Valuable items given by the community were stolen in the burglary, which was discovered yesterday morning by the owner of the building, Yeverley McCarthy.
Along with $260 cash taken from the till, the most expensive jewellery, china and silver in the shop was specifically targeted, hospice shop assistant manager Penny Wilson said.
''Someone's been in here obviously scouting, knowing exactly what they were going to take ... someone who knows the value of stuff.''
The shop was burgled some time after it closed at 2.30pm on Saturday and before mid-morning on Sunday. A panel of the front door with the handle and lock on it had been removed to gain entry, and a suitcase full of clothing was emptied out and probably used to carry away the stolen items.
The hospice shop is run by a pool of about 70 volunteers and opened last month as part of a fundraising campaign to build a hospice in Wanaka.
A group of Wanaka residents formed the Upper Clutha Hospice Trust earlier this year and invested hours of volunteer labour into renovating the shop premises on Ballantyne Rd and gathering quality second-hand goods from the community to sell.
''We spent months getting it all up to scratch and look what they've done,'' hospice project co-founder and shop manager Bev Rudkin said yesterday.
''We're devastated.''
Mrs McCarthy said the shop had been ''a work of love'' for the many volunteers involved and it was ''bloody reprehensible'' someone would stoop to stealing from them.
''[The burglars] obviously don't want their mother and father to have hospice care.''
The burglary was immediately reported to police and volunteers were careful not to touch anything at the shop yesterday so as to preserve evidence for an investigation.
With a garage sale and charity auction scheduled for next Saturday at the shop and its stock now badly depleted, Mrs Wilson issued a special plea to the community to bring in more goods this week.
Mrs McCarthy had a separate message for those involved in the burglary.
''If people feel any guilt at all that they have stolen from such a good cause ... we would take the gear back, no questions asked,'' she said.
