Hospital Thrift Shop Is Next to None : Birthdays: Next-to-New and its volunteer staff celebrate 30 years of bargains. The store has generated about $1 million for Glendale Memorial.

Thrift shops have always been known for having unusual merchandise at low prices, but this month, the Next-to-New Shop in Glendale is adding a new feature to its lore: longevity.

The shop at 210 E. Broadway is turning 30. It was opened in 1960 by the Glendale Memorial Hospital Guild of Volunteers to generate income for hospital projects. In its 30 years, the shop has contributed about $1 million to the hospital, spokesman Bryan Bishop said. Last year, the store made about $38,000.

Next-to-New has been managed over the years by many volunteers, most of them women. But today, it is the domain of Alex Arszno, serving his second one-year term as chairman.

Arszno, 76, is a Glendale resident and lives just a few blocks from the shop. He comes in every morning before it opens to arrange the merchandise and tidy up, he said.

He only works Saturdays but drops in every afternoon just to make sure all is going smoothly. Even on Sundays, when the shop is closed, Arszno comes in to check the inventory.

The store sells clothing, shoes, appliances, costume jewelry and an assortment of knickknacks. Clothing is its biggest seller, but it has had its share of unusual items such as antiques and musical instruments, said Ila May Nyquist, a charter member of the guild.

Nyquist has been with the shop since it opened and said that among the objects that have come through the store and brought in the most money are musical instruments.

“Once we had a violin. It wasn’t a Stradivarius, but we got quite a bit of money for it,” she said.

Recently, Arszno donated a Yugoslavian accordion, which he had kept since immigrating from Germany, where he was a prisoner during World War II. It went on sale for $75.

“It stayed in my closet for a long time,” he said. “I never play, so I gave it away.”

Occasionally, customers come from film studios and theater costume shops looking for older or unusual clothing to be used in their productions.

More common are those who need to stretch their dollars.

“We get young people that want to furnish an apartment,” volunteer Dorothy Baillie said. “Fifty dollars buys lots of stuff here.”

Arszno said he occasionally lowers prices for those who cannot afford what they want. Everyone wins, he said, because the customer can take the merchandise, and the store has made a sale.

Arszno exhorts the other volunteers, who number more than 30 and are mostly senior citizens, to enjoy their work as much as he does.

“I say, ‘Be happy. It is our last job. We go from here to Forest Lawn,’ ” Arszno said with a laugh.

When he retired after 27 years of working, most recently in shipping and receiving, Arszno took ceramics classes but found he wanted more activity.

“I went to the hospital, and they say, ‘Alex, we can keep you here,’ ” he said.

He became a volunteer with the guild in 1980, and they sent him to the thrift shop, where he has been ever since.

Over the years, Arszno has had to deal with shoplifters on occasion and has caught a few red-handed. But he handles problems with a sense of humor.

Once he caught a young man trying to take a pair of pants by putting them over his own pants, Arszno said.

“I said, ‘Next time you wear bigger pants and then put the others under yours,’ ” he said with a laugh.

Arszno credits simple friendliness with the store’s success.

“When you like people, they notice. The face shows when you like them,” he said.

In recent years, the hospital has used the proceeds from the Next-to-New Shop for improvements such as the purchase of a $90,000 mammography machine, spokesman Bishop said.

Last year’s contribution went into the hospital’s new Heart and Emergency Center, which is currently under construction, Bishop said. The guild has pledged to contribute $1 million over the next five years for the new facility.

As part of the shop’s 30th anniversary, the shop will have an open house today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and a reunion of past presidents of the guild.

The Next-to-New Shop is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.