"The Thrifty Quaker"
Midlothian, Virginia

Midlothian Meeting is a lively group in this suburb of Richmond, Virgina. They have a number of interesting projects going; but the one which caught the eye of the Quaker G.O.P. is The Thrifty Quaker, a thrift store they started.

There's no photos of the store online yet (as of Fourth Month, 2002), but Midlothian does have a very interesting and extensive website. And on this website there is some intriguing and affecting material about "the Thrifty Quaker."  It's evidently quite a going concern. Here's a sample:

" The Thrifty Quaker donates each month’s proceeds after
expenses to charitable causes.
Since its founding in 1996, The Thrifty Quaker has
given away more than $52,000 in cash and $750,000
in goods to charities."

        ---Midlothian Meeting newsletter

    When I found this, my first thought was: What a concept!

   Then my second thought was: Duh!

    After all, the Mennonites are about sixty years ahead of us on this front (as on some others). They operate a whole chain of thrift stores, with the proceeds going to various relief and development projects.
    And for that matter, lots of other churches do the same things, from Catholics with their St. Vincent de Paul shops, to the Salvation Army, to all kinds of gospel missions. How many times have I shopped in these other denominations' stores? (Short answer; Lots.) So do they work as outreach efforts? (Short answer: Yes.)

   So a big THANKS to Midlothian Friends for being way out in front of other Friends groups.

   AND for bringing us one step closer to catching up with most everybody else . . . .

There's an excellent article about the Thrifty Quaker in its November, 2001 newsletter.
To read it, go to Midlothian's newsletter page. Then scroll down and click on "November 2001."
     This newsletter is a .pdf file, so you'll need the Acrobat reader to read it.

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