COLUMBIA, Mo. — Forget about the outdated notion of thrift shops as the refuge of the working poor, the down and out or the vintage fashion hipster. In these troubled times, the powerful lure of a secondhand retail bargain is attracting a whole new breed of customer.
The Salvation Army and Goodwill Industries International, the nation’s two largest charitable resale organizations, report year-to-date sales increases of 6 percent to 15 percent.
The gains are even more pronounced in the private sector. In an industry trade group survey of more than 200 resale and thrift shops, nearly two-thirds of those businesses reported higher sales in 2008 compared with the previous year. The average sales increase: 35 percent.
Consumers “can’t change the price of gas. They can’t change the price of food. They can’t make the stock market go up again,” said Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Association of Resale &Thrift Shops. “But they can control the price of clothes and furniture by being a savvy shopper.”
Savers Inc., a for-profit thrift store chain based in Bellevue, has had a 10 percent growth rate, said chief executive officer Ken Alterman. The company now has 220 Savers and Value Village stores in the United States, Canada and Australia, and expects to open 25 new stores in each of the next several years.
According to Alterman, 75 percent of the company’s customers are college educated, with an average income between $50,000 and $65,000. Thirty percent of its customers have household incomes exceeding $100,000, he said.
Some of the chain’s most successful stores are in Redmond, home to Microsoft; the high-end waterfront in Victoria, B.C.; and the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
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