Re-imagined, Timothy Hill thrift shop opens as the ‘Ranch Boutique’

Furniture at the Timothy Hill Ranch thrift shop is arranged to form neat aisles where customers can peruse the reclaimed items, a far cry from the hodgepodge of things piled on tables and filling drawers that used to be the store’s style.

“We turned it from a thrift store into a boutique,” said Alyssa Wilke, manager of The Ranch Boutique, located on Middle Road in Riverhead, just east of Timothy Hill Children’s Ranch.

“There’s less items here, we rearranged a lot and we have a limited list of what we’re taking…It was kind of like a yard sale, and I came in with the idea to make it more of a boutique.”

Wilke, whose husband works with the ranch’s at-risk youth, was asked to take over at the shop after the previous manager resigned. She holds a degree in business marketing from Lubbock Christian University and thought a makeover could turn the place’s lackluster business around. After nearly a decade in operation, profits had been slipping, which meant less proceeds going to the ranch’s programs.

The transformation has received “very positive and very negative” reviews from customers, Wilke said. Some miss the hunt for cheap knick-knacks; others appreciate not having to dig through junk to find the treasures. The reimagined thrift shop opened on Aug. 27.

The boutique still offers household items like glassware, linens and curtains, but restored furniture is becoming more of a focus. The young men in the ranch’s care will be the restorers. During nice weather they’ll have a work station in the parking lot outside the shop’s front door, said Thaddaeus Hill, executive director at the ranch.

He said providing a productive work environment is elemental to the ranch’s mission, and a stepping stone to higher-paying jobs out in the community. The shop’s refinishing crew is set to begin working on donated pieces this week.

Hill said the work teaches more than just responsibility and work ethic.

“Like when they’re working with the horses, you know, they’ve got this tough exterior, but when you’re working with a 1,000-pound animal you have to be very slow and gentle and deliberate in your actions around that animal. They learn to do that with the horses and then all of a sudden you see these guys and their interactions with humans is more gentle and deliberate. They’re learning to care for something versus not caring at all,” Hill said.

The boutique receives new inventory daily, enough to keep the restorers’ hands busy.

“Taking something that looked old and forgotten about, and turning it into something really beautiful and worth selling in a store, that often brings a lot of pride,” Wilke said. “Just the whole concept of taking something old and making it new would be really good for them.”

Hill nodded.

“I think it’s actually a good metaphor,” he said.