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FARMINGTON – Touch of Class is humming.
Customers pull items from racks and hold them up to the light for inspection; workers bring new items from the stockroom in back. And the register is busy. Over all this hangs a pleasant scent of purpose and prosperity, or maybe it’s just the fresh odor of the air fresheners.
The nation’s economy may be in the tank, but Touch of Class’ Wilton Road store and its sister location in downtown Farmington are busy, with sales numbers staying up there and more customers than ever coming through the doors.
It’s a scenario a lot of retailers would love to see.
Touch of Class and Touch of Class Too are thrift stores, dealing in donated items. In these economically troubled times thrift stores are doing quite well, thank you.
The fact that Touch of Class offers quality goods in a boutique atmosphere that’s as far as you can get from most people’s memories of shopping dusty, musty secondhand stores doesn’t hurt.
“We wanted it to be a place that would be attractive to every person, so people would feel like they’re shopping upscale,” said Linda LaRue-Keniston, the executive director of Work First, Inc., the 36-year-old program for adults with developmentally disabled that operates the two stores.
These days LaRue-Keniston said, the stores are benefiting from the fact that thrift is trendy; recycling and reuse are in, and “green” is almost everyone’s favorite color. Plus, people know that the money they spent — typically 2.99 to 10.99 an item, goes to help pay the men and women with developmental disabilities who work there.
It’s feel good all around.
LaRue-Keniston doesn’t just talk up the stores’ bargains, she wears them. “I don’t wear anything but clothes I buy at the thrift store,” she said.
All of the items the stores sell are in good condition – dirty, torn or worn stuff is weeded out. Much of it has been lightly worn, some not at all. Some still bears the original retailer’s tag.
Prices range from $2.99 for a good t-shirt to $10.99 for a pair of jeans. Name brand clothing, often in like-new condition is priced slightly higher.
Customers rave in Touch of Class’ store guest books.
“Great prices! Tons of cool stuff,” said a woman from Norridgewock in one entry.
“Nice stores. I come here all the time. I get something almost every time because you guys have low prices,” wrote another.
“Very nice place. When I’m back this way I’m bringing my mom,” wrote a woman from Windsor.
The two thrift stores draw customers from throughout Maine and even New Hampshire and Vermont. Some make a stop there a regular part of their Maine vacation experience.
Work First founded the first Touch of Class store about a decade ago at its 309 Wilton Road address, less than a mile from downtown Farmington. In 2006 the already wildly successful store moved into a new 5,000 square foot, $1 million building that any retailer would be proud of. Last year it opened Touch of Class Too in leased and renovated space on Broadway.
Sales have grown virtually every year before leveling off this year, perhaps due to the economy.
Kristi Powell, the head clerk at the Wilton Road store, said sales revenues may not be increasing, but foot traffic in the store continues to go up. As many as 200 people shop there on weekdays and on Saturdays, the store’s biggest day, it can easily reach 450.
“People who once would have been embarrassed to come into a thrift store aren’t any more,” she said. It may be the boutique ambiance or the like-new merchandise, but for many people these days the prices make a big difference.
“I get a lot of people who say, ‘Thank you so much, we’re able to buy our kids school clothes. We can’t afford new, but these are like new.'”
LaRue-Keniston loves stories like that, but she emphasizes that the stores’ biggest benefit is to the people with developmental disabilities who work there – hanging and steaming clothes, sorting donations, helping out on the sales floor and learning to use the register.
As many as 15 of the agency’s 67 “consumers” may work in the two stores on a given day, up to 40 put in time there during the week. They get paid for it, and its meaningful work that helps bring meaning to their lives.
“Quite honestly, I like making a paycheck,” according to Sherrie Zlotnick who is learning to work the register. “I also like the customers, but the paycheck is the best.”
“I like steaming and earning money,” says Stacy Greenman.
Knowing that their shopping habits are making a difference in the lives of real people: “Many customers mention it to us,” LaRue-Keniston said. “The donations are also made with comments, such as, ‘it feels good knowing that the clothes are staying local and that I’m supporting people with disabilities. It is truly a win-win situation.”
