Wearhouse Consignment Shop owner Jill Hartman is selling a lot of old clothes to new customers.
As food and fuel prices continue to climb, budget-conscious local shoppers are tightening their belts and exploring new territory: consignment, thrift and resale shops.
At Hartman’s Landisville store, clothing sales have jumped 20 percent since last year.
“We’ve just been bonkers, busy, crazy — a lot of new faces looking to save some money on name-brand clothes,” Hartman says.
“The economy does come up (in conversation), especially gas prices.”
According to the National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops, 75 percent of secondhand stores nationwide report higher sales, with an average increase of 30 percent.
Eighty percent of the stores are seeing more new customers. Many also report more new consignors of clothing and household goods.
Manager Lucas Gonzalez says new customers are flooding the Goodwill store, 2353 Lincoln Highway East, especially middle-class families looking for affordable clothing and furniture.
“Our prices are bringing them in,” he says. “They just can’t afford to shop the big retailers now, with the way everything’s going with the economy.”
