Columbia Industries has opened the new Shop CI and it’s one more way the nonprofit organization is trying to help the area’s developmentally disabled residents thrive in our community.
Until now, Columbia Industries, which began in 1963 as the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Benton & Franklin Counties, has stayed out of the secondhand retail business, although it’s trained clients in almost ever other vocation.
The nonprofit has a budget of more than $4 million, and its businesses – CI Cellars, CI Shed, CI Packaging & Storage, CI Assembly and CI Gift – bring in more than half of that budget.
For years, Columbia Industries also provided medical laundry services, until another private company opened, making it hard to compete in a tight market. The laundry facility closed down June, 2006.
Columbia Industries immediately started looking for another opportunity that would allow the business to offer job training in the community as well as make a profit to support its programs and Shop CI is the solution.
Shop CI is a high-end retail thrift store, with about 80 percent of the items being secondhand. Since June, staff have been busy getting permits and preparing the store on Dayton Street near downtown Kennewick for the opening as well as training staff.
Shop CI will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and the phone number is 586-3840. Shop CI is also accepting tax-deductible donations.