," she says.
Winger says staff and customers are excited to get back.
"There's lots of cars in the parking lot because we're here getting things ready. So everyday someone is coming to the door and they're hoping we're open or they're trying to bring in their donations. So people are pretty excited and we're at a time when I think everyone is getting a little stir crazy. I think we're all like that. The staff were kind of excited to come back to work," she says.
Winger says the goal is to reopen one store per week and get donation boxes up and running within the next two weeks.
CLICK HERE to find the latest information on on the Society's website.
- With files from AM800's Rob Hindi