Re: The Treasure Trunk

Jul 17, 2014

There are some real gem items to be found at The Treasure Trunk in Sharbot Lake. The store is a gift to the community, as it takes in unwanted items or unsold yard sale offerings and sells them to others who are in need of a bargain. From the deals the store gives on its items to the gifting it does itself to the community in return (proceeds benefit Community Living), it would be hard to find a better, more mutually beneficial consumer model in any community. The one feature of the Treasure Trunk that residents and visitors alike enjoy, and that is an obvious draw to go into the store itself, is the "free table." The free table sits outside the Treasure Trunk and hosts a variety of items that have gone unsold inside the store for a long time; anyone is welcome to sift through the items on the table and retrieve anything they find useful, saving a lot of these items from going to our local landfill sites. Recently the free table disappeared from The Treasure Trunk, and this is a serious loss to the community at large.

Everyone, from those that donate, to the people that visit just for the freebies on the table, will agree that the free table is a service to both visitors to the store and to the township. No one wants to see good, useful items land in the dump. The free table was the last stop for such items before heading to the landfill and it should be reinstated. The Treasure Trunk staff work hard to turn one person's trash into another's treasures, and attracting customers is a concern to this out of the way store. Without the free table the Treasure Trunk itself may experience a decline in visitors, and donations, which would lessen the positive impact of the store on the community. I urge whoever made the decision to remove the free table to consider these effects, and put the table back where it belongs in our community.

Megan Hughes