By Sydney Studer
Either people are taking Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop” literally, or people are recognizing they can get popular brands at a next to nothing price.
One of many shops in the area, Savers is a chain of thrift stores that was started in 1954 by a man named William O. Ellison. The first store to open was in San Francisco, California and the chain has expanded to include stores in other parts of the U.S., Canada and Australia. Each store is privately owned and has a local charity where it donates funds.
The customers who come into the stores have been changing in recent years, including the Savers on 95th Street and Nall Avenue in Overland Park.
“We have definitely seen an increase in both sales and traffic, especially among college and high school kids,” Steve Stark, store manager, said.
The cycle of Savers thrift stores begins with who their nonprofit alliance is. In Kansas City, that alliance is Big Brothers Big Sisters. Each time a donation is made to Savers, they pay Big Brothers Big Sisters.
After that, the team of workers at each store sorts the donations. Then, the highest quality donations are priced and placed in the store according to the type of merchandise.
Anna Tucker, student, said she shops in thrift stores that are in higher income areas.
“If you live in areas that have higher income brackets, you can get brand name things for really cheap,” Tucker said. “Here in Overland Park, when you walk into their thrift store, they have silver platters up front and things like that. I can get Talbots and Cold Water Creek and all kinds of brand names for really cheap.”
Even with the increase in traffic and sales, they don’t sell everything they receive. Savers has a recycling program for extra merchandise. This program prevented 600 million pounds of unsold items from being thrown into landfills, according to its website (www.savers.com).
“Whatever items we do not use on our floor does not go into the landfill,” Erika Hopkins, a manager of the Overland Park store, said. “We actually recycle them over to developing countries.”
Besides helping to create a cleaner environment and contributing to helping to fund Big Brothers Big Sisters, Hopkins said there are additional perks to shopping at Savers stores.
“If they come here to the Savers and donate, they receive a 20 percent off coupon,” Hopkins said.
Since the company’s birth, they have opened more than 315 stores and in the last 10 years have paid over $1.5 billion to local non-profits.
Contact Sydney Studer, reporting correspondent, at sstuder1@jccc.edu