GREENSBORO, N.C. — The key to this new normal can be summed up in two words: adjust and adapt. That's exactly what a Greensboro non-profit is doing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Barnabas Network is moving its massive furniture fundraiser online this year as a safe alternative during the pandemic.
Starting Friday, July 10th the non-profit will offer the same great furniture at amazing discount prices, but this year you can shop from home.
"There's everything! We have dressers, couches, desks, love seats, and beds," said the non-profit's Executive Director Derrick Sides. "We have a wide mix of items of some different styles. This is some of the nicest stuff we've had!"
Sides recorded rows of furniture as he walked through the organization's massive 50,000 square foot warehouse. Any other year, the warehouse would be full of people who wanted to claim first dibs on pieces.
"When we did the in person event, hundreds of people would be lined up at the door the morning that we opened. People would get there as early as 4 a.m. to wait in line. They would race in and place a sold sign on the tag so it was sort of a battle of the wills. Now, this gives everyone an opportunity to get great furniture, no matter if you're first in the door."
Sides changed up the in-person grab and go style of the event, turning it into an online auction. The non-profit's 50,000 square foot warehouse donated to them from the Koury Corporation, is filled with hundreds of pieces of new and like new furniture. The exquisite pieces are all donated from local retailers and the savings are passed onto you.
"It is amazing how low the starting bids are for many of these items," said Sides. "In a typical year the things that we sell are lower than the fair market value, really lower than retail value."
Sides said bidding will start as low as $20. "Twenty, 30, 40, 50 dollars for those starting bids and it's going to work like any other online auction where you can check it out, you can place your maximum bid and then you just wait. The website will alert you when you've been out bid you can come back and up that bid," he said.
The Barnabas Network counts on this furniture fundraiser every year to help its mission in providing free home furnishings to families either transitioning from homelessness, fleeing domestic violence or overcoming major setbacks. So while these Triad families benefit, with these amazing prices on furniture, so do you.
The Barnabas' first-ever online furniture auction fundraiser begins Friday, July 10 at 8 p.m. through Friday, July 17, 2020. You can see the items, register and bid by texting the word "Furniture" to 76278. You can also click here for more information and to register online.