Over its 39 years of operations the Mission-based used goods purveyor Community Thrift Store had never missed a payment to the numerous San Francisco nonprofits it helps support.
That is until last year. The business run as a nonprofit was upended by the COVID-19 pandemic just as its for-profit retail counterparts were during much of 2020.
With San Francisco officials ordering nonessential businesses to shutter at the start of the health crisis, Community Thrift shut its doors at 623 Valencia Street mid-day March 16 and remained closed until early June.
It reopened for curbside shopping on June 12, 2020 in the middle of Pride Month, a fitting return for an operation begun as a way to raise money to support local HIV and AIDS service