It’s 9:59 a.m. at a brand-new Deseret Industries store. A balloon artist is entertaining more than 400 customers in line, waiting for 10 a.m., when the doors open and the deals begin. Soon after the ribbon-cutting ceremony, live music plays and shopping carts start to fill up with clothes, electronics, and more.

But this is all just the grand opening itself. Before the store opens its doors, DI staff and associates spend several months prepping for customers. And before that, tons of other work needs to be done. For example, a lot of effort goes into determining the best location for the building, which then takes about a year to put up.

We start gathering donations at the Humanitarian Center while the store is still under construction. Seven months before opening day, we begin bringing donations from other stores to the Humanitarian Center to build up our inventory. There, we start processing clothing, shoes, books, dishes, electronics, collectibles, and other small items.

About one in ten items of clothing gathered is set aside for use in a grand opening. A new store needs approximately 100,000 items of clothing for just the three days of a grand opening celebration; that means that in preparation for the grand opening, we sort through over 1,000,000 pieces of clothing! The items not selected for the grand opening are recycled, sent off for humanitarian relief, or used in some other way.

Clothing selected for the store is sorted into specific categories: short-sleeved knit tops, jeans, T-shirts, and so on. This makes filling the retail floor easier and quicker. After the clothes and smaller household items are sorted, processed, and packed, they’re sent off to the store. Furniture, couches, outdoor equipment, and other large items are gathered three to four months before the grand opening, and new furniture and mattresses arrive from Deseret Manufacturing about two weeks before opening day.

Associates enrolled in our job training program start working before the store even opens. They help sort items at the humanitarian center, and when it’s time to set up the retail floor, they help with that too. As our associates assist in setting up a new store, they have opportunities to learn new skills and build confidence in their abilities.

Once it’s time to set up the retail floor, it takes a team of associates and staff 8–10 weeks to build fixtures, unload and stock the product, and merchandise the retail floor. And then what?

Before the store opens, we dedicate the building. The dedication is a special ceremony, attended by local ecclesiastical and community leaders, in which a prayer is offered over the building. Deseret Industries is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which dedicates all its buildings after construction, whether that building is going to be used as a DI store, a chapel, or another way.

After the dedication, it’s time to celebrate the grand opening with three days full of festivities! Hundreds of people rush through the doors, and the donation drive-through starts to fill up as those who are anxious to support a good cause drop off their unneeded items. The cash registers ring up great finds, the associates get experience with customer service, and the customers get great deals.