A Diamond in the Rummage

Winnetka Congregational Church Rummage

winnetkacongregationalchurch.org

North Shore church rummage sales are more than just figurines and gently worn clothes. They are a reflection of changing times, post-pandemic.

Since 1902, except for two world wars and two years of social distancing during COVID-19, Winnetka Congregational Church (WCC) has raised millions of dollars for local charities. Similarly, Christ Church in Winnetka gives away the $300,000 it nets annually in small benevolence grants to nonprofits.

Furniture to fur coats, hardware to holiday goods, computers to cookware, these charity sales have more than 20 different departments, from new or gently-used kids,’ teens’ and adult clothing to designer wear, shoes, fashion accessories, housewares, furniture, rugs, lamps, sporting goods, toys, books, pictures, linens, jewelry and more. WCC has its big sale in the spring and a smaller one in the fall (see listing page 13). Christ Church is the reverse: a big sale in the fall and a smaller spring event.

The motto, according to the WCC website, is “giving what we have, to do what we can, for people who need it most.”

The church community benefits, too. Christ Church says on its website. “Serving together to offer quality merchandise to those in need at affordable prices – and then to give all the proceeds away – deeply connects us in faith, service, fellowship and community. Lifelong relationships are made while volunteering for Rummage.”

But the model may be changing, says Susan O’Connor, the director of North Shore Chicago Rummage, who coordinates with suburban churches to find out if they are having sales and then does the social media posts and the website that lists them.

“2019 was only four years ago. We had 24 sales. There was an order to it,” O’Connor said in a telephone interview. “The pandemic just blew it all up. This year, there are eight sales on our calendar. We’ve dropped by two-thirds. The two-year hiatus totally derailed Rummage as it used to operate.”

She cites various reasons: an aging pool of volunteers, the Highland Park Independence Day parade where a sniper killed seven people and injured 48, church consolidation, social media, the monetization of everything.

“The rummage world is reflecting what’s happening in our country and in our community in general,” she said. The decreased number of rummage sales across Chicago is con-firmed by StreetWise research on Yelp, backed up by phone calls and emails.

A Christ Church Winnetka volunteer

christchurchwinnetka. org

Well over half of rummage sale volunteers are seniors, and some of them are in assisted living facilities. O’Connor knows of 10 people who died early in the pandemic, before there were vaccines. Many are now wary of coming back to crowded settings, where people may not have been inoculated.

Setting up for rummage sales is a disruption of church space and some clergy liked the two years of peace during the pandemic. Now, they have nixed more sales. Roman Catholic parishes in the archdiocese of Chicago are being forced to consolidate, and one new merged church discontinued rummage.

Three churches – Roman Catholic, Episcopal and Presbyterian – typically cooperated to host a weekend sale in Highland Park, but volunteers at one church had dwindled due to aging and death. And in the aftermath of the Independence Day shooting, everything in the crime zone was shut down for two months. Highland Park Presbyterian was the only church outside the crime zone, and it was needed for support meetings and mental health counseling, so that the sale was pushed farther out.

“The vibe in Highland Park is so different now,” O’Connor said. “People are paranoid about being where there are more than five people.”

There’s also a reduced supply of donated sale items, for two reasons. Several drop-off donation sites have opened that are targeted to refugees: first Afghans, then Ukrainians, and now undocumented people bused here from Texas. Changing values, in addition, means it’s no longer taboo to have a yard sale or estate sale.

“It used to be looked upon that you must be suffering financial difficulties, to be trying to raise money,” O’Connor said.

Instead, immigrants and North Shore folks alike – even occasional rummage sale volunteers – have become rummage buyers and re-sellers. The way you can tell, she said, is people who buy a size 10 for themselves, and then load up on random things for $5 or $10 a bag at the end of the day. There are also people who squirrel things away in the hope they can pick them up cheaper late in the day.

Volunteers have become hip to the trick. Sweeping through one church before slashing prices, they found items hidden under the lid of a grand piano.

“Many are coming with the principal intent to flip what they are buying.” They scan barcodes as they shop and check prices on eBay, Poshmark and thredUP. Last spring, a man walked out of one sale’s high-end clothing room, bragging that he had already posted 10 items – and sold four of them.

And a student at New Trier High School stopped by at 7 a.m. before classes, then went on Instagram and made $1,000.

Yes, social media has enabled rummage re-sellers to create new careers, but it has changed the nature of the faith-based markets from their original purpose of giving low-cost items to people who couldn’t otherwise afford them. O’Connor worries about how to reach homeless people who have been in Chicago for years, and others who may have trouble even paying their utility bills.

“I have a very conflicted feeling. I believe wholeheartedly in rummage and recycling. Yes, there are people who come and who are in need, and we make them happy. But it is tilting in the other direction. We are going to have to see how sustainable it is in the long term.”

One of many stops at Ravenswood Manor Garage Sale

Ravenswood Manor Improvement Association Facebook

by Suzanne Hanney