At an innovative new store on Lorain Ave., everything is free. Literally. There are no price tags, no cash registers, no strictly enforced rules. It’s just a way, says the Ripcho Family (of Ripcho Studios, also on Lorain) to help out families in need. 

“Needs Cleveland” is open for only two hours each week (though another two-hour block will be added at the end of the month), and the inventory, gathered from local schools’ bounty of lost and found items, is ransacked in toto.

Last Thursday, from 12:30 – 2:30 p.m., NewsChannel 5 reported that 500-600 people waited in lines to get a chance to pick through the selection.

The “need” clearly exists in a city where one in three people (and about half of all children) live in poverty.  

“People think we’re looking for residency requirements or income requirements,” Alison Ripcho told NewsChannel 5, “but there really is none.”

The only request is that shoppers limit themselves to five items per member of the household. The Ripchos will be adding diapers and hygiene items to their stock of clothes and school supplies.

In addition to the Thursday open hours tomorrow, Needs Cleveland will be hosting a Winter Warmup this Sunday, with free jackets, hats and gloves for folks in need (plus hot dogs and hamburgers and live entertainment). 

This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2014.

Sam Allard is a former senior writer at Scene.

26 replies on “Everything is Free at “Needs Cleveland,” New Store on West Side”

  6. They take donations during open store hours. I’m taking three bags of donations tomorrow.

  7. I have a lot of little girl stuff, clothes, and toys I can donate. I just need to know how, when and where to donate it!

  9. @Cas Traxler, if you want to send it to me, I live down the street. 🙂 Or I can get the address/info for you when I drop my stuff.

  10. From Needs Cleveland website: Donations can be brought to Ripcho Studio at 7630 Lorain ave. between the hours of 9am until 3pm.

  14. This is great. My seven year old has a box started to donate. Now I know where I can take and people won’t profit from it.

  16. This is Awesome.. It is a great thing to do for other people in need with out placing a price tag on the items.. KUDOS!

  18. God bless you for this service to those in need. May it thrive without difficulties. If volunteers are needed please contact me. Available even and some weekends.

  19. Thank you, Valerie! I’ll be back in town in another month- a couple friends and I are going to make a day trip to drop stuff off and then head for the West Side Market and the Arcade. GAWD how I miss Cleveland.

  21. This is absolutely fantastic. Now, a family that has money is returning it to the community. I wish some other families in the US would do the same as opposed to spending millions of dollars on lavish weddings that do not even last. It has always made me sick when I hear of those waisting millions/billions when there are starving young people all over the world where it would take only $1-a-day to feed.

  23. Needs Cleveland is accepting all donations: M-F 9am-5pm

    Donations accepted at Ripcho Studio:

    7630 Lorain Ave, Cleveland, OH 44102
    (216) 631-0664

    We take all items: canned goods, clothing, hats, books, gloves, misc. (all clothing will be washed by Miller Textile’s generous donation)

    If you have more than 30 boxes/bags or 100 items plus we will try and pick-up.

  25. This is a beautiful idea. I agree with Mamansrd. I would love to read a more in-depth article about how this was started, and the logistics of running such a shop … who funds the overhead, etc. Goodwill is such a rip-off, and the people who need things most cannot always afford even thrift. This is great. I live in Virginia, but I would love to be a part of something like this.

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