VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Lisa Engelhardt owns JCOC Community Thrift in Virginia Beach. Now, she’ll be adding Second Chance Community Thrift to the family.
“There was a lot of cleaning because it’s like they stop, dropped, and left. So there was a lot of process to go through,” Engelhardt said.
She said several weeks ago, she got a call from the landlord asking if she’d be open to taking over the business.
Engelhardt said for her, it was a matter of paying it forward. Her business went through hard times during the pandemic and pulled through so she wanted to give Second Chance Thrift one last effort.
“Rather than have the community lose this wonderful icon of a business, we decided to take a chance and reopen it,” Engelhardt said.
Right now, she’s under a six-month lease to see if her team can get it back up and running.
She said she tried to get the old owners involved, but there were complications.
“If we can’t make it work between the end of summer, back to school, holiday season, and then through January, then we probably won’t be able to sustain the rent,” she stated.
Some of the profits from the store will now go from helping animals at the VBSPCA to helping people in the community.
“Everybody loves this thrift store. It’s one of the ones closest to us as far as same business model, family-owned. It’s really hard to see all that work disappear, so hopefully we can keep it going, keep their legacy going,” Engelhardt said.
Their official reopening date is Saturday, Aug. 15. Sky-high DJ will be there to play music.
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