Have you ever dreamed of owning your own store just after celebrating your 27th birthday?

Thatsa国际传媒檚 the dream Nick Rooney is living right now, and opened his own store, iThrift, in Rutland over the weekend. To promote this store, he posted about it on Friday night (Jan. 27) in the sa国际传媒楰elowna Marketplace and Classifiedssa国际传媒� saying his store was opening on Saturday, hoping for 10-20 people to come check the store out. But what did happen, he didnsa国际传媒檛 expect right away.

sa国际传媒淥pening weekend was pretty crazy,sa国际传媒� said Rooney. sa国际传媒淚 wasnsa国际传媒檛 really expecting too many people. I was hoping maybe 10, 20 people came out to show support but the Kelowna community really went above and beyond. We had about 1,000 customers come through the doors between Saturday and Sunday.sa国际传媒�

Originally from Thunder Bay, Ont., Rooney moved to Kelowna during the pandemic.

sa国际传媒淚 just wanted something new,sa国际传媒� said Rooney. sa国际传媒淚 wanted to grow up, I was a bit immature at the time and I needed to get away from that headspace and my same habits I had back there. I came to Kelowna for a fresh start.sa国际传媒�

While selling cars, Rooney has always had the idea to have his own store.

sa国际传媒淚tsa国际传媒檚 been in my head for about two years,sa国际传媒� said Rooney. sa国际传媒淚 really put the game plan in place in August. Since then, I really didnsa国际传媒檛 taken any days off. I love selling, I love sales but itsa国际传媒檚 hard for me to stick to one thing, thatsa国际传媒檚 what I love about the thrift store, you never know what yousa国际传媒檙e going to get.sa国际传媒�

Rooney locked down this Rutland location on Sept. 1 and starting collecting inventory from garage sales, auctions, and more.

sa国际传媒淕etting the inventory wasnsa国际传媒檛 the hard part, the hard part was going through the inventory,sa国际传媒� said Rooney, who also printed out barcodes for every item. He collected all the inventory himself for the stores launch, but is now accepting donations from the public.

One of the parts of the store thatsa国际传媒檚 the most important to Rooney is the section where he had old video games and video game consoles for sale.

sa国际传媒淧enticton has a really big store for video games, same as Vernon and theresa国际传媒檚 nothing really in Kelowna on a large scale for old retro video games and collectables,sa国际传媒� said Rooney. sa国际传媒淲hat I wanted to do in this store was to have a section off to the side that specializes in vintage video games and collectables and if that goes well, I wanted to expand that side.sa国际传媒�

The majority of consoles he had in store sold over the course of opening weekend.

One of his other goals is to have an online shopping option for people, including a delivery service so people can shop online and get it brought to them.

sa国际传媒淚 want to reinvent the way people thrift,sa国际传媒� said Rooney. sa国际传媒淚 want to create a platform where people could thrift from home.sa国际传媒�

Rooney opened the store despite everything not being finalized, including a logo and a website, which Rooney is now making a priority to finish.

In the six months it took to open the store, Rooney made sacrifices, which included sleeping on an air mattress in the store over the course of November and December.

sa国际传媒淸The store] means the world to me,sa国际传媒� said Rooney. sa国际传媒淚t was quite emotional seeing the Facebook post blow up. I sacrificed pretty much everything to get this going. There was a time I had an air mattress and I was living [in the store].

After moving across the country, he says his team of five is his family right now, adding he might hire a few more people.

sa国际传媒淚 want to be one of the cheapest thrift stores around because the cost of living nowadays is so high, and be the place to go where collectors could still get a really good price on some collectables.sa国际传媒�

iThrift is located at 189 Hwy. 33 East.

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jordy.cunningham@kelownacapnews.com
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