HARRISVILLE, Utah — Deseret Industries is leaving Ogden, Utah next month after more than six decades for a new location in Harrisville, Utah.
The
Deseret Industries at 2048 Washington Blvd., which opened in the 1940s,
will have its final day of operation on Saturday, Sept. 19.
The new Deseret Industries, part of the Harrisville Welfare Center, will have its grand opening Sept. 24-25.
The
welfare center will be similar to new centers in Layton and Logan,
which are also both anchored by a Deseret Industries store.
The
new Harrisville store at 435 N. Wall Ave. is being stocked and
furnished and will be dedicated at 7 p.m. Sept. 23 by a member of the
Presiding Bishopric of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,
according to Paul Spackman, president of the church's Syracuse Stake
and agent stake president of the area's Deseret Industries.
"It's
gorgeous," Spackman said of the new facility during an advance tour.
It, like all new Deseret Industries, resembles more of a regular retail
store than a thrift outlet. "It's not embarrassing to go to the D.I.
(now)," he said.
While it won't be in downtown Ogden, he said he believes the new store will still be accessible to the community.
"We
might serve some different clientele, but we will have the same
clientele base," Spackman said, noting that the new store will be
slightly smaller than the old Ogden location.
With
a tight economy, he said, Mormon-owned Deseret Industries are busier than ever,
though they could use more public and corporate donations to meet that
higher need.
Although most may see
the store as offering inexpensive or mostly used merchandise, he said
it has another great purpose. It will employ 110 people and transform
lives by offering basic job-skill training to those in need.
"It's a training-for-life program," he said.
Mariann
Dillman, 37, from Eden, is one of the employees who is helping open the
new store. She said she had no self-esteem when she started working at
the Ogden Deseret Industries seven months ago. "I blossomed here and
went to school," she said.
Dillman,
who has a learning disability, said special-needs people can prosper
working at a D.I. Her proof is her high self-esteem now and that she is
nearing a nursing certification.
Spackman
said the Ogden Deseret Industries still has it own separate clothes and
merchandise. When it closes its doors, some of its leftovers will
bolster the Harrisville store, but most may end up in the LDS Church's
humanitarian-services program throughout the world.
The Ogden property will be retained by the church real estate arm, and its fate is unclear.
The
new Harrisville store will feature an express drop-off lane system for
donations. It also will continue to serve its usual community
partnerships, such as the one with the Red Cross.
The store's hours will be Monday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and closed on Sunday.
Besides
Deseret Industries, the Harrisville Welfare Center will have an LDS
Distribution Center, humanitarian room and LDS social-services office.
Another long-time Deseret Industries building, this one in Sugar House, could also be moving.
According
to minutes from the Aug. 5 Sugar House Community Council meeting, the
LDS Church is considering closing the DI at 2234 Highland Drive and
could move it a couple of blocks west to a former Circuit City store
site, now vacant, near 2100 S. and 700 East.
The church wants its store to remain in Sugar House, but plans are not finalized yet.
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com