Philly AIDS Thrift
The shop at 710 S. Fifth St. Photo courtesy of PhillyAIDSThrift.com

Vintage clothing, vinyl records, free HIV tests—these are just a few of the items customers can find at Philly AIDS Thrift shop. Starting Saturday, June 27, the store will open the HIV Testing Center on the second floor of its location, according to the Philadelphia Business Journal. The opening coincides with National HIV Testing Day.

“Putting a testing site in an area that doesn’t typically have something like that is a way of normalizing testing,” Christina Kallas-Saritsoglou, the store’s co-founder and co-manager, told the newspaper. “It’s a way to break stigmas. I’m happy that all of the other testing sites exist, but someone…might have fears walking into a clinical environment.”

To operate the testing center, the shop is partnering with Action AIDS, Bebashi, GALAEI, Mazzoni Center and Philadelphia FIGHT. The free rapid tests will be available each month, on the first and third Saturday, and the second and fourth Friday and Saturday. Hours may be expanded in the future, and the center may include screenings for other sexually transmitted infections.

About 30,000 people are living with HIV in the greater Philadelphia area, and residents contract the virus at rates 50 percent higher than in New York City.