After a week of gloomy rain, you are in search of a new place to explore in Riverside on a beautiful and sunny morning. Wandering aimlessly, you finally stumble upon one 13 minutes away from the heart of downtown. On the corner of Van Buren Boulevard and Magnolia Avenue is a lovely shop that combines both the enjoyment of a good bargain and the generous heart of philanthropy. Welcome to the Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center Thrift Store.
The Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center is a nonprofit organization that seeks to find homes for abandoned cats and dogs. Established in 1897, this association provides basic veterinary services (such as spaying, neutering, microchipping and vaccinations) and works with local shelters to protect pets from the euthanasia list. They also offer a foster program so that underage or recovering cats and dogs under their care have a safe and loving home even before they get adopted.
The thrift store, along with community donations, is what helps fund this adoption program. There are so many delightful items to purchase from this thrift store, and it is an added benefit that the proceeds from this shop are redirected to a good cause.
As soon as you walk in, the store’s neat and organized layout immediately stands out. Every section is clearly labeled so you can get a quick overview of the floorplan before stepping further into the shop. If you do not particularly care about where to start your exploration, you can simply follow the natural flow of the aisles as I did. You will pass festive displays as Christmas encroaches on Thanksgiving and you will then fully enter the housewares section. Here, they have everything from baking tins and martini glasses to ceramic dolls and engraved plates.
The next thing you will notice is that everything is incredibly affordable. General prices are listed in the aisles on large, easy-to-read laminated pieces of paper and specific prices are written on brightly colored stickers on the item itself. I didn’t see many items over $10 and if they were, the items in question were jackets or large appliances.
Pushing past the housewares, we get to the physical media section, my favorite part of the store. This area had an incredible selection of books, DVDs, CDs, cassettes and vinyls. The general prices for the books were 99 cents for paperbacks and $1.49 for hard covers, and the CDs were 50 cents unless otherwise stated. I ended up purchasing five books that, at any other store, would have totaled up to roughly $100. At the Mary S. Roberts Thrift Store, I only paid $4.46. This was the greatest bargain I had ever seen from a thrift store.
Once you step away from the physical media section, you can turn back to the front of the store where you’ll see rows and rows of clothes organized by color in a rainbow sequence. After all, a thrift store without clothes is not a thrift store.
At the top of each row is a box where you can place hangers and a laminated piece of paper stating the general prices. Each item had color coded tags that referred back to the piece of paper. For example, an article of clothing with a pink tag would be $5.99 as listed by the sign.
The prices for the clothes ranged from $4.99 to $9.99 with purple tags having specific prices not listed alongside the general ones. Within this selection, I was able to find an Ariana Grande “Thank U, Next” hoodie, a sweatshirt with characters from the anime “My Hero Academia” and a nice button up for summertime with cherry and flower designs. More generally, this selection of clothes had everything from graphic tees and loud patterned shirts to dresses, skirts and pants of various materials.
Finally, after exploring this lovely shop, you are ready to check out and step up to the register. Here, you are reminded once more of the cause this thrift store supports for, lovingly taped to the podium where the register sits, are all the cats and dogs that have been happily adopted through this program as well as a QR code that leads to pets who still need to find their forever home. It is a heartwarming sight to see as you leave the store.
The Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center Thrift Store is an adorable place to shop at that supports an incredible cause. If you ever need a respite from your busy school schedule and wish to help pets find the loving homes they deserve, come down to the corner of Van Buren Blvd and Magnolia Ave and spend the afternoon exploring the many offerings of this thrift store.
