On August 12th, Deseret Industries will celebrate its 85th anniversary. We sat down with the Director, Megan Burt, and asked her some questions about what that means.

How long have you been the Director? And tell us a bit about your background.

I have been the Director since March of 2021—just a little over two years.

Prior to working for The Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints], I had roughly 11 years in for-profit retail. I have been working for the Church for nine years in basically every kind of retail the Church offers. From Church Distribution to Bishops’ Storehouses to Home Storage Centers, and now Deseret Industries.

We’re celebrating 85 years of Deseret industries. How is DI the same as it was 85 years ago when it started?

If you look back at the history to 1938, Deseret Industries started on the heels of the Great Depression; it was just a very challenging time for everyone. DI was established as a place where people could come and work, where they could learn different skills and different industries using the items people donated. And over all these years, we have continued to provide opportunities for work and work training. We still use donated items from the community to create the training environment. We also still provide clothing and household items for those in need through bishops’ orders and community grants.

How is Deseret Industries different today than it was 85 years ago?

It's very different today. Obviously there are a lot more stores now—46 stores, to be exact. And there are now DI stores in 8 states. We recently expanded into Texas, which is exciting.

Over the last 85 years we have made a lot of changes and improvements to the training program itself and how we approach helping people. We now have development counselors who play an important role in helping associates address barriers to their employment—including mental health challenges and addiction—and vocational assessments and planning.

Business partnerships started in 1993. A business partnership allows an associate to work for another company for a period of time while we continue to pay their wages. This allows associates to gain on-the-job experience, explore career options, and continue to develop new skills. The internet has changed a lot of things over the years. We’re always trying to find new ways to adapt and still make it a meaningful work training experience.

What does the future hold for Deseret Industries?

Oh, so much, I think. We hope to help more people first and foremost, and we hope to continue to get better at helping them. We'd love to look at other places where there might be enough [Church] membership, community support, and associates to make other kinds of operations successful. We're also considering ways we can provide work training outside of a physical building that is a DI store. We are always asking, “Are there other options where we can provide the training that helps people overcome barriers to employment?”

How do the donations from the community translate to helping people?

From the moment donations are received, they are part of the training program. The associates help unload the donations and sort them into categories; and while they do, they learn organization and problem-solving skills. As they interact with the donors, they are learning and practicing customer service and interpersonal skills.

From there, associates further sort each category based on quality. And what that does is teach them some decision-making skills. So, if we were a traditional retailer, they would be functioning kind of as the buyer for the product that's going to go out to the sales floor. After they've sorted the product into “good,” “better,” or “best” quality, then the associates get to actually price the merchandise.

When items get out to the sales floor, the associates get to understand some basic merchandising skills—skills that could translate to any other retail environment or even to maybe their own small business. They learn how to display products, what you put next to each other, how you colorize a segment of products, and how you help catch the customer’s eye.

From there, the customers pay for their purchases and conduct transactions at the registers, which gives associates an opportunity to learn cashiering skills, money handling, and some other things that would translate to a variety of other businesses. The revenue from the sale of the donated items pays for the associates' wages, and it also helps pay for additional education and certifications that many of the associates enroll in as part of their training.

Going back to 1938, one of the original guiding principles was to reduce waste. How does that fit into what's happening today?

Yeah, that's a great question. We reduce waste by taking in donated items from people in the community so they don’t go to a landfill. And as soon as an item comes into our environment, we're looking for all of the possible ways we might divert it away from the landfill. If the product is in good enough condition to be sold, then we route it to the sales floor. If not, then we route them toward being recycled.

Every item gets a chance to go to the sales floor. The products that don't sell, we'll pull down and take the items to the Humanitarian Center in Salt Lake. There, we have another place where we conduct the work training program, where associates sort and organize things into bails that can be used for humanitarian relief. Some of our partner agencies might need a load of coats or shoes or other specific items, and we can provide that to them. And then what doesn’t go for humanitarian efforts gets sorted or broken down to be recycled. Very little of what gets donated goes to waste. Most of it is either sold or recycled.

 How does DI fit into humanitarian efforts?

All of our Deseret Industries stores are fulfillment centers for bishops’ orders. A bishop's order is an order that the local ecclesiastical leader can place for a family or individual—like if a family's house flooded and caused damage to their furniture and other belongings, for example. They can receive a bishop's order to get new goods or some gently used things from Deseret industries, then come into the store and have that order fulfilled without a charge to them.

The other ways we help is through partnering with local nonprofit organizations in the community, such as women's shelters or refugee resettlement agencies. They receive vouchers that they can use to help those whom they serve. The recipient brings the voucher to the store and is able to select items that address their needs, such as clothing, bedding, or furniture. And we also send large loads of clothing to some partners, who send the clothing to be used in humanitarian relief efforts.

Early on within Deseret Industries, there were things like making rugs and woolen blankets. Is there anything like that today?

Yeah, there’s still a several things that we manufacture, like mattresses and wood furniture. All of the mattresses sold in the stores are made brand-new at Deseret Manufacturing here in Salt Lake. And we also make wood furniture that is sold new in our stores. The manufacturing of those products is also a training opportunity. The production facility has the same kind of work training program as the stores and the Humanitarian Center, but instead of learning in a retail environment, the associates are learning in a manufacturing environment.

What is your favorite thing to thrift?

I love books. I am such a book nerd. The book section gets me every time. I also love going to the yard area. It’s a little hidden gem—you can find some really cool things there. For the first little while, I didn't know that and would just look at the shelves inside the store. But go out in the yard area! You will find some good stuff.

What is the best thing you’ve thrifted?

In my living room, I have a really big picture—it might be an actual painting. It's this beautiful forest scene with greens and blues. I found it randomly one day while I was shopping at one of our stores and had to bring it home with me.  

For 85 years, people have been donating and shopping at Deseret Industries. What would you say to them?

I would say thank you! Thank you for the good that you're doing. I hope you realize how much you’re impacting people's lives. There are other places you could choose to donate your used items to, but when you bring them to Deseret Industries, you can be confident that they are going to be used to help somebody no matter where they end up in the process. If they are sold, if they are donated to humanitarian relief, even if they get recycled, they’re still benefiting people in our work training program. And I would say the same to our shoppers. We have some amazing shoppers that are so loyal. It's so fun to see the things they post on social media. Thank you for understanding the Deseret Industries mission. Thank you for helping lift people by interacting with them in the store, for being patient as they learn, for helping them on their path to a better future. We're just so grateful that you are willing to be a part of it.