Doing more with less at East End Community Thrift

Between Winebiddle and Evaline streets on Penn Avenue sits the East End Community Thrift, a volunteer-run shop that has been selling dishes, clothing and winter coats since 1993.

The thrift store closed for most of the spring and summer, even after state guidelines permitted reopening. Volunteers needed time to clean and organize donations that hadn’t stopped coming in even when shopping was off-limits.

When it did reopen, store manager Shawna Hammond could tell by the steady stream of regular customers, often those who live in the neighborhood and stop by two or three times a week, that they were glad to have it back.

“They want somebody to talk to.”

The thrift store is run by the neighboring Thomas Merton Center, a social justice organization. The store is funded primarily through donations and other fundraisers, which has become more challenging amid a pandemic, said executive director Gabriel McMorland.

It has only raised prices one time in its history — from $1 to $2. 

Getting the design team off the bench at Imagebox

The design team at Imagebox, a marketing and web services company, has been “sitting half on the bench” throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, said founder John Mahood.

The developers, on the other hand, are working double. “We say ‘yes’ to everything,” Mr. Mahood said. “All these little things that maybe in non-COVID days I might have said, ‘oh, heck, no’ … Now, we’re absolutely here to help.”

In October, the company was balancing about 150 projects — up from the 80 or so a normal workload would entail. Because the projects were smaller than usual, profits were still low.

Most clients moved away from the print products, leaving the designers on staff with little to do.

In March, Mr. Mahood applied for federal PPP funding. He credits the loans for keeping the designers on staff, using that time to teach them new skills in web design and other training. “As the world opens back up, we’re going to be able to do all the great things we were able to do pre-COVID but also we’ve picked up a ton of new skills,” he said.

And he and his 14 employees will probably continue working from home, at least part of the time, eliminating any need to expand the space.

“Do we have to invest half a million dollars to put a building in the back?” he said. “Now, we invest $15 a month in another Zoom account.”

Grilled cheese from LA and donations from 412 Food Rescue

Everyday’s a Sunday, a breakfast and lunch cafe, has doubled as a pick-up spot for people in need of food for the last two years. The restaurant collects food donated to 412 Food Rescue, a local nonprofit, and turns it into Sunday dinners and other meals for families.

The restaurant didn’t get involved in the work because of COVID, but owner and chef Natalie DeiCas said the number of people in need and the number of donations has continued to go up since the virus hit.

“It’s devastating just to see families not be able to eat,” she said. “But it’s wonderful to be able to provide them food.”

At Everyday’s a Sunday, Ms. DeiCas said the restaurant had to let two employees go from the eight-person team and has watched orders and revenue fluctuate since March. At first, it felt like they were one of the only restaurants still open for takeout, so the orders kept rolling in. Later, as other restaurants came online, revenue dipped.

The cafe is partnering with other virtual restaurants, what Ms. DeiCas called “ghost restaurants,” from Los Angeles to roll out their menu ideas to Pittsburgh customers. The LA restaurant gets a cut of the profits and Everyday’s a Sunday gets some new dishes, from cheesesteaks to breakfast burritos to grilled cheese.

Ms. DeiCas didn’t apply for the first round of funding from the Paycheck Protection Program. This time around, she plans to fill out an application.

Piping hot decisions from Bantha Tea Bar

At Bantha Tea Bar, COVID-19 had been affecting operations long before Pennsylvania mandated business shutdowns.

Most of the tea that stocks the shelves comes from India and China, said co-owner Jack Ball. So when the virus started affecting manufacturing in China, it delayed the tea shipments. As international travel slowed, the tea ended up stuck in one country or another.

“It’s going to be a long time before it gets back to normalcy,” he said.

At Bantha, which opened in 2015, Mr. Ball said the shop feels the loss of the different types of customers it served: nonprofits that gathered for meetings, “laptop campers” who set up a workstation and stayed for hours, and out-of-towners who found the store online and wanted to check it out in person.

Now Mr. Ball finds people like to come in, experience the teas and then go outside to settle in at an outdoor table or take the mug on a walk through the nearby cemetery.

Bantha started offering a “tea of the month” subscription service in November, partnered with a local restaurant to offer deals on takeout meals and rented space to the neighboring bike shop.

Mr. Ball has had to do some rearranging, sometimes paying vendors late or apologizing when he can’t make the usual orders. Bantha’s co-owner owns the building and has temporarily paused rent payments.

Mr. Ball is optimistic the spring will come with some loosened restrictions.

“If we can go back up then, then that’s fine, it’ll be OK,” he said. “But if there’s another shutdown and nonessential businesses and all that, it’ll be really difficult.”

Lauren Rosenblatt: lrosenblatt@post-gazette.com