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Over the past year, AfH Boston has partnered with Boomerangs Thrift Store operation, a local community-based nonprofit organization, to renovate and revitalize their flagship store. The flagship Boomerangs store has been in poor physical condition and in desperate need of an overhaul; it is also in an ideal position to benefit from such improvements. Our project is to help the store to operate in a cleaner, more organized, more efficient space all around. To do so, we have worked collaboratively with the staff to guide them through the renovation process over the past year. Now, the project has reached a critical point: construction moved ahead on the most basic elements of the renovation, but without additional funding the most innovative and high impact elements of the proposed designs will not be implemented. Adequate funding would have an immediate, marked, and lasting impact for our nonprofit partner, enhancing the store substantially and thus helping to ensure the sustainability of its parent nonprofit for years to come. The lighting renovations we propose would create a more attractive, functional, and secure store environment. The improvements would make the store more profitable, allow a better experience for its customers, and collect greater proceeds to be channeled directly into HIV/AIDS-related services for our community. Background: Located in the Jamaica Plain (JP) neighborhood of Boston, Boomerangs is a busy and popular thrift store that provides an important source of revenue for the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, which provides comprehensive services and advocacy to address HIV/AIDS across the state. The store also makes available low-cost and high-quality basic goods to a very diverse neighborhood and larger community in Jamaica Plain. JP is a socioeconomically, racially, and ethnically diverse neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boomerangs JP store is a key element ensuring the sustainability and independence of the nonprofit it supports. While continuing to operate at a high volume, the original flagship thrift store (Boomerangs JP) has fallen into poor physical condition and has been in need of an overhaul. Narrow aisles and poor lighting creates a challenging shopping experience. Inefficient and cramped store layout restricts the movement of shoppers and the visibility and accessibility of goods. Passing in many aisles is nearly impossible, while many goods are placed out of reach. The cramped nature of the store has created a bottleneck, limiting the flow of donated goods while also allowing petty theft to become an increasing problem. The staff has been very industrious about their store: the sheer volume of goods displayed is impressive, and patchwork solutions to problems have kept the store functioning. However, crumbling ceiling tiles, peeling paint, taped power cords, ripped carpet, leaning shelves, and discoloration suggest that a larger overhaul is required, and the store by itself could not undertake such a project. The building's interior issues have kept the thrift store from sustaining and growing its profitability, despite its great popularity and high volume of sales. Budgets have become tight to the point where even a closure of one weekend could jeopardize the flow of income. This was particularly as a result of the bad snow this past winter in Boston, which caused a substantial drop in sales. Facing cuts in funding from its donors, like many nonprofits over the past several years, the AIDS Action Committee already has taken innovative and creative steps to restructure and make its funds stretch. As its most independent funding source and flagship store, Boomerangs JP is well placed to help fill the gap. Boomerangs JP has the ideal circumstances to take advantage of a major renovation: its staff and volunteers are a dedicated force able to expand their capacity, and also to contribute manpower to the renovation effort. The store is already a beloved local fixture, located centrally on the main street, at the heart of a proud and thriving neighborhood, one recovering from decades of decline and stagnation. Innovative renovation of the Boomerangs JP store would undoubtedly result in an even more popular and profitable enterprise, allowing the AIDS Action Committee to provide more robust and sustained services to its clients. Renovation Proposed and Approved In mid-2010, in light of the store's physical challenges, the AIDS Action Committee Board was able to obtain a grant for the Boomerangs JP store and allocated approximately $15,000 to renovate the store, a feat for an organization facing a especially tight budget. With the staff not sure where to go next, AfH Boston was asked to step in and guide the process. We have worked closely with Boomerangs management to brainstorm, design, and propose plans for renovation. The plans for renovations, based on AfH design proposals, were approved by the board earlier this year. From those plans, some proposed design elements were handpicked to meet the limited budget available. Phase I of Renovation Just last month, in July, construction moved ahead on these basic elements of the renovation, utilizing a combination of local contractors, store staff, and volunteers. Local contractors with a longstanding relationship with Boomerangs were brought in to manage the renovations, creating an added benefit of supporting another local business. Boomerang staff and volunteers are working alongside them. To allow this process to move forward, the store was closed for ten days. Goods were sold off in mass, donations paused, and remaining goods removed temporarily. The objectives were to replace the ceiling tiles, remove old carpeting, finish the concrete floors (in the back of the store), install finished plywood floors in the front section, repaint the walls, and replace interior signage. Also, a new exterior sign was affixed to the storefront, and one of the front street-facing windows will be opened up to allow passersby to see into the store (to become more of a window into the store, rather than a display). A new store layout began to incorporate AfHB suggestions to better display and organize products, streamline customer flow, increase browsing and sales efficiency, attract more customers, and prevent theft. These aspects of the renovation meet the minimum standard of what the store needs to overhaul to improve the functionality and aesthetics of the store: a facelift. Proposed Phase II of Renovation Without additional funding, the Boomerangs JP store will not be able to incorporate more than the most basic of renovations proposed. Due solely to the limited funds available for renovation, a set of additional desired design elements were eliminated. This included many of the more innovative design elements -- namely, new lighting -- that would noticeably improve the shopping experience. Poor lighting is the biggest remaining concern for Boomerangs JP. Fluorescent lights currently line the store, which is long and narrow, with drop ceilings and a lack of sunlight, contributing to what staff identified as a "basement feel". The shape also makes it "difficult to maintain a space that is accessible and easy to shop while still displaying our myriad merchandise. There is a flow problem at the entryway of the store - you do not get an immediate sense of how big the store is and it seems very cramped so sometimes people leave before making it past the first 10 feet of the store." While we did the best we could to propose alternate layouts, improvements in lighting would go far in addressing these problems. The larger vision of our collaborative Boomerangs-AfH team was to make the front of the Boomerangs JP store resemble more of boutique. While our store is the original and flagship enterprise, the three offshoot stores in other parts of Boston incorporated a number of boutique aesthetic in their interior designs, with great results. If we are able to secure additional funds, the store still shows considerable potential for improvement. Further renovations would have a large impact on store performance, which would then raise further funds for the AIDS Action Committee, currently facing a financial pinch. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: AIDS Action Committee http://www.aac.org/ Boomerangs Thrift Stores http://www.aac.org/site/PageServer?pagename=boom_home What is Boomerangs? Boomerangs is AIDS Action Committee’s award winning thrift store operation which provides critical funding for the work we do to prevent the spread of new HIV infections and to improve the lives of thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS in Massachusetts. Its family of stores feature a wide array of high quality new, vintage and gently-loved merchandise, including women's and men's clothing, books, house wares, electronics and furniture. At Boomerangs, all the merchandise has been donated, either from corporate supporters or from individual donors. Founded in 1983, AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, Inc. (AAC), is New England’s first and largest AIDS service organization. AAC’s mission is to stop the epidemic and related health inequities by eliminating new infections, maximizing healthier outcomes of those infected and at risk, and attacking the root causes of HIV/AIDS. AAC accomplishes this mission by providing services for men, women, and children living with AIDS and HIV; educating the public and health professionals about how to prevent HIV transmission in accordance with harm reduction principles; and advocating for fair and effective AIDS policy at the city, state, and federal levels. AAC also provides targeted outreach to those most vulnerable to HIV infection. Boomerangs is a quickly growing enterprise. As of 2009, the retail operation grew revenues by almost $150,000, up 13.6% from the prior year. This operation now represents over 16% of AAC’s total revenue as an agency. The profit margins have also been improving steadily, with low overhead rates well within the benchmark range for top performing not-for-profits. A big element of Boomerangs’ success is the donations received. In kind contributions are well above $500,000, now representing 5% of revenue. Also, the valuation of donated time by volunteers has grown to close to one million dollars. In addition to its revenue success, the store was also voted Best Thrift Store by the readers of the Boston Phoenix Newspaper, and Best Retail Store by the readers of the Jamaica Plain Gazette. It has received an impressive average of 4 out of 5 stars on Yelp, a popular online review website, including many 5-star reviews: http://www.yelp.com/biz/boomerangs-jamaica-plain