United Church Purchases Lot Adjacent to Bargain Basket

Perhaps it was an answer to prayer. Or an early Christmas present. On Tuesday, December 19, The United Church of Marco Island closed on the lot directly adjacent to The Bargain Basket at 760 Bald Eagle Drive on Marco Island. The price tag for the lot was a cool $1.5 million.

The Bargain Basket, the wildly popular thrift store that is a mission of the United Church, has been experiencing growing pains as its popularity grows. 

"We are the church,” said Samantha Arago, director of operations for United Church of Marco Island. "The church is the Bargain Basket. We're all one.”

Arago said the thrift store’s phenomenal success led to the purchase of the lot.

“We've spent the last few years kind of looking at how the store is doing,” Arago said, "and obviously, it's had tremendous success. Since its inception, we've been able to give back $8 million to the community, which is amazing. We hope to continue building that even more year after year. If you're in there in the season, it's a busy place. We want to do what's best for United Church to be able to continue that mission and to grow that mission and to grow our opportunities to give back. The executive committee and the board of trustees made the decision to start looking at purchasing that lot and the congregation voted, and now we are officially closed on it, which is very exciting.”

According to Arago, the lot has been on the church’s radar for a while.

“We've looked into buying it before,” Arago said, "and at the time wanted to look into all other options. We've weighed the cost versus what we're bringing in versus what we're able to give back to the mission. In buying the lot, we never wanted to sacrifice the mission from the purchase of that lot. It just came time that it worked out really well.”

Arago, who started with the United Church at the Bargain Basket, said buying the lot has been a dream of virtually everyone who has worked or volunteered there. The vote of the church membership to buy the lot was resounding.

“If you work in the back room of the Bargain Basket,” Arago said, "You've heard the scuttlebutt for years: 'I just wish we would buy that lot.' So we knew it was going to be a vote that was taken very well by the congregation and the volunteers of the Bargain Basket. I’m very glad that the vote was almost unanimous.”

It didn’t hurt that church members Linda and Alan Sandlin, highly respected real estate leaders on the island, were available for consult.

“The Sandlin’s helped us in weighing costs,” Arago said. "Is the lot worth what they're asking? Any time members of the congregation can help us out, it's always helpful. I think besides their real estate expertise, their heart is truly in the mission. Just what they've done for this church, this community, the Bargain Basket. They're very mission oriented…strong philanthropists. I respect that.”

Arago insists that there are no imminent plans for the lot.

"I know a lot of people have put a lot of thought into it,” Arago said. “There's a lot of thoughts and ideas circulating for what it could be. So it's going to be very exciting. I think it's even more exciting that there are so many people standing behind it. Our next step is to form the committee. We have a few ideas. There are some wonderful people in this church that want to be involved and throw their ideas in. We're definitely going to take a lot of ideas into consideration. We're going to get a committee, a small group of people that's really going to guide this through whatever it ends up being. They're going to look at weighing all options. So, the first step is to get that committee going. It'll be pretty early in the next few weeks, I'd say. We're going to call it a visioning committee, not just a Bargain Basket lot committee. It's ‘what do we envision the Bargain Basket to be in the next five, ten, 15 years?’ Because if you don't look at that and consider that, then you run the risk of not doing the right thing." 

Arago said she and Bargain Basket operations manager Bill Johenning will be part of the process.

“Bill and I will be on the visioning committee,” Arago said. “Obviously, he can't attend every meeting because they could end up being long and take a lot of time. But we want to make sure that his ideas, and mine, are also considered because we're coming from the thick of it. Whether we're on it as voting people or ex officio, our voices will be heard. A lot of the staff members sit as ex officio on certain committees. You're there, you're listening to what's going on, you can provide input on what's going on, but when it comes time to lay the gavel down and vote, you can't vote.”

The growing success of the Bargain Basket and the acquisition of the neighboring lot must seem like a dream come true to Arago.

"If you had told me even ten years ago we'd be where we are,” Arago said, "I wouldn't have believed you.”