Thirty years: Renaissance Quebec celebrates its social, economic and environmental missions

Processing 30 thousand tons of donations per year, Renaissance is Quebec’s powerhouse for reusing consumer goods. They’re celebrating 30 years in business.

“I found one of my first suits here. I like to find materials that are more sturdy and they’re usually vintage. I find brands like Laura Piana or stuff like that,” said Sylvie, Customer at Renaissance.

“I really like to forage through the clothes and try on things. I really like to go to the trying rooms and see myself in new clothes,” added Sylvie.

“Today I was looking for LPs and records because there are tons of it here and I like it. And also, sometimes some old vintage lamps for a Christmas tree,” said Martin, Customer at Renaissance.

“Most of the citizens know Renaissance as the big box stores or the donation site, but the root of it is to help individuals to integrate into the workforce,” said Eric St-Arnaud, CEO of Renaissance Quebec.

They have 1500 employees across the province and each year Renaissance helps 3000 people integrate into the workforce with a program that has an 80 per cent success rate.

“It’s a 26-week program, 35 hours a week. Then a person comes and gets paid minimum wage for 6 months. And you have a social worker, plus the manager and the assistant manager all together [are a part of the program],” said St-Arnaud.

“When you’re independent, you have more strength to go back to school, to feed your kids and you have your place under the sun,” added St-Arnaud.

“I just love everything related to my work, training people, helping clients and I’m really involved with the environmental mission. We recycle batteries, we recycle cardboard, paper and electronics. Even now we are trying to set up a program to recycle clothing. So it’s really fun to work here,” said Pablo, Assistant Manager of Renaissance, St-Laurent street.

“Through the years we grow, but this, it wasn’t easy. Because as a nonprofit, we don’t get money as easy, and we don’t get money from the bank, but then we need to have the confidence from the citizens to donate, and after that to have the consumer to donate. As well as being part of an economy that’s a thrifts,” said St-Arnaud.

“And years ago, thrift was, wasn’t for everyone. Now it is for everyone. It’s more democratized,” added St-Arnaud.

“It’s not that I’m rich or anything like that, but I told myself that there were people who might need to shop here more than me. I asked an employee about it and they said, ‘not at all, there’s so much to choose from that everybody finds something,” said Denis, Customer at Renaissance.

“You can find pretty much anything, it’s like the casino,” said Pablo.

1.7 million Quebecers donated to Renaissance last year and they’re projecting close to 2 million donations for 2024. Another upside to shopping here is that it’s tax-free.

“Compared to Value Village , who have stores [in Quebec], they’re in the stock market. It’s a private organization and the money goes back to the headquarters in the U.S. That’s why Valley Village charges taxes and we do not because we’re a non-profit charitable organization,” said St-Arnaud.

“Usually there’s a stigma around thrift shops, but you should definitely try a Renaissance because the stuff’s really good quality and you might find the thing that you were searching for. I usually have a list on my phone and I go through all the different sections,” said Sylvie.