Shopping space and social services for the poor in southwest Salt Lake are bigger by 50,000 square feet today with the opening of the new West Valley Deseret Industries store.
The single-story mostly brick building is the second Deseret Industries thrift store to open in the past two months and is among 10 total stores in the Salt Lake Valley. A 53,000-square-foot facility opened Aug. 23 in Murray. The chain's largest store — 65,000 square feet — is scheduled to open in Layton by the end of next year.
The stores are part of the LDS Church's expansion of welfare services and a new "all under one roof" approach, said Richard
McKenna, Deseret Industries director, prior to dedication ceremonies at the new building Wednesday evening.
Although the stores are considered a great place to shop by people from all walks of life, the primary focus of the thrift store effort remains helping people who need training and work skills, he said, noting that people who need job skills are specifically hired by Deseret Industries "to help them help themselves."
Deseret Industries, now with 43 outlets in seven Western states, is one of the largest thrift-store chains in the country, behind Goodwill and Savers stores. Deseret Industries began in 1938 when The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent two representatives to Los Angeles to study Goodwill Industries and determine how the church could create similar employment opportunities by operating thrift stores.
The building fits right in with the new private chain store outlets going in along 5600 West. "The location is by design," McKenna said, noting that the church is averaging about two new thrift stores a year.
The West Valley complex includes a store that doubles as a training facility for more than 100 people annually. It also has an employment center that will help an estimated 2,500 individuals each year. LDS Family Services is also housed there, offering counseling and adoption services.
The complex is part of the community partnership network of 26 charitable organizations in the Salt Lake area, including the state Division of Child and Family Services, the Hilda B. Jones Center, Magna F.A.C.T. battered women's facility and the Granite School District.
John Jewkes, a local church leader assigned to oversee the facility and help the needy in 36 LDS Church stakes in the area, said the new store was sorely needed.
"With a growing population comes a growing need for this kind of assistance," he said. "From an ecclesiastical point of view, I'm very glad we can offer this kind of assistance to people, especially in such a nice new building."
He also said the site is a great draw for volunteer workers, noting that hundreds of volunteers spent hundreds of hours putting shelving and clothes racks together.
A continuing volunteer need is in the Humanitarian Room, where volunteers can help local and international humanitarian relief operations by sorting the hundreds of thousands of pounds of clothing and other items donated to the center.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled at 9:45 a.m. today, after which the store will open for business.
E-mail: jthalman@desnews.com