My Biz: A store where little treasures add up

Name: Janet Engle

Title: Manager

Company: Treasures Quality Resale Shoppe

Address:  701 Center Point Rd. NE, Cedar Rapids

Phone: (319) 364-1988

Website: www.treasurescr.com

Elevator speech: “Clothing and decor at reasonable prices.”

CEDAR RAPIDS - Last year, Treasures Quality Resale Shoppe in Cedar Rapids tallied $90,000 in sales.

“What blows my mind is, when you stop to think that the average price of an item in our store is $4, you realize that is a lot of stuff,” said Janet Engle, the new manager of Treasures.

Engle came to the job after years following many paths - including retail.

“Ever since I was a teenager up until my mid-20s when I had my children, I worked in retail,” she said.

Engle - born and raised in Marion - managed a store owned by her father-in-law in downtown Marion. Engle's Fashion Corner is where she discovered what she deemed the “fun” of retail, from designing the look of the store to helping decide what to display.

“That's probably why I'm rearranging things all the time now,” she admitted.

In her early 30s, Engle went back to school and received a marketing degree from Kirkwood Community College but spent most of her time - typically 100 hours a year - volunteering at her children's school.

Once her children were done with school, she sought out another place to volunteer and discovered Bridgehaven Pregnancy Support Center (formerly called Aid to Women). One day, after having been a volunteer there for nine years, she was encouraged by her supervisor and another volunteer to apply for the Treasures manager position.

“They told me I really needed to consider this,” Engle recalled.

reasures, which started as a traveling garage sale 25 years ago and moved into a small retail space on Second Avenue in 1994, is now a 1,400-square-foot store selling donated items in the Bridgehaven building on Center Point Road.

“We offer clothing for the family - men's, women's and children's - as well as home décor and household items, books, toys and collectibles at very reasonable prices,” she said.

All proceeds are used to support Bridgehaven programming.

Engle and the assistant manager are the only paid staff at Treasures. The rest of the operation is run by about 70 volunteers, many of whom have been giving of their time for 20 years, Engle said.

Those volunteers allow Treasures to stay open six days a week, with evening hours on two nights.

While she's only been on the job for three months, Engle so far has developed and implemented a new layout for the store, helped create a new logo and is working on enhancing the website and Facebook presence.

Know a business owner or manager who should be considered for “My Biz”? Contact business editor Michael Chevy Castranova at michael.castranova@sourcemedia.net