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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] To save cash, more turn to thrift stores
  • Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:40:29 -0600


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008065187_goodwill22.html


To save cash, more turn to thrift stores

Leopoldo and Francisca Amezcua are having trouble finding jobs. "We were
picking cherries in Naches, but now they're laying people off and...

By Jean Guerrero


Vela Henderson shops for clothes at the Goodwill of the Yakima Valley store
on Friday. Thrift stores are experiencing record sales because of national
economic instability.

Leopoldo and Francisca Amezcua are having trouble finding jobs.

"We were picking cherries in Naches, but now they're laying people off and
there's no more work," Leopoldo said in Spanish.

To cope, the couple shops at Goodwill twice a week, trying to stretch the
value of each dollar.

"Goodwill is the store for intelligent people," Francisca said. "They have
everything here, like in normal stores, but you can choose things for a more
economic price."

In the Yakima Valley, Goodwill and similar thrift stores are seeing record
sales.

And it's not just the Yakima Valley. The National Association of Resale &
Thrift Shops (NARTS) reports that a recent survey shows sales were
dramatically up at more than 75 percent of its 1,000 store members.

So far this year, Goodwill's sales across much of Washington are up 6 percent
above last year's record 23 percent jump.

Several factors are involved, but one of the biggest reasons is the economy,
said Matthew Erlich, spokesman for Tacoma Goodwill, which operates 20
Washington stores, including the one in Yakima. The stores saw $32.6 million
in sales last year.

St. Vincent de Paul Center, a thrift store in Union Gap, said it hasn't had a
notable sales increase but has seen growing numbers of people asking for free
assistance from its emergency programs, including food and money donations.

At the Goodwill in the Yakima Valley, offerings include clothing, furniture
and other household items.

Among recent shoppers was Bonnie Albano, an employee of Yakima Valley
Community College, who said she visits thrift stores at least every two
weeks. She said she's been trying especially hard to save money now that gas
prices are so high.

She said she usually buys clothes because she has three teenage grandchildren
in her custody who go through them very quickly.



"One week they want to wear jeans, and the next week they want to wear
shorts, so they cut up their jeans," Albano said. "I really like the
affordability [at Goodwill]."

She said she also buys used movies at the thrift store.

"We don't go to the movies anymore because money is so tight, so I try to buy
movies they haven't seen so we can spend some family time together," she said.

There is no typical resale shopper, according to NARTS, which is based in St.
Clair Shores, Mich.

Shoppers come from all economic levels, some driven by the need to save money
and others by the excitement of finding a treasure, according to the
organization.

One survey showed about 16 to 18 percent of Americans will shop at a thrift
store during a given year, according to NARTS.

"I'm trying to save money everywhere I can," said Kim Mason, who was looking
for a dress to buy for her daughter. "I like Goodwill because it's very
organized and all the clothes and stuff are in good shape."

Pam Corbray, a Memorial Hospital employee, said Goodwill offers the best
items in the best price range, so she prefers it over other thrift stores.

"I'm here every Friday — 100 percent more often than ever before," she said.
"I thought I'd have the opportunity to spend more money on myself now that
I'm home alone, but with prices in gas and utilities going up, it's pretty
much forced me to become a bargain shopper."

Brigitte Cochran, manager of the Yakima Goodwill, said she's surprised by the
number of people coming in this summer.

"We have the regulars coming in, but then there's also more and more people
we haven't seen before," she said.

She said the Yakima Goodwill held a large sale on July 4, and she was
astonished at how many people showed up that Friday night. The store was full
even when the fireworks were getting started, she said.

Tacoma Goodwill donates 90 percent of its income to its three workforce
development offices in Tacoma, Longview and Yakima. With job training and
placement programs, the offices help connect more than 1,000 disabled and
low-income individuals to jobs at Goodwill or elsewhere each year.

Goodwill accepts and sells donations from the public, mostly clothing and
other household items.

"If you'd give it to a friend, then it's something we can accept," Erlich
said.

Cochran said donations that can't be used are sent to Third World countries
or recycled by other companies who can salvage them.

Despite an increase in customers, she said she was worried that the economic
downturn would mean falling donations.

But she said the only decrease she's seen is in the amount of shoes the
Yakima Goodwill receives.

"I guess it's because people can make do with three or four pairs of shoes,
so they don't buy as many as they used to and don't have as many to donate,"
she said.

In every other area, she said, people are still interested in downsizing.
After yard sales, people don't want to take leftovers back into the house,
and when people move in from out of town, they realize they brought too much
stuff and donate the excess. When they move out of town, they donate what
they can't take with them, she said.





  • [Livingontheland] To save cash, more turn to thrift stores, Tradingpost, 07/22/2008

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