Okay, are you ready to be mildly amused and maybe a bit surprised?
While there are only 365 days in one year (366 in leap years), there are more than 1,500 national days observed in the United States.
You read that right: 1,500, or an average of about four national days every day.
For example:
- National Cream Puff Day (Yum.)
- National Toothache Day (Sounds like a fun one; much needed after all the cream puffs.)
- National Big Wind Day (Hold on to your hat.)
- National Earmuff Day (To protect your ears from all of that big wind.)
- National Backward Day (.drawrof ton yletinifeD)
From cream puffs to earmuffs, it all seems so frivolous. But not so fast.
Many of these national days, such as federal holidays and others introduced to, or designated by, the U.S. Congress, have substance. A few include National Cancer Survivors Day, Feed America Thursday, National Children’s Day, National Hunger Awareness Day, National Mammography Day, and many more.
But national days that don’t make it to Congress also can be substantive. Even National Thrift Shop Day.
What? National Thrift Shop Day? Yes. It’s a thing, and it’s important.
Observed on August 17, National Thrift Shop Day, sometimes called National Thrift Store Day, is not an official day. In fact, it doesn’t even have a traceable origin, which means some thrift-store owner somewhere on Earth probably just made it up.
Why is it so important then?
Most thrift stores, including those run by Father Joe’s Villages, are social enterprises, not commercial ones. That means they’re in business to make money for the community, not to make executives and shareholders wealthy.
In our case, Father Joe’s makes money to support the sole mission of preventing and ending homelessness in San Diego. When you buy pre-owned goods from our physical and online stores and auctions, you not only support that crucial mission but also save money.
Specifically, today only, all yellow-tagged items in our Hillcrest, Chula Vista, Imperial Beach, and El Cajon stores are only $1.00. And when you shop on our online store this month, you’ll save 25% off all products (code SAVE25), get free shipping, and pay zero sales tax.
And just as important, buying pre-owned goods supports environmental sustainability.
So in celebration of National Thrift Shop Day, please visit one of our stores or shop.neighbor.org, and we’ll see you there. Thank you so much for helping us achieve our mission. We literally can’t do it without you.
