Christmas Good as New

Nordstrom, Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s aren’t the only stores enjoying big sales this holiday season.

Cash registers are also ringing nonstop at Goodwill and other secondhand stores around the county.

“We had an outrageous day after Thanksgiving,” said Dana Sanders, assistant manager of a Ventura thrift store operated by the Coalition Against Household Violence. “We rang up over 1,000 individual sales here.”

According to Sanders, people shop at thrift stores primarily for two reasons: the affordable prices, and they are hunting for merchandise they will only use once a year, like Christmas decorations.

“We track our departments in December, and you can always count on our bric-a-brac, which is the Christmas stuff, and our toys being the biggest sellers,” Sanders said.

Things are no different at the thrift store operated by Lutheran Social Services in Newbury Park.

“I can’t get the Christmas stuff, like tree trimmings, out fast enough,” said store manager Eileen Riske. “We bag it and sell it for 25 cents a bag. We’re doing terrifically.”

Most cities have their share of thrift shops. But Ventura’s Main Street boasts the county’s largest selection of secondhand stores, many of which are doing brisk holiday business.

Toys, of course, are among the most popular items. The $6.99 boogie board may be slightly scuffed, and the soft, cuddly $1 teddy bear may be missing a button eye, but no matter.

One person’s discards are another’s treasure, as some shop owners can attest.

“Our No. 1 sales item in December is toys--kids’ items,” said Steve Miller, manager of the store operated by the Retarded Citizens outlet (ARC). “We get bikes in--we sell a nice kid’s bike for $10 or $15. We get in lots of toys you can tell have been played with maybe 20 minutes. We get cleaned out of our toys every weekend in December.”

Miller said he has noticed something new at his store--a constant stock of used computers. He thinks parents buy them for their children to play games and practice on. Prices for used computers top out at $150 and work down.

A clerk at the ARC thrift store for 21 years, Mary Delara listed some of the items she has seen people carry out of the store during past holiday shopping sprees.

“Party clothes, like cocktail dresses that you only wear once a year. Also nice dishes to decorate their tables with at Christmas. And decorations.”

Delara said December is also when shoppers buy a lot of warm sweaters and jackets. “But I think that’s because it’s cold, not because [they are] Christmas presents.”

The atmosphere can be surprisingly upbeat in these secondhand stores. People shop as avidly as they would at Macy’s or a Versace boutique. A face will break into a wreath of a smile when someone discovers just what he or she is looking for--at a bargain price.

“People are able to buy things in their budget range, so that’s good,” said Cliff Ward, manager of the Coalition store.

But even thrift-store prices can be difficult for some to meet.

A woman and her adolescent son earnestly approached a clerk at the Coalition checkout counter recently. The boy held a Styrofoam boogie board that looked like it had been taken into the ocean only once. Price: $6.99.

“Ma’am, what time does the store close?” the mother asked.

The clerk answered 5 p.m., as the woman pointed at the boogie board that her son clutched in his hands.

“Could you hold this for us until 5 o’clock?” she asked. “I just need to get home to get a little more money.”

But the clerk said that the store has a no-hold policy.

At the Humane Society thrift store five blocks up Main Street, a volunteer reported booming business, like the other thrift stores.

“We get all economic levels of people in here, not just poor people, and they’re buying gifts. We also sell quite a lot of clothing that people take to Mexico for presents at Christmastime.”

In the nearby Goodwill store, shopper Eddie Gregory pointed out that thrift stores fill a gap in many lives year-round. “There’s a lot of people in Ventura County struggling to survive. I’ll come here to buy my 13-year-old daughter a Christmas present--it’s all I can afford.”