• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

RVA Mag

Richmond, VA Culture & Politics Since 2005

Menu RVA Mag Logo
  • community
  • MUSIC
  • ART
  • EAT DRINK
  • GAYRVA
  • POLITICS
  • PHOTO
  • EVENTS
  • MAGAZINE
RVA Mag Logo
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contributors
  • Sponsors

The VCU Free Store: Exactly What It Sounds Like

Jonah Schuhart | September 23, 2019

Topics: college, free store, goodwill, housing, Shopping, Student, student discounts, thrift, thrifting, vcu, vcu free store

The VCU Free Store isn’t large, but it still contains plenty of useful items, from books to kitchen appliances. And — if you’re a VCU student — it’s all free.

There may not be such a thing as a free lunch, but right now there could be such a thing as a free microwave that makes cheap lunches cheaper for VCU students. This is thanks to the new VCU Free Store — a sort of mini-Goodwill nestled in the back of the VCU Rambikes building on 201 North Belvidere Street.

The store contains everything from old vinyl records, school supplies, kitchen appliances, and (hopefully) unopened hygiene products donated from VCU students and local businesses. These items are available to any registered VCU student, faculty, or staff member, according to the VCU Office of Sustainability Website. There are also limitations on how many items customers can take from the store.

“The items in the Free Store are organized by a tier, and those tiers are based on the value of the items,” said VCU Director of Sustainability Erin Stanforth.

Photo by Brian McNeill, via VCU University Public Affairs

The tiers are numbered one through four. Items valued below $25 belong in tiers one and two, and customers are allowed to take multiple of these items each week. On the other hand, people can only have one tier three item per week, and are limited to a strict single tier four (any item valued above $50) item per semester.

The VCU Free Store tracks the amount of items each person takes by having customers fill out a form with their name and student or employee number (V-Number) before taking an item from the store. They also use this tracking system to keep tabs on what items people take and donate. Special store credit can be given to people who donate particular useful items. 

“Let’s say you brought me 15 textbooks and two mini-fridges, and you wanted a computer and a television,” said Stanforth. “It’s possible that we could give you credit towards higher-value items than you would normally have.”

Photo by Jonah Schuhart

Any person interested in donating an item just has to bring it to the Free Store and sign a donation waiver. The Free Store accepts donations from Monday to Friday between 8am and 5pm.

Stanforth came up with the idea for the Free Store in 2018. She and others noticed the amount of appliances students threw out in the West Grace Resident Halls while moving away.

“It took us about a year to really understand where all that stuff was collected, how we could mobilize… to move that stuff, and how much stuff we were really talking about,” said Stanforth.

After that, Stanforth and the Office of Sustainability — with help from VCU Residential Life and Housing and Goodwill — began collecting items from the West Grace resident Halls. For the first ten days of May 2019, students could donate items by dropping them in special bins, a system inspired by Goodwill’s own donation bins.

Photo by Jonah Schuhart

With those items, along with many more donated by Dominion Energy, Stanforth and the Office of Sustainability gathered more than enough items to open the VCU Free Store. The Free Store officially opened on August 19, and is now open twice a week, on Wednesdays from 10am to 5pm and Fridays from 10am to 1pm.

With the VCU Free Store, VCU’s Office Of Sustainability not only helps make VCU’s campus more sustainable by giving students’ unwanted leftovers somewhere to go besides the trash, it also helps newly-arriving students tackle the brave new world of student housing. Easing the college adjustment period while reducing and re-using products — what could be better?

Top Photo by Brian McNeill, via VCU University Public Affairs

Smart Sips featuring Sydney Lester of Chic Stripes at The Graduate

Joe Vanderhoff | March 9, 2018

Topics: Chic Stripes, fashion, Graduate Richmond, Shopping, The Graduate, Wardrobe, wine, Wisdom

Do you have a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear? Does the idea of shopping make you need a glass of wine STAT? Would you love to make getting dressed every morning easy and stress free (who doesn’t?)!?

Join us for WINE and WISDOM from Sydney Lester of @chicstripes and learn how to create a capsule wardrobe.

In this workshop you’ll learn how to:

*Curate a closet of staple, seasonless pieces that make getting dressed simple

*Identify which season -specific or trend items should (or shouldn’t) make their way into your closet

*Shop with intention to avoid impulse purchases (that often only get worn once!)

*Dress for your body type to choose pieces that are always flattering and make you feel like a 10

*Create multiple outfits from your capsule pieces, maximizing what you already own

*Find stores (consignment included!) that work for your budget, style, and lifestyle, making shopping easy, not a chore

You’ll walk away with:

*Sydney’s Essential Wardrobe Checklist

*Your own Personalized Shopping List

This workshop will teach you how to create a wardrobe that works for you, not against you!

Grab your girlfriends and enjoy a night out with wine + fashion! Tickets available via Eventbrite.

RVA Shows You Must See This Week: 11/11-11/17

Marilyn Drew Necci | November 11, 2015

Topics: 25 Watt, Atlas Bloom, Balliceaux, Book Of Wyrms, California Death, Clair Morgan, Dazeases, DJ Dead God, gallery 5, Hugh Wells, King Buffalo, Manic & The Depressives, Melt, Moving Units, Night Idea, No BS! Brass Band, Nude Photos Of Celebrities, Plain Scrap, Priests, Reconciled World, Sacred Teachers, Shopping, shows you must see, shy low, strange matter, The Mold, The Nervous Ticks, Those Manic Seas, Toxic Moxie, Ultra Flake

FEATURE SHOW
Friday, November 13, 9 PM
Shy Low, Night Idea, Clair Morgan @ Strange Matter – $7

Let us once again celebrate the breadth and diversity of the RVA music scene.
[Read more…] about RVA Shows You Must See This Week: 11/11-11/17

sidebar

sidebar-alt

Copyright © 2021 · RVA Magazine on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Close

    Event Details

    Please fill out the form below to suggest an event to us. We will get back to you with further information.


    OR Free Event

    CONTACT: [email protected]