In hip fashion circles throughout the Twin Cities, "used" is increasingly the new "new."
Twenty years ago, thrift stores were nothing more than glorified garage sales, with worn-out clothes and icky shoes strewn from corner to corner. But the Great Recession and its frugal influence may have changed shopping habits for good, and now resale shops are adding stores, offering more merchandise and launching new concepts to expand the customer base.
An exploding trend among resale retailers is the so-called "pound program," where bargain hunters can grab a bundle of merchandise, have it weighed and pay a set price. The concept has been so popular that the Salvation Army just switched half of its flagship Minneapolis store on N. 4th Street to a by-the-pound program that moves goods in and out weeks faster than before. Clothes, shoes and handbags sell for $1.49 per pound, while toys, kitchenware and tools go for $1.29 per pound.
"We want goods, especially clothing, to flow out the door quickly. If you let them sit too long, you have quality control issues," said Tom Canfield, district manager for Twin Cities area Salvation Army stores.
In the by-the-pound program, men's, women's and kids' clothes unsold after three weeks are gathered from 12 stores and sent to the Minneapolis warehouse. There they are divided into large containers and dumped onto tables every 15 minutes, where extreme bargain hunters quickly sort through each new load. The Salvation Army has more than 25,000 pounds of goods waiting to be sold in the pound program, Canfield said. Although consumers pay less than $1.50 per pound, it's still more profitable for a charity than selling it as surplus to operators overseas.
Customers can expect to see fresh merchandise every time they shop, Canfield said, not schlocky merchandise that is marked down.
Last weekend's grand opening exceeded sales expectations. "We thought we'd sell 10 percent of everything that we put out, and we ended up selling 40 percent of it," Canfield said.
It's a concept that has worked well in thrift shops on the East and West Coasts, but it has also seen success here in Minnesota. For instance, Goodwill-Easter Seals Minnesota has operated a by-the-pound program at its outlet on University Avenue in St. Paul for nearly 20 years. Many customers have low incomes, but in the new economy, they're bumping elbows with consignment shop owners, eBay sellers and extreme bargain hunters.