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Chattanooga: Local shoppers turn to thrift stores

By: Kelli Gauthier
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Angela Smith

When nurse Susan Jones became fed up with wearing the same uniforms to work each week, she did something she’d never done before — she stepped inside a Goodwill store.

Although lately she’s had to watch her pennies more closely, Ms. Jones said she didn’t want to give up on shopping altogether. So she simply changed stores.

“I’ve cut back on everything,” she said. “I get tired of wearing the same thing, but I can’t spend $40 a pop anymore.”

Sales at many local thrift stores have increased dramatically in recent months as the prices of necessities such as gas, food and electricity have gone up. Local Goodwill stores have seen an 11 percent increase since last year in the number of customers they serve, and another 11 percent increase in sales per customer, said Angela Smith, spokeswoman for the thrift store.

“Our shoppers are spending more per visit this year than last year,” she said. “Our growth in 2008 has been approximately 4 percent to 5 percent over and above the numbers that were projected for this year, and this could very well be attributed to new customers based on the recent economic downturn.”

Nationally, Goodwill spokeswoman Lauren Lawson said store sales are up about 6 percent over 2007.

After the Salvation Army opened a store in East Ridge in November, sales from that location and one on McCallie Avenue have jumped by 94 percent, officials said. Stores in Cleveland, Tenn., are up by about 5 percent, and a new Fort Oglethorpe store is on pace to double its first month of sales, spokeswoman Kimberly George said.

The Salvation Army does not collect national statistics on sales, spokeswoman Melissa Temme said, but the organization has seen a general upward trend.

Rossville resident Carey Brown said she shops at Goodwill every couple of months for her husband and three children, but she is prepared to stop by more often if family finances require it.

“If it determines whether I can feed my family and keep the lights on or go to American Eagle, of course I’m going to come to Goodwill,” she said.

Tony Dahlberg, executive director at the Samaritan Center, a thrift store in Ooltewah, said he has seen many new customers in recent months, but August and September sales actually have fallen. There was an upward trend earlier in the year, which Mr. Dahlberg attributed to the economic stimulus checks issued by the government.

“Because of increased gas, increased food prices, people (were) looking for ways to make their dollars stretch, and with the stimulus checks they had a way to do that,” he said. “But now it’s all dried up.”

There is typically a decline in sales after back-to-school shopping is over, Mr. Dahlberg said, but lately customers just have been spending less money.

“It was deeper this year, the slowdown in sales,” he said.

At the same time sales have increased at local Goodwill stores, Ms. Smith said, donations have not kept pace with projections, perhaps because people are holding onto their items longer.

“(Donations) were lower than we would have expected,” she said.

Salvation Army’s Ms. Temme said they, too, have seen a decrease in donations nationwide.

“It puts us in a predicament because it means we have less and less product to sell to more and more people,” she said.

In Chattanooga, however, Ms. George said local Salvation Army stores have not suffered.

“Chattanooga has always been a generous community,” she said. “Regardless of our need, when we put it out there and ask Chattanoogans, they’re always great to respond.”

America’s Thrift Stores, a for-profit operation that runs 13 stores in Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana, including one in Chattanooga, has had a 6 percent or 7 percent increase in sales over this time last year, President Tim Alvis said.

He said the company has struggled for the past two years, and the growth is “nothing more than normal.”

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