AHFter Hours Podcast

Shopping for Hope (ft. Jonathan Kreuyer)

Episode Summary

When the AIDS Healthcare Foundation launched the first Out of the Closet charitable thrift store in Los Angeles, the vision was for it to be simply another chance for people to contribute to their vital mission. Today, the concept has massively expanded alongside the AHF itself— and Out of the Closet retail operations head, Jonathan Kreuyer is ready to share his perspective.

Episode Notes

Shopping for Hope (ft. Jonathan Kreuyer)

Jonathan Kreuyer shares lessons learned from AHF’s thrift stores with a mission.

GUEST BIO:

Jonathan Kreuyer is the head of the AHF’s Out of the Closet operations. Out of the Closet is the AHF’s award-winning chain of thrift stores, which includes over 20 locations across seven states. $0.96 out of every dollar spent goes directly towards providing essential services such as AIDs testing and more to people who need them most.

CORE TOPICS + DETAILS:

[3:35] - Commitment to Quality

What sets Out of the Closet Apart

Jonathan speaks passionately about the commitment to providing genuinely high-quality products at every Out of the Closet location. Each store is well-stocked, clean, and filled with products that have been carefully screened to be in sellable condition. This is thanks in large part to the employees, each of whom is passionate about the work they do on a daily basis.

[5:21] - Hiring the Best & Helping Them Become Their Best

How Out of the Closet locations select staff

Out of the Closet’s prospective employees are interviewed on-site, because Jonathan says it’s important for them to get a sense of the type of work they’ve been doing. He says AHF also looks for people who are ambitious in their own lives— many have gone on to obtain PHDs, join the HR staff or pharmacy staff, and more. The goal is to have them for approximately nine months and send them on to their next opportunity at AHF or beyond.

[7:53] - The Employee Encyclopedia

Why AHF strives to retain long-term employees

Jonathan and everyone at AHF believes that the longer you keep an employee, the more they have to contribute to an organization. “That person is filled with information like an encyclopedia. When that person leaves, that encyclopedia goes. That’s a love of valuable information.”

[12:18] - Holistic Health

OTC’s growth in scope has mirrored AHF’s

As AHF has expanded its services to provide a more holistic approach to patient care and health, so has Out of the Closet. They give patients the ability to feel better in all ways, which will only enhance their care and well-being.

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ABOUT AHFTER HOURS:

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation is the world’s largest HIV/AIDS service organization, operating in 45 countries globally. The mission? Providing cutting-edge medicine and advocacy for everyone, regardless of ability to pay.

The AHFter Hours podcast is an official podcast of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, in which host Lauren Hogan is joined by experts in a range of fields to educate, inform, and inspire listeners on topics that go far beyond medical information to cover leadership, creativity, and success. 

Learn more at: https://www.aidshealth.org

ABOUT THE HOST:

Lauren Hogan is the Communications Manager for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and has been working in a series of roles with the Foundation since 2016. She’s passionate about increasing the public visibility of AIDS, the Foundation's critical work, and how everyday people can help join the fight to make cutting-edge medicine, treatment, and support available for anyone who needs it.

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Episode Transcription

Lauren Hogan:

Get unfiltered lessons from our leaders at AHF, as we uncover real, raw stories of where we came from and where we are going. Join us for an unscripted look at the connections our senior leadership have to our mission, core values, and hot initiatives.

Lauren Hogan:

AHF is the world's largest HIV AIDS service organization operating in 45 countries globally, 16 states domestically, including D.C. and Puerto Rico. Our mission is to provide cutting edge medicine and advocacy, regardless of ability to pay.

Lauren Hogan:

Hello and welcome to the After Hours podcast. I'm your host, Lauren Hogan, serving as your liaison to take you through this journey to learn more about AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Before we start the show, please make sure to remember to check out the show notes so you can follow along. Now, let's get started.

Lauren Hogan:

So hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the After Hours podcast. As always, I'm your host Lauren Hogan. And today I'm have a very special guest with me, Mr. Jonathan Kreuyer, who heads all of our Out of the Closet operations. So Jonathan, thank you so much for joining us today.

Jonathan Kreuyer:

Thank you for having me.

Lauren Hogan:

So really quick, I just want to give the people listening a quick history lesson about your involvement with AHF and how long you've been here. So, tell us a little bit about how you started and how long your journey's been with organization.

Jonathan Kreuyer:

So thank you, Lauren. So I started with AHF, September 15th, 1995, and started at the Out of the Closet Thrift Stores as a cashier. The way that I got introduced to AHF was through a program, through the gay and lesbian center, that helped people finding jobs in the community.

Lauren Hogan:

So can you share with us a little bit about the career. So you started as a cashier, what did the next steps in your journey start to look like?

Jonathan Kreuyer:

So I started out at our North Hollywood location on Laurel Canyon as a cashier. And then approximately about five months after that, I moved up into our assistant manager position, which was at that light site. And then about five or six months later, I was promoted to the manager of that site. And then as we started growing in Los Angeles, then I took on another site and up to three sites. And that's what we basically came down with as the group store manager. So managers would oversee three stores here within LA.

Lauren Hogan:

So what's kept you here so long? You started September 15th, 1996. It's been more than 25 years at this point. So what's kept you with AHF and Out of the Closet for so long?

Jonathan Kreuyer:

Well, it's been a huge success story. I love what we do. We serve the community. We're available for the clients. And we're able to provide a service here at AHF with the revenue that we generate through the Out of the Closet Thrift Stores. 96 cents on every dollar goes back to AHF. And we also help the clients when they're in need of clothing, things when they're getting an apartment. So we help them with furniture, things for their kitchen, lamps, whatever they need to get their lives started back into an apartment, from being homeless.

Lauren Hogan:

So do you think that's what makes Out of the Closet so special? There's a bunch of other thrift stores. There's Salvation Army, there's Buffalo Exchange. What do you think makes Out of the Closet so unique, based on what you kind of just said?

Jonathan Kreuyer:

Well, I think Out of the Closet is unique and different because number one, the employees that we have at the locations. Number two, the supplies that we have in the stores are a little bit of a higher quality. We go through all the merchandise, making sure it's in clean and sellable condition, and making sure it's appropriate for the stores and on the floor. And the employees love doing that on a day-to-day basis. Our customers that we have come into the stores. Sometimes we have customers that come twice a day. Some customers come twice a week. Some customers come once a week. And it's unique and different. It's kind of where you won't see things in stock. You'll just see a one-off of something.

Lauren Hogan:

So you've got a lot of unicorns in the store, basically, special items, huh?

Jonathan Kreuyer:

Absolutely. And you'll never know what's coming in. You could come in and request that you need a coffee maker, an iron, or you're looking for a special 50s pair of pants, and you walk out the door and 10 minutes later a donation comes and there it is. So it's not something that we store in the back room. We process the donations as quick as we can to get them out on the sales floor to generate the revenue that we need for our patients.

Lauren Hogan:

And I want to emphasize something that you said too, is that 96 cents of every dollar spent in the store goes back into patient services. And it's also a tax write-off for people that donate clothes.

Jonathan Kreuyer:

Absolutely. So for our donors, they can use that as a tax write-off at the end of the year.

Lauren Hogan:

That's a great incentive.

Jonathan Kreuyer:

Absolutely.

Lauren Hogan:

So you talked about your staff that you have and how they're very entrenched in the mission and what we're doing at our Out of the Closet Thrift Stores. So what are you looking for when we hire staff members in order to get them to join the OTC team?

Jonathan Kreuyer:

Well, we first interview them at the site, so they exactly know what they're getting into. We give them a tour when we're there. We also talk with them about what they're looking for in a career, because there's also other opportunities, not just at Out of the Closet. Within AHF, we've had numerous staff has gone into PHD. We've had staff go into HR. We've had staff go into pharmacy. What we do then is we help some of the staff with that going through education. So we've had people go into the pharmacy as pharmacy techs. It's usually about a nine-month program. We adjust some of their schedules so that they can get into the class and get going on what they need to get going for their next career.

Lauren Hogan:

Well, I think that that's good to highlight too. So in some ways, OTC almost serves as an entry point to further career development within the organization, and it doesn't matter what kind of path you want to travel on to, you have access at that point. Would you agree?

Jonathan Kreuyer:

Absolutely. And we've had numerous success stories with that and people that have put in maybe three or four years at Out of the Closet and I still see them five, six, seven years in other departments working. So when I travel around going to different sites, I see the different staff that have moved from Out of the Closet into pharmacy, into PhD. So it's always nice to see that career growth.

Lauren Hogan:

And I want to highlight that too, Jonathan, because I think that's also a testimony to your mentorship, honestly, that you're providing some of these employees that started at OTC rather, and then you're giving them these opportunities for access to further their careers. So that's definitely a huge kudos to you too.

Lauren Hogan:

So going on in the same vein of that, like you said, you see our previous OTC employees end up going into these other career paths at AHF. What advice would you give to current AHF employees and other departments and non-AHF employees who would like to maybe join the OTC team?

Jonathan Kreuyer:

I would say, really listen to them. Listen to what they want, what they're looking for, what their drive is, what makes them motivated. I don't think we do enough of that. I think we need to really sit down and listen to what the employees are looking for. We really want to engage with them and keep them here.

Jonathan Kreuyer:

I always use the success story for companies, any companies, the success of the company is your employees. And the longer that you keep that employee, the more successful I feel they are, because that person is filled with information like an encyclopedia. And when that person leaves, that encyclopedia goes, and that's a lot of value information there.

Jonathan Kreuyer:

So I think keeping employees engaged and here for many years, like me, I'm like a walking encyclopedia. I've been here 26 years. I'm very proud of that. I've had four jobs in my life, but many of my staff have been here with me for 10, 15 years, 20. I have some employees in OTC that have been here longer than me. So that's a true success of what AHF does and what we have to offer for people. It's a great place to work.

Lauren Hogan:

And on the flip side of that, so we gave advice for other people in leadership, but what would you give OTC staff members advice about in terms of how they can matriculate through the company? What advice would you give them?

Jonathan Kreuyer:

I would say to them, they have to work for it. It takes time. Find out what your interest is because 80% of our life is spent at work. You want to be happy where you are. So take time to figure out what you want to do. If it's in nursing, if it's in public health, if it's in government affairs, we will help and get you there. We just have to know what your interests are.

Jonathan Kreuyer:

Sometimes we don't know what that is, because we don't spend a lot of time finding out a lot of stuff of interest of staff, because we're really too busy just doing the day-to-day operation. But there is a lot of smart, intelligent people here at AHF, and I think we need to look at maybe pushing time to that of seeing what each individual is really want to do.

Lauren Hogan:

I love that. So next thing I want to ask you. We have core values here at AHF. Obviously it's to fight for what's right, being nimble, patient-centered. I could go on. So how do those core values fit into what we do at OTC?

Jonathan Kreuyer:

It pleases me, but also hurts me. It energizes me. All emotions come when OTC is available there for the client. When I get that call of a patient who's been on the streets for five years, homeless, and able now to fulfill of getting an apartment. We're able to help that person. Having people come to the healthcare center and walking in with the clothes they only have on their back and that's all they have, we're able to provide clothing for them, shoes.

Jonathan Kreuyer:

Now that we have more of these locations where we have multiple divisions under one roof, we're able to do that right on the spot, just like at Hollywood. At least two to three times a week now, I'm able to provide that service for clients at the Hollywood Healthcare Center. Jesse will come to us, tell us that we have a patient, only has the clothing on the back. We'll go ahead and go in the store, pick out what they want, give them two pairs of shoes, two pair of pants, two shirts. And that makes the person feel better. That's what we're here to help with.

Lauren Hogan:

It's almost like in a way that OTC fits into our model of a full circle of care. You know what I mean? Because feeling safe or having clothes, it contributes to our patients overall wellbeing at the end of the day. So I think that's really important. What you're saying is that giving our patients the ability to feel better, not holistically, also is going to help enhance their care. Would you agree?

Jonathan Kreuyer:

Absolutely. We see it on their face. When they walk out the door, they're smiley, they're happy, they're jumping. That's what we're there for. And that's what makes my day. It's not about making the sales. It's not all that. It's about to taking care of the client. When I get those calls, that's what really helps my heart, is knowing that I've done something great for the day.

Lauren Hogan:

Absolutely. So I'm going to switch a little bit into more of the fashion trends that we have at OTC. And so my question is for you, with the ever-changing trends in fashion, how does OTC balance staying in the minds of our loyal customers, but also appealing to new generations who may not be familiar or maybe want to shop for certain items?

Jonathan Kreuyer:

Well, I'm glad that you brought that up because what I want to do is talk a little bit about what has happened since COVID for OTC. For 2018, our sales were 10 million. Sales in 2019 were 10.5. 2020 during COVID, our sales went down to 9.5 million. 2021, our sales jumped to 16,300,000. Now why is that? Of course the economic situation that we're all going through. It's difficult. Money is difficult and it's tighter these days. But during COVID, we opened up the next day that we got authorization from the county. A lot of places stayed closed for two or three weeks. People were just driving around on the streets to go anywhere they could that was open. And we were open.

Jonathan Kreuyer:

We noticed over that time, we've gained a lot of new customers. The younger group. More trendy people are looking for things. People were home for three to four months, cleaning out their closets. Donations came in abundance. And so people found out about OTC. So we have our regular customers, but we also now have the new millennials, the younger group coming in, looking for the trendier things that you can't find at the mall.

Jonathan Kreuyer:

That's also making them aware of the different services that we also provide, of getting tested, the pharmacy that we have, people looking for healthcare. So the awareness and the opportunity of people learning about AHF is really through people walking through the doors of Out of the Closet. We have over a million customers a year.

Lauren Hogan:

That's phenomenal. And that also goes to show that when you provide excellent care and excellent customer service, word of mouth truly matters. And that's how we get those million customers a year, right?

Jonathan Kreuyer:

Absolutely.

Lauren Hogan:

So we are almost at time now, but I have to ask you, we have a lot of initiatives that go through Out of the Closet, whether it's our spring cleaning season, if we have our Halloween costumes contests that are happening. What's your favorite OTC campaign or initiative that we run with AHF?

Jonathan Kreuyer:

I don't have a particular one because each campaign is for a different reason. Spring cleaning always is great. It helps people get things out of their closet. We see a lot of donations. But where we see the abundance of donations is at the end of the year, where people are donating to clean out their closets of items they may have had for a while, or Christmas items they don't need, or for the tax purposes. So I don't have a specific one, but those are a couple that come to mind.

Lauren Hogan:

So holiday seasons, we'll just say holiday season campaigns are your favorite.

Jonathan Kreuyer:

Absolutely.

Lauren Hogan:

Okay. Well, like I said, we are at time, so thank you so much, Jonathan, for joining us today. This was a great episode to learn some insight about the amazing things happen at Out of the Closet Thrift Stores. And I hope everyone tunes in for our next episode. Thanks so much.

Jonathan Kreuyer:

Thank you everyone.

Lauren Hogan:

Thank you so much for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support the show, please subscribe, share it with your friends, like, post about it on social media, or leave a rating and review. Follow us on Instagram @afterhours, and see you next time.