University of Kansas student Caitlin Bubna seldom comes home to Colony without driving on to Iola so she can shop at the Senior Thrift Store, 223 N. State.
She was there Monday afternoon as volunteers dug through plastic sacks and boxes filled with clothing and household goods, castoffs from Saturday’s citywide garage sale.
“We always get a lot after the citywide, but this is more than usual,” said volunteer Richard Houston, as he peered into an 8- by 14-foot room. “This room’s usually empty. Look at it now.”
The room was crammed, with just enough space to open the door.
“It’ll take a while to go through all of that,” Houston said.
Bubna was doing her part to reduce the store’s inventory. The upcoming senior in art and design had an armload, including a chic purse, and was searching for more. She wears clothing she buys at the shop, purchased at below bargain-basement prices. If a piece catches her eye but isn’t quite the right size, Bubna buys it just the same.
“I alter things that don’t quite fit,” she said. She also recycles some of her purchases through friends and outlets in Lawrence.
“This is one of my favorite places to shop,” Bubna said. “Every time I come home from college, I come down here. I’ve been coming since I was in middle school.”
HOUSTON, his wife, Cece, and Suzanne Hobbs were busy sizing donations and getting them to the right place in the shop.
“We take anything people want to bring, and we try to move it quickly. We’re grateful to get all we did. We were starting to get a little empty,” Cece Houston said.
This year’s citywide harvest was possibly the largest ever, Richard Houston said. “We have lots of bargains now,” he noted.
In addition to bargains inside, pieces of large furniture were outside, free for the taking. Several people were picking through them, including two whose bounties were limited by their rides: one a bicycle and the other a motorized wheelchair.
Prices are right, and if someone is sent by Hope Unlimited or a charitable organization, clothing is free.
“No one has to be without something to wear,” Houston said, noting that a grocery sack filled with shirts is $1, shoes 20 cents a pair and jeans 25 cents apiece. Coats, an off-season item, are on sale at half price, 25 cents each.
Small electrical appliances are a fraction of their original price: $3 to $4 at the most, and dishes are 10 cents each.
The store has been a successful Iola fixture for about 30 years. Even at the rock-bottom prices, proceeds have allowed the seniors to donate more than $21,000 to local charities.
“We want to help out, with clothing, other things and the money we bring in,” Houston said.
Anyone is welcome to shop the store, open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to noon the second Saturday of each month.
