As economy sours, thrift shops see spike in sales

Holidays: times for drinking hot cocoa, putting up decorations, building snowmen, attending religious ceremonies, spending time with family and stressing over presents.

This holiday season, however, consumers are searching for stores that will stretch their dollars. That’s good news for area thrift shops, which are experiencing an increase in sales.

Cindy Graham, vice resident of marketing for Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana said the sales for the 38 area Goodwill retail stores are up 3 percent for October.

“(That) doesn’t sound like a lot, but most retailers aren’t seeing an increase. They’re seeing a decrease,” Graham said. “The economy is bringing in some new shoppers because it makes sense to stretch your retail dollar where you can.”

The Manchester, New Hampshire-based American Research Group predicts that only 14 percent of shoppers will pay full price for gifts this holiday season.

Jonathan Fitzgerald, lieutenant of Bloomington’s Salvation Army, said store sales from last month are higher than in past years.

“The stores sales were higher in the last two months,” Fitzgerald said. “Also we’ve been the administrators here for only six months. It could be just a different emphasis or it could be the economy.”

The increases at Goodwill and Salvation Army should brighten Fitzgerald’s and Graham’s holiday smiles.

However, because the inventory at those stores comes from donations, Graham said she’s worried that the lackluster economy could affect future product drop-offs.

“What we don’t know is if consumers buy fewer new goods, if down the road that means they’ll have less used goods to give to us,” Graham said. “That’s not saying we don’t need donations. We always do. That’s how we fill the retail stores.”

With year-end tax-deductions on the mind, Graham said the week before Christmas and New Years is always a busy one.

In a survey done by the National Retail Federation, 69 percent of consumers said they planned to do their holiday shopping at discount stores. Fitzgerald said he believes the Salvation Army’s sales spike reflects the current economic challenges.

“If people have to choose between buying at a cheaper thrift store versus buying what they traditionally might have bought at Wal-Mart, then they come to our thrift store,” he said, “because of the cheaper prices and because they don’t have the income to support maybe what they were doing previously.”