Resale and consignment operations picking up the business
By MARY NEVANS-PEDERSON TH staff writer
www.thonline.com

Times are tough and getting tougher. Gas and food costs are up and consumers have to pay the price.

But shoppers are cutting corners where they can, and buying used items is one way to stretch a family's budget.

"Look, everything is more expensive so we're trying to save as much as possible," said Michelle Anderson, of Dubuque, as she shopped for clothes for her three children at the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store Monday. "I have to budget every little penny. We limit our driving and I come here or to the other thrift stores more often."

In another aisle, Wendy Puccio, of Dubuque, was searching for computer disks, dishes and clothes. She stops in the store every other day to see what bargains she can find. "We're cutting back to the bare necessities and we don't go out any more. We're just hoping for the best," she said.

Puccio and Anderson are part of a growing retail trend -- shoppers opting to buy "gently used" items at a fraction of the cost of new.

The Salvation Army and Goodwill Industries International, the nation's two largest charitable resale organizations, report year-to-date sales increases of 6 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 to the previous year. The average sales increase: 35 percent.

Heidi Woodyard has three boys to buy for -- a 7-year-old and 7-month-old twins. Monday she was scouring the racks at Little Folks Trading Post looking for deals.

"If I had to pay full price, I would probably go without a lot of things, especially special occasion clothes that they only wear once," said Woodyard, who also brings back clothes to sell on consignment.

But the consignment business is going so well that there is a three-month wait for new consignees, said owner Roberta Cunningham, who opened the store a year ago as the sole worker. She now employees a staff of 20 at Little Folks and The Hanger, her brand new store for teens and young adults next door.

"We see business increasing all the time and from all income levels," Cunningham said. She is gearing up for more shoppers to come through her doors as consumers continue to tighten their collective belts.

Mark Burns knows when someone is new to thrift store shopping.

"They sort of slink along the side at first," said Burns with a smile, as he watched over the operations of the Dubuque Rescue Mission Resale Store. "But they quickly become regulars when they see what good quality things we have and how low our prices are."

There are a lot of new faces at the Mission store, Burns said.

"We're getting a broader range of people who were used to shopping at discount stores and now they don't have the discretionary income to buy new," he said.

-- The Associated Press contributed

Keeping the cost of growing up...down!