Local Thrift Stores Thrive in Tough Times

November 26, 2009

As reported by Pat Schneider in The Capital Times

The economic recession is registering at local thrift stores. Administrators of these emporiums of recycled goods report brisk business as shoppers on tight budgets look for bargains. “Sales are up. We’re doing very well,” says Kathleen Mannlein, director of retail sales for Goodwill of South Central Wisconsin.

Meanwhile, Executive Director Ralph Middlecamp reports that the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Madison is “just holding our own” with its thrift stores. The customers are coming, but the supply of donated merchandise is not as good as it has been in better economic times, he says. “People are not buying new things and it limits what we have to offer in our stores. We’re putting out things that are not quite as good as customers are used to. We can’t sell them for as much.”

Resale stores of all kinds attract shoppers trying to make ends meet, as well as those with a taste for bargains. Beyond that, Dane County’s dozen thrift shops offer customers a dual opportunity to support nonprofit organizations: revenues from thrift stores fund the missions of the charities, and tax-deductible, donated merchandise stocks the stores. Some also say that shopping thrift stores is an act of protest against the consumer culture.

Many charitable organizations rely on end-of-year donations for a significant part of their funding. Thrift stores, too, do well at the end of the year, starting with shoppers looking for the makings of a Halloween costume right through holiday decorations and Christmas gifts.

“Last month was our best month ever,” says Alice Hanson, manager of Bethesda House of Thrift on Madison’s east side. She thinks her store, which moved three years ago to Cottage Grove Road after two decades on the north side, is seeing first-time thrift shoppers adjusting to drops in income. “If there were two workers in the family, and they’re down to one, they’re looking to save money.”

Thrift stores typically offer such basic goods as clothes, furniture and housewares, as well as books, vinyl albums and CDs. Many shoppers interviewed in store aisles recently say they have shopped thrift stores for years, but some add they are doing it more often during the down economy.

“I’m doing it this year a bit more,” says Leanne Carson of Madison, shopping for Christmas decorations at the Goodwill Store in Nakoma Plaza on the west side. Medical bills put her family in debt and she is cutting costs wherever she can, she says.

Carson says the merchandise in the store this season looks good, but she can appreciate that some stores might be reporting a drop in donated goods. “I’d think twice about donating a couch this year. I’d put it on craigslist and get the few extra bucks.”

At St. Vincent de Paul’s flagship thrift store on Williamson Street, Linda Kingsley says she bought the jeans and sweater she was wearing on a past shopping trip there. She has shopped at the store for years, but even more in recent months. “The jobs closed up and I’m only working part time,” she says. “I’m just barely making it.”

Strong sales are important to the nonprofit organizations that run the thrift stores because they are a significant source of revenue.

Judy Purcell, manager of the Agrace HospiceCare Thrift Store on Junction Road, said sales rose 15 percent to 20 percent as the jobless rate soared about six months ago and have stayed high. The store, in its fourth year, provides about $400,000 a year to support patient and family care by Agrace HospiceCare.

About 70 percent of Goodwill of South Central Wisconsin’s $11.5 million in revenue in 2008 came from its eight area stores. The organization serves the disabled and elderly in 14 counties. “We’re very much reliant on the retail revenue,” says Mannlein. “We can’t do our work without it.”

St. Vincent de Paul of Madison nets about $500,000 a year from its five Dane County stores to support its food pantry — the county’s busiest — and other programs for the needy. The agency also gives thrift store merchandise like clothing, furniture and housewares to people who don’t have money to buy such goods. And that demand has spiked in the past year. “We’ve given away more than ever before,” Middlecamp says.

In order for donors to take income tax deductions for their gifts to thrift shops, the store must be run by a 501(c)3 charitable organization like Goodwill, St. Vincent’s, Agrace HospiceCare or Bethesda Lutheran Communities for the developmentally disabled.

Door Creek Church of Madison runs a thrift shop, Boomerangs, and will use its revenue to support the work of the Salvation Army of Dane County, The Road Home and Nehemiah Corp., three local charities tied to faith communities. “We were looking for a new way to raise funds to distribute to organizations in the community,” says Randy Olson, director of outreach for Door Creek Church. The store has been open just over a year, and has not yet cleared operating costs sufficiently to make a donation, Olson says.

Madison has two for-profit thrift stores — at West Towne Mall and near East Towne Mall — operated by Savers, a multinational retailer of used goods. Savers purchases donated merchandise from local charities, allowing donors to take a tax deduction and providing an added incentive for people to shop at its stores. In Madison, its stores partner with Easter Seals of Wisconsin, which expects to bring in about $200,000 from its sales to Savers this year, according to Easter Seals Executive Vice President Nance Roepke.

Ken Halstead of Richland Center loves books, which is why he was perusing the shelves at Goodwill in Nakoma Plaza, where he found some non-fiction titles at very low prices. Halstead loves getting a good deal on good books.

He used to hesitate about using thrift stores, he says, because it felt like by getting a bargain he was taking something from someone who needed it more. “That’s not true,” Halstead says today. “It supports charitable efforts. It’s green. So ethically I like it. Now, whether it’s good for an economy of debt and waste …”

So to his thinking, the countercultural aspect of shopping thrift stores makes it a win for everyone.