Pending approval from Orange City Council, Vinnies will set up its Care and Support service in Anson Street, while the retail store will continue to operate from Peisley Street.

The charity moved out of the McNamara Street building on Thursday.

Bathurst Central Council executive officer Bruce Buchanan said the donation bins had been removed, with all donations welcome at the store until the revised bin locations were approved.

He hoped to have bins placed across the city in future.

"We would love people to still bring in quality donations that can be resold," he said.

"We've got trolleys there that they can put them straight in."

It was an unexpected move, having been approached by the buyer only four weeks ago.

"The building wasn't actually up for sale - these people actually bid for the Lands office when it went up for auction and they missed out obviously because OCTEC bought it - they approached Benchmark Real Estate to see if they could find other premises and because we'd had our premises valued by Benchmark not that long ago, they then approached us," Mr Buchanan said.

He said it was sad to leave a building more than 50 volunteers had called home.

"[The move] was enormous - there were heaps of keepsakes, particularly things such as charters of this particular St Vincent de Paul and photographs of the original Vinnies teams," he said.

"We want to get ourselves ready for the next 30 years."

He said clients could still access the care and support service at the Peisley Street store on Fridays only, between 12pm and 3pm, until Vinnies was able to open its replacement facility for the full Monday to Friday.

"Instead of just coming and trying to provide basic assistance, we want to delve into helping people with budgeting, making sure they're the best rates for electricity and their telephone, putting them on payment plans so it doesn't become an ongoing issue for them - we really are giving them a hand up," he said.

He said the retail store had benefited from a more prominent position, particularly from tourists.

"There's always someone passing through who is from a warmer climate and they drive through Orange and come into Vinnies to pick up a coat or an umbrella for a change of season."

The buyer was a trust and the Central Western Daily understands the building could be used for offices.

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