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Goodwill Industries went bankrupt in southern Ontario; all of their shuttered stores are standing vacant and their un(der)employable-ees thrown out of work. (true story: CEO Keiko Nakamura had 'cash flow' problems in Toronto, one of the 3 biggest cities in Canada.)
Recently, China announced it refuses
to take anymore of the world's refuse, specifically recycling.
And the right-to-repair movement is gathering steam.
So...enter Repair-Ability, a new type of second-hand shop and (re)training centre. Bring your beloved 1940s toaster to us. Our certified Repairman (Journeyman Electrician, Mechanic, etc) will fix its broken leg, check the elements and wiring, and provide a certificate of repair. The handy watch-and-learn Apprentice will clean and shine the toaster, returning it to your loving embrace.
Don't want the toaster? No problem. The Apprentices use unwanted items for practice, as they earn their credentials, similar to the existing Skilled Trades program which starts with Co-op credits in high school. Note that Repair-Ability Apprentices are those over 21 who have aged out of the school system, the mentally ill, disabled, older/elderly, ex-cons, or anyone else finding themselves in need of a job.
Your refurbished items are lovingly displayed on shelves in the stores previously occupied by (No)Goodwill, re-purposing Goodwill's Sales staff, Stockers, Cleaners and Parking Valets, coast to coast, giving them a truly moral and valuable (re)purpose in life. Someone will see your toaster and fall in love with it, and make the commitment to take care of it for life.
Not just toasters--Repair-Ability has an entire fleet of certified fix-it people able to repair small appliances, large appliances, clothing, furniture, bicycles, books, boots and shoes, luggage, and relationships.
Repair-Ability: you'll wonder why it wasn't done on a massive scale before now.
Atomic Matter Driver
https://medium.com/...driver-55a61227c18c
I guess, if we have fix-it-stations, that have this, with the option to order a skilled professional to control it over the internet, would make for a lot of jobs in fixing :) [Mindey, Apr 03 2019]
[link]
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Well, if you know if anyone interested in a whole shelf full of painstakingly-repaired and fully working mechanical clocks (mostly alarm clocks) for free (the repairs were done for the entertainment value and technical challenge rather than any practical objective) we'd be delighted to get in contact with them. We need the space for other now-working repaired stuff that no-one actually wants because it's obsolete ... |
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Some thrift/secondhand stores are trying but those journeymen and jouneywomen, of those specific skill sets, are rare as hen's teeth, especially when they need to be independently wealthy and not past used by. Maybe, governments should socially underwrite. |
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// Goodwill Industries went bankrupt in Canada; all of their shuttered stores are standing vacant and their un(der)employable-ees thrown out of work. // |
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Toronto area, actually. Great Lakes regional Gw was thinking of taking over, but they haven't moved on it, yet afaik. |
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Oh. TIL they're run by different companies in different regions. |
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Ninja edit; thanks [FT]. I'm ashamed that I succumbed to the Toronto (area) Is The Centre of the Universe theory for a moment there. |
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I'm trying to talk a buddy into doing this exact thing. He's currently out of work, absolutely brilliant with electronic widgets, always rebuilding old radios and such for shits and giggles, and is already paying dues to a maker-space so there would be no overhead and a whole troupe of fellow geeks happy to have their brains picked and a new project to tinker on. |
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I might know some people (possibly including myself) who might potentially be interested in participating in such a thing in some way or another, if it were to come to Calgary. |
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