Thrift stores are thriving

Cisse Sylla browsed the racks at the back of the Twice Nice Thrift Shop in Blaine, scooping up a sweater vest, a top coat and a long violet wool coat for his wife. It was his second visit to the shop, a branch of the Anoka County Community Action Program. He has also looked for clothes for his three school-age kids.

"The economy is kind of tight," he said, "so we don't have money to buy something expensive. So I come here to buy some stuff."

Though consumer skittishness is paralyzing the retail sector, Twin Cities thrift stores are reporting increasing sales -- fueled by shoppers' desire to stretch their budgets and often creating windfalls for the charities the stores support.

After only six months in business, the Hidden Treasures Thrift Store in St. Anthony is planning to share the wealth, by sending its first thousand-dollar donation to Care of Creation, a U.S.-based ministry that operates in Kenya.

"We had a really great opening," said store manager Lorene Genidy. "I didn't think that would be possible this soon."

Arc Value Village is reporting a 10 percent increase in sales and customers; Goodwill stores are seeing a 9 percent increase over this time last year. Part of that is sales of Halloween costumes, but part is the economy.

"We hear people saying money's tight, and this is a great place to find things at good prices and good values," said Pam Carlson, director of community relations for Arc Greater Twin Cities, which runs the three Metro Value Village stores.

"As [consumers] run out of purchasing power, they cut back on discretionary spending and change the way they shop -- but don't be mistaken, people will still shop!" a statement on the site read.

The thrifty mindset

Customers are talking about the economy and looking for value, the folks who run thrift stores say.

"They're saying that there's no way they'd pay that high a price in the store, especially when kids grow so fast," Genidy said. "They say they don't need anything, but if there's something they like they say they'd rather spend less money."

Twice Nice, which opened in the summer of 2007, has yet to make a cash payment to its sponsor, the Anoka County Community Action Program, but the shop will get closer to doing so if it has a few more days like their Friday Frenzy -- 50 percent off the whole store. The parking lot fills and the line snakes through the store.

Rita Wilson is a regular shopper and volunteer. During a visit last week, she watched a customer walk by.

"That's my shirt," she whispered. "It'll look better on her."

Wilson, whose parents survived the Depression, said she's never been much for buying new, and especially not now.

"I'm retired," she said. "I don't need new clothes or really good clothes. I can come here and for $3 to $5 I can find a new outfit."

Fears about the future

At Stone Soup Thrift Shop in St. Paul Park, store manager Becky Monson has noticed that over the past three weeks, her till has had an overabundance of coins, likely scrounged from under seat cushions and penny jars. The shop -- an outlet for gently used clothing, shoes, housewares and furniture -- relies on grants and sales to the general public to fund vouchers to people who have no income to receive merchandise at no cost. Last year's receipts totaled $94,000. By late October, the shop had done $91,000 in sales. Over all of 2007, the shop had given away about $30,000 worth of goods. As of last week, voucher transactions for 2008 had added up to $39,000.

"There are a lot of people who are watching their dollars and trying to do what they can to stretch them," said Majel Carroll, chairwoman of the board of Basic Needs Inc., which runs Stone Soup. "We know people in foreclosure, we've seen people who have lost their homes, and we help people who have been in shelters. ... It's another resource we can provide to the community to resettle them. We know there's a lot more behind this."

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409

øTHRIFT FROM B1