Serving Montgomery County, MD since 1943

How to Become a Volunteer at the Shop

We want you!

If you are polite, diligent, customer-oriented, and have good English language facility and basic math skills (for writing up sales tickets), we'd love for you to volunteer at the Montgomery County Thrift Shop!  We welcome volunteers of all ages, including seniors and students meeting community service requirements.

We have a paid manager and shop assistant on duty each day, but all other work is done by volunteers.  Our five sponsoring agencies recruit and manage volunteers, in exchange for which the agencies receive the net profits from the shop's sales.  Volunteers typically work a single shift, for either the morning (9:30-1:00) or afternoon (1:00-4:00).  We ask volunteers to arrive at least 15 minutes before the start of the shift and to stay, if necessary, for 15 minutes after the end of the shift. 

The hours for volunteers working in the pricing room or in merchandising (see below) can be more flexible than for those working as cashiers or salespeople. 

All volunteers work under the supervision of the shop manager.

Volunteer duties can include:

• Clerk/Sales -- writing up sales tickets, wrapping or bagging sold items, assisting customers with questions about store merchandise.
• Cashier -- ringing up sales, taking payment from customers, and making change.
• Pricing -- sorting through donated items to screen out ones that can't be sold and putting prices on those going out into the shop.
• Merchandising -- arranging merchandise on shelves or racks to best display them for sale, removing damaged or worn items.

Choose the day of the week and time of day that works for you

A different agency organizes volunteers each day the shop is open.  Our proceeds are divided equally among our five agencies, but we expect each of them to supply a minimum number of volunteer hours each month in order to remain a member of the association. 

You can choose the day and shift (morning or afternoon) that is most convenient for you and you need not have any affiliation with the agency that organizes volunteers for that day.  You can also choose which agency will receive credit for your volunteer hours, regardless of which day you work.  While many of our volunteers work several days a month, you can work as few or as many days as you wish.  Also, as mentioned above, pricing and merchandising volunteers can work a more flexible schedule (as little as an hour or two) if that works best for you. 

If you would like to volunteer, please call the shop at 301-654-0063 and we'll put you in touch with the appropriate volunteer coordinator.

Send mail to MoCoThrift@aol.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: 2/16/2010