No price tags: Free market for donated goods opening in Calgary

CALGARY -

Just under the looming Bow Tower and a stone’s throw from Chinatown, a new market will be sharing goods with Calgarians free of charge.

The Good Neighbour Community Market, located at 149 Fifth Avenue S.E., will offer donated clothing, food, books and household goods.

Customers can make a donation to help cover expenses, but at this market, if they are unable to pay, that’s OK too.

Alice Lam, who co-founded the market, says even though no payment is required, she expects most people will recognize the spirit of the market and contribute to keep it running.

"People are very respectful, they understand that," Lam said. "It's a community effort, and everybody's doing the best that they can to take care of each other.

"So we don't see, you know, a ton of people taking advantage. If anything, we've seen an outpouring of generosity."

The impetus for the Good Neighbour Community Market flowed from one of Lam’s other volunteer projects, a free community fridge that she and a group of other volunteers set up in Crescent Heights.

"Volunteering at the Calgary community fridge, we saw that the need for clothing was really high, but also a need for a gathering space downtown," said Lam. "I volunteered at the senior buildings across the street before and I just really knew that there wasn't a place for people to gather there was in a retail space. I just had this desire to kind of build community and revitalize this section of downtown Calgary."

The building’s landlord saw the success of the community fridge, so offered up the space on Fifth Avenue for free, as long as Lam's team of volunteers revitalized it at their own cost and cover the operating costs of the business.

"He wants to see something happen in this downtown area. Downtown (Calgary) has been vacant for a while and there's a lot of buildings like this that are ripe for revitalization. It just takes you know, some team effort," said Lam.

She says they also received a lot of support from tradespeople to set up the market.

"We had electricians and plumbers who said, 'I'll help install light switches, I'll help you fix the plumbing.' There were a number of people who just liked the concept and came to help paint. Others asking, 'Do you need help getting donations, picking things up?' It's been amazing."

Lam is no stranger to puling people together in volunteer efforts. She also the founder of Volly, an app matching non-profit organizations with volunteers, and was the driving force behind a program to deliver bouquets to seniors who find themselves isolated.

She hopes the market becomes more than just a thrift store but a thriving community meeting space as well.

"I think that when you're shopping or if you're here, just kind of checking things out, you naturally talk to community members that you normally wouldn't interact with," she said.

"The great and exciting part is kind of getting to know the neighborhood a bit more getting to allow the seniors and the youth to volunteer here and help us run the store."

Good Neighbour Community Market opens to the public on Saturday July 24th, but is accepting donations.

It is currently looking for more:

• Non-perishable foods;
• Clothing;
• Shoes;
• Books and;
• House plants.

Donations can be made either at the market on Fridays between 1 and 5 p.m., at Tigerstedt Market (918 Centre St. North) on Tuesdays through Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. or Le Freak (104 Eighth Ave. N.E.) on Tuesdays between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. and on weekends between noon and 4 p.m.