Budget crunch leads shoppers to thrift stores

As the state of the economy decreases, sales and new clientele are increasing at local thrift stores.

With the national economy in a recession, people are looking for ways to cut costs and tighten their budgets. Several thrift stores in Onslow County reported seeing rising sales and a large number of new customers over the past several months.

"Lately we've had a lot of new customers that hadn't been in before and they seem to enjoy our prices," said Deb Hall, manager of Finders Keepers thrift store in the New River Shopping Center. "I think the economy also definitely has brought some people in."

Goodwill Industries as a whole saw an increase in unfamiliar faces shopping with them, but did not see a large increase in customers or sales overall, said Becky Lytle, a spokeswoman for Goodwill.

 "(One) thing that I have been told by a lot of our store managers is, the clientele - they saw new people shopping in the stores that had never shopped there before ... that perhaps ... out of necessity began shopping with us that had never shopped with us before," Lytle said.

The Salvation Army thrift store on Center Street has seen a 25 percent increase in sales recently, said Ed Kubica, the store's manager.

"Our daily sales ... we went from making about $650 a day to usually averaging about $900," he said. "More people are coming here and buying that haven't bought before."

Kubica said that while the store has reduced its prices, revenue was made up in the volume of items sold.

Richlands resident Janet Sidings said she now shops at the Salvation Army thrift store for clothes, something she remembers her mother doing.

"I shopped here for clothes before Christmas so I could use the money I saved to buy presents. My mother used to when I was a little girl; now I understand," said Sidings, who has a 3-year-old daughter.

While the Infant of Prague thrift store on Lejeune Boulevard hasn't seen a vast increase in sales, they aren't losing sales either.

"It's been sporadic really. We've had some days there's been more than others - I mean it's just the way the economy is," said Joe Frank, manager of the thrift store.

Unlike the Infant of Prague thrift store, the Hem of His Garment thrift store in Swansboro has seen a decrease in sales, although customers still visit the store.

"We've actually experienced a decline," said store manager Jeff Wilson. "It hasn't stopped the traffic. The people still come, they just don't spend like they used to ... I am seeing some new faces, but again they're just reserved in their spending."

Wilson said he thinks the decline may be the result of customers being nervous about the current state of the economy.

"People are scared and they're turning on the TV at every turn and they're hearing about all this financial disaster that apparently is going on and they're just waiting for the shoe to hit them," Wilson said. "People are just scared to death and you can't blame them ... I think they're just waiting for it to happen to them so they're just holding out."

While clothing donations remain at the normal level at the Salvation Army thrift store, Kubica said they are seeing a decrease in larger, big ticket items.

"I tend to say that our clothing donations have not went down at all but some of our appliances and furniture donations have decreased slightly," he said. "People are holding on to big ticket items ... or taking it to ... consignment shops."

Wilson and Frank said donations at Hem of His Garment and the Infant of Prague thrift store have also remained steady.

At Act II Consignment and Rental Service on Lejeune Boulevard they've also seen a slight increase in business during the past year as the strain of the economy takes its toll on people's wallets.

"I work here every day, I think it's been a lot better this year than it's been last year," said Fran Kinev, sales associated at Act II.

Kinev said she expects traffic and sales at the store to increase with the New Year.

"I think we will (see an increase), we haven't yet," she said. "We haven't seen much more of that yet but I believe that we will."

Contact Jacksonville/Onslow government reporter Molly DeWitt at 910-219-8455 or mdewitt@freedomeenc.com.