Newly opened op shop Good Finds provides a chance for workers to learn retail skills while customers snag a bargain. Photo: Yumaro Facebook.
The racks at Moruya’s newest op shop offer more than preloved items.
Good Finds is a social enterprise run by disability support organisation Yumaro, which employs around 100 people with a disability across two sites in Moruya and Ulladulla.
For Moruya resident Farrah, one of the people supported by Yumaro, the shop represents more than a new job.
“It will probably make me a bit more independent and make me more involved in my community and more up to date [in community life],” she said.
The newly opened store is set to expand its staff in the coming weeks, with Farrah keen to join the roster.
“I’d like to work with customers, serving customers, and I’d also like to learn the till,” she said.
“I like getting to know people and their background, their stories. Everyone has a story, so I can’t wait.”
CEO Mark Brantingham said the store would sit alongside other retail outlets in town, where there were limited secondhand options.
“There was a real gap in the marketplace that this shop fulfils, just from a commercial point of view,” he said.
“We’ve only got the one op shop [in Moruya]. From that point of view, there was clearly a need, but one of the other aims [of the initiative] is that people get trained up to potentially go and work in the local businesses around us.”
At Good Finds, participants can take on activities such as sorting donations, pricing them or working the register, with a focus on training up school leavers as they transition into the workplace.
“The aim of this enterprise was to provide a bit of a springboard for people with disabilities into getting retail skills and then being able to use those retail skills in ongoing work,” Mr Brantingham said.
“[This could be] in the Good Finds shop, or we would help them get work in a local business like Woolworths or Bunnings. They may even take those skills and work in another one of Yumaro’s social enterprises.
“We saw it as a bit of a gap, where we wanted to be able to offer that type of work and that type of training,” he said.
Mr Brantingham said that while the op shop was established as a temporary pop-up store, there was work being done to make sure Good Finds – and their good vibes – didn’t leave Moruya.
“We are feeling very positive that it’ll be an ongoing initiative,” he said.
“It’s just that we need to do our due diligence, and it also needs to be approved by our board. That’s something that we’ll all consider in the next few weeks.”
Yumaro’s Moruya office is located at 6-8 Shelley Road, Moruya Industrial Estate, Moruya.
Good Finds is located at Shop 5/60 Queen Street, Moruya. The shop is open Tuesday to Friday (10 am to 4:30 pm) and on Saturday (9 am to 1 pm).
