Three local charities open resale shops in Bloomington

The Twin Cities has seen a major expansion of nonprofit and for-profit resale shops throughout the year, but, in recent weeks, that action seems to have concentrated in Bloomington.

Three charitable groups — Arc's Value Village, Hope Chest and Bridging — opened stores in the metro area's biggest suburb just in time for the holiday season. The new Arc's Value Village outlet opens Saturday.

While Bloomington is the home of the Mall of America, the city also offers secondhand retailers plenty of affordable real estate and a diverse base of shoppers, said ­Laurel Hansen, director of thrift stores at Arc's Value Village. "It has plenty of strip malls in well-established ­commercial areas where the rents are more affordable than new construction," Hansen said. "And well-established households with good incomes."

Arc's new location in Bloomington is its fifth in the metro area and will be slightly larger than most of its stores. The charity helps people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.

All year, resale shops have been expanding in the Twin Cities. The Salvation Army opened a by-the-pound store and Goodwill created the Gina + Will concept store for young adults in Dinkytown. Meanwhile, NYT Clothing Exchange and Device Pitstop opened in Minnetonka and Style Encore arrived in Eagan and Maple Grove.

Nationally, the number of used goods stores has grown 7 percent each year since 2010, according to the National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops.

Barbara Hensley, founder and CEO of Hope Chest, was looking for locations in Edina, Eden Prairie and Bloomington to serve the ­customer base that was already shopping in the Orono store. "We knew we had name recognition in the Bloomington area," she said.

Open for a month, the Bloomington store is already exceeding its planned sales by nearly 20 percent. Although Hope Chest lost its lease in St. Paul and closed earlier this month, Hensley still plans to open four to seven more stores in the Twin Cities to serve their mission of helping financially challenged people with breast cancer pay everyday expenses like rent and utilities.

Bridging, which provides furniture and household goods for people are no longer homeless, used to have occasional sales to liquidate donated home furnishings and supplies that weren't appropriate for its clients. The sales were so successful that in late August it quietly opened an outlet in Bloomington called Find It Estate Store.

"We get a lot of items that we have too many of or that are too large for the small homes our clients live in," said Mary Proepper, retired development manager at Bridging. "We use the proceeds from the store to buy dishes, pots and pans, pillows and towels for our clients."

Bridging chose not to use its name in the store name because its leaders were worried people would try to drop off donations, which are accepted at another site in Bloomington.

JoAnn Moran of Richfield, who picked up a tent for her grandchildren at the Find It Estate Store Friday afternoon, says she shops at resale places for great deals on a surprising selection. "I never know what I'm going to find," Moran said.

John Ewoldt • 612-673-7633