6 things you should know about the Charlotte region’s most popular thrift shop

A popular Charlotte thrift store with a playful name has a serious mission.

The WearHouse thrift store at 127 Stetson Drive in Charlotte is part of Camino, a bilingual and multicultural nonprofit that offers holistic care to the underinsured and uninsured. It also provides crisis assistance such as free sleeping bags and clothing to people with immediate needs, Camino spokeswoman Paola Garcia said.

Donations and purchases at the store help Charlotte’s Latino immigrant community.

“Money from The WearHouse gets recycled back into the Charlotte community,” Garcia said. “So not only when you shop at The WearHouse do you look good, but you feel good.”

Last month, The WearHouse was crowned as the best thrift shop in the Charlotte region in The Charlotte Observer’s 2022 Reader’s Choice contest. That contest started with 16 stores, all chosen by readers.

Not only is it apparent people enjoy thrifting, but they really like The WearHouse. Overall, there were more than 644,230 votes during the 12-day contest with 73% cast in the final round with The WearHouse vs. Matthews Help Center & Backporch Treasures Thrift Shop. People were allowed to vote multiple times.

Spotlighting thrift shops also helped to put the focus on the charities that some of them support, as well as where to donate or shop for secondhand goods.

All about The WearHouse And Camino

Here are six things to know about Camino and The WearHouse:

1. Rusty Price founded Camino 20 years ago as a health care clinic. Now there are four service areas: primary and pediatric care, behavioral health, education and food. There’s also a socially mobility program and research institute that’s data driven, ensuring all the programs and services by Camino are needed by the community. Last year, Camino served 9,342 people.

2. The WearHouse opened in 2005. “Back then it was just a closet and people could fill up a bag for $5,” Garcia said. Two years later, the thrift store, then called Camino Thrift Store, moved into what is now the Camino wellness center.

It had inconsistent hours and was run by volunteers until February 2007, when Jill Price was hired to manage the store. In her first week, the store made $2,000 in sales. “That was 17% of the previous year’s entire annual profit,” Garcia said.

Two years ago, the store moved into its approximately 4,800-square-foot Stetson Drive site and was renamed The WearHouse. “We wanted the name to be reflective of the building, which were old warehouses donated to us, but we wanted to give it a spin because people come to buy clothes they can wear,” Garcia said.

Along with Price, there are two paid workers, plus volunteers. Last year, 16 volunteers donated 191 hours to the store.

3. Last year, The WearHouse had 11,665 transactions, and gave away $5,500 worth of clothing and items to 300 people in crisis.

4. The nonprofits key demographic is Latino. “We are a fully bilingual thrift store,” Garcia said. “We have a lot of people from the Spanish population come to the warehouse to buy clothing to send back to their families in South America.”

5. There are no specific times to make donations, but drop-offs are preferred during store hours: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday.

6. Camino’s next big goal is to open a university, which could eventually include a Charlotte campus. “It’s still in development stages,” Garcia said.