Terri Blessing sorts her way through rows of knickknacks, racks of clothes and furniture as she strolls around Show Love Thrift.
“There’s never a dull moment here,” she said, smiling as she walks down the aisles and helps customers who are browsing in her secondhand shop.
“We are here to help people in need, to show kindness, show compassion, show patience and show love.”— Terri Blessing, owner of Show Love Thrift
Filled with people’s once prized possessions, the store has been at 1405 Park Ave. in Chico for more than a decade. Now, it’s the last day to clear everything out before Show Love is forced to move to a new location.
“We are here to help people in need," Blessing said, “to show kindness, show compassion, show patience and show love."
The relocation of the store comes after the Chico City Council in April approved a new cannabis dispensary called Cloud Chaser. The dispensary will be in the Holbrook’s Clearance Center furniture store across the street. Show Love will be demolished and become the dispensary’s parking lot due to a city code requiring the dispensary have more off-street parking than the Holbrook’s site provided.
"I was quite shocked, after 12 years of being here, I [thought I] would have been given more notice," Blessing said. “I was upset by that.”
Her landlord informed her this past January of the sale of the thrift shop and Holbrook’s.
"It's important to let the public know, in this city, how difficult it is to truly have a thrift store in your area if it's not corporate. I was shocked that people didn't want a thrift store on their block next door to their businesses.”— Terri Blessing, owner of Show Love Thrift
"After I took a day or two to process it, I just decided it was most important to look at it as a new journey," Blessing said. “Then [I] got excited about looking for a new building thinking it wouldn't be an issue at all to find a building to lease. Oh, was I wrong.”
Blessing was originally given 90 days to relocate her store. She later got an extension, but even with it, her search for a new location has been challenging. Her path toward a new storefront has been met with many obstacles she said, including rejection, concern and intolerance.
"It's important to let the public know, in this city, how difficult it is to truly have a thrift store in your area if it's not corporate," Blessing said. "I was shocked that people didn't want a thrift store on their block next door to their businesses.”
Barriers Blessing encountered from owners included them not wanting items placed outside her store, or her having bins of free items.
“There's a first grade school teacher that used to shop in our free bins for t-shirts because she taught her kids how to make rag rugs,” Blessing said. “Another lady, we would put chipped ceramic ware or porcelain in our free bins, she would take it, and she'd break it up, and she does mosaic artwork on bowling balls. That's her second job to make an income.”
The idea for the free bins came from her son, who, while at school in Arcata, would frequent thrift stores and saw free outside sections.
"A thrift store is about giving, helping people in need,” Blessing said. "It was hard to find a business owner or a person that owned a building that understood what we were about and opened their doors to us that way."
Another reason for the difficulty is her choice of paint color for Show Love. Currently, the store has different colored stripes that form a rainbow on one side of the building.
"I felt a little bit of discrimination, I'll be honest," she said. "I had that rainbow wall painted by some volunteers to work off traffic fines, and I just love bright colors.”
Despite the trials and tribulations, Blessing said running her very own thrift shop has always been in the cards.
“I just feel like it's where I'm supposed to be, I felt it when we were cleaning and first took over,” Blessing said. “Different signs from the universe told me that this is exactly where I'm supposed to be, ‘till I drop dead.”
Blessing said when she started her store it was important to her that people from all walks of life be treated well, a decorum she felt many other thrift shops had shifted away from over the years.
"They were just a little bit too structured. 'I'm sorry, the manager’s not here and I can't help you,’” Blessing said. "When you clearly could see that [the person] needed a pair of shoes or a hat because it's 100 degrees out. Not kind enough."
Show Love has been able to lend a hand to various homeless assistance organizations in Chico, including The Jesus Center, Chico Housing Action Team (CHAT), The Torres Community Shelter and the Esplanade House. Blessing calls it the circle of love.
"We're a big part of them. They help get people off the street and into housing,” she said. “They’ll call us up and say, Terri, we need two dressers and some bedding, and I say come on over, we got it."
As of Thursday, the store had secured a new location on West Fifth Street. Blessing hopes it offers the same safe space and welcoming environment as the one she’s been able to serve the community at for so many years.
"It's absolutely essential in the times that we live now,” she said. "But even if some miracle happened, and rents went down, and food prices went down, I still would do it."
