The Thrifty Goat, a new thrift store supporting Goatlandia, has opened in Sebastopol
The store is having a Grand Opening celebration this Saturday, June 13, from 10 am to 5 pm
The Thrifty Goat, a new thrift store, opened on May 28th in the Southpoint Shopping Center, that little strip mall in south Sebastopol that’s also home to The Legacy and Solful. Proceeds from the store benefit Goatlandia, the well-known farm animal sanctuary and vegan educational center on Cunningham Road in Sebastopol.
The thrift store was the brainchild of Goatlandia founder Deborah Blum, and, luckily, one of Goatlandia’s volunteers, Michelle Gleed, had the perfect background for taking on this project. Gleed, who is now The Thrifty Goat’s manager, founded Pick of the Litter, a very successful thrift store in Santa Rosa that supports the nonprofit Forgotten Felines, back in 1997.
In the years in between, she had a long career as a Montessori teacher.
“Animals and children are my passion,” she said.
Gleed had been volunteering with Goatlandia for three or four years before Blum had the idea of opening a thrift store. When they first met, they had that funny feeling of “I know you from somewhere.” Turns out they went to the same high school in Rancho Peñasquitos, a suburb of San Diego, and were on the school’s color guard team at the same time.
“What are the odds that we would go to the same high school, both be vegans, have an interest in animal rescue, and end up in Sebastopol?” Gleed mused.
The Thrifty Goat is located next to the cannabis store, Solful, in what used to be Solful’s business offices. Gleed gave a shout-out to Solful for donating the room dividers and panels that allowed her to partition the space into a retail section and a smaller donation-sorting room.
This is Goatlandia’s second commercial venture in Sebastopol. The first, Goatlandia Kitchen, was open briefly as a cafe in 2024, then as a catering business until it closed in 2025.
Gleed has high hopes for The Thrifty Goat.
”We’re here to give Goatlandia a consistent funding source,” she said, noting that in the competitive world of grant funding, animals come last on the list.
Gleed doesn’t have a specific fundraising goal in mind—at least not one she was willing to share—but said, “We obviously want to meet our expenses, and then be able to start contributing to the sanctuary within the first six months.”
The Thrifty Goat is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 10 am to 5 pm. They accept donations from 10 am to 4 pm. According to the website, they accept items that are “clean, usable, sellable, complete and in working order,” including clothing, shoes, and accessories; jewelry and watches; home goods, housewares, small appliances, and linens; tools and garden supplies; toys, games, puzzles; and antiques, music, art, and collectables.
They’re also looking for volunteers, with volunteer jobs ranging from donation intake and sorting to merchandise display and customer assistance.
The store is having a Grand Opening celebration on Saturday, June 13, from 10 am to 5 pm. There will be goats in attendance from noon to 2 pm, as well as “surprises throughout the day,” Gleed said.
Find out more at https://www.goatlandia.org/thrifty-goat.
