Two women, both of whom now run thrift shops in Mercer County, New Jersey, can trace their interest in finding and repurposing items to experiences from childhood. Although their early lives were very different, a sense of connection to family and community is a thread that connects their work.
Alison Maclean, owner and sole employee of Notable Thrift in Pennington, moved all over the world as a child. She says, “Dad was with the Army. We didn’t have a lot of money. Everything we had was thrifted from the Army base thrift shop. Each base had a thrift shop where people [left] their stuff before they did their move. That’s where we got our back-to-school [wear]. That’s where my mother got furnishings and dishes, and that’s where she disposed of stuff when we had to scale back and do our next move.”
For Leslie Gibbons, founder of Capital Thrift in Lawrence Township, it was her grandmother who initiated her interest in exchanging household items.
“I am Methodist, and Methodist fundraisers have always been rummage sales. Ever since I was a little girl, I would help my grandmother and my mother at church rummage sales,” she says.
Gibbons and Maclean’s passion for resale may seem like a throwback to an earlier time, but in fact, the demand for thrift shops is only growing. According to EarthDay.org, “From 2021 to 2023, the value of the global secondhand apparel market rose from $138 billion to $211 billion and is expected to reach $351 billion by 2027.”
An online review of Mercer County stores suggests that the region has seen a rise in thrift shops, mirroring national trends. Both Capital Thrift and Notable Thrift emphasize community—both in their stated goals and in how they choose to operate their stores.
Capital Thrift has two equal objectives, according to Gibbons, who says, “One is to give back to the community,” and the “second is to not let anything go to waste.”
After covering rent and utilities, she donates the store’s proceeds to Capital Health Auxiliary programs and the Trenton Neighborhood Initiative.
Capital Health, one of the largest health care providers in the region, operates two major medical centers and multiple outpatient facilities. The thrift shop functions under its nonprofit foundation.
Capital Thrift’s proceeds help fund food bags for hospital patients facing food insecurity, specialized equipment for the neonatal intensive care unit, and supplies to assist struggling patients experiencing mental health challenges.
A team of 24 volunteers, including Gibbons as manager, runs the store. She explains that one way to tell if a store is volunteer-run is that, in many cases, receipts will not include sales tax.
Janice Cleland has volunteered at Capital Thrift five days a week since the store opened and says, “I love coming in here, and I just love putting stuff out, arranging stuff. I even like dusting the shelves. I love researching. I love pricing. I love seeing unusual things that come in.”
Another volunteer, Kathy Saretsky, says that she volunteers because “I love thrifting, I’m a cheapskate, and I don’t really like to buy new because it’s really environmentally detrimental.”
According to Gibbons, donations are often of higher quality because donors appreciate that the store is an all-volunteer, nonprofit operation committed to the community. She says pricing is set so that items remain affordable for her customers.
In terms of her second priority, reducing waste, Gibbons says that unless an item is absolutely broken, not fixable or totally beyond repair, “it will not be going in our dumpster…we will find a place [for it].” Items not appropriate for Capital Thrift, such as furniture, are donated to other Trenton social service agencies.
Anne Catena, another volunteer at Capital Thrift, says, “Shopping here is like a treasure hunt…people donate the most amazing things, it really gets the adrenaline flowing.”
Gibbons, who spent years running fundraisers and rummage sales like the ones from her childhood, founded Capital Thrift in 2018 to create a space where customers would feel welcome—not just as shoppers, but as members of a community. She adds, “I think most of the time they just want to talk…We’d like to consider [the store] sort of a home away from home.”
At Notable Thrift in Pennington, creating a welcoming, community-centered environment is also a priority for Maclean. She says, “I’m really all about community, and I love personal connection.”
She is not on any social media, advertising the store solely via flyers, postcards and word of mouth.
Maclean’s advertising postcard presents the store’s motto: “REHOUSE, REPURPOSE, RECYCLE” and the store’s mission “to cultivate a community of earth-conscious secondhand shoppers—keeping textiles and other throwaway household goods out of our landfills.”
After spending 22 years as a stay-at-home mom, Maclean gained experience running a church thrift shop as a volunteer. She set up her business using a limited liability financial model and donates a portion of the net proceeds to the Hopewell Valley Music and Theater Parents Association.
She says, “The money that I donate back to the school is local, and it’s a big piece of our life. All four of my children did band, music and choir, musical theater.”
After hitting a milestone birthday this past summer, she says she wanted to “do something different.”
The store’s stock comes from what Maclean collects, including what she finds on the side of the road, and donations. She explains that while donors can take items to Goodwill for a tax receipt, donations to Notable Thrift stay within the local community—both in terms of resale and financial contributions to the public school.
Maclean says she additionally partners with Green Tree Textile Recycling in accepting old clothes, linens and textiles that people might otherwise just throw away, leaving them to end up in a landfill. According to Green Tree Textile Recycling’s website, 30% of what is collected is resold, and 70% is recycled as fibers for mattresses, pillows and insulation.
Maclean says that she has done “a lot of research on pricing” and that her loyal customers “love the pricing…and the good brands.”
Priscilla Torpey, a recent patron who came to the store with her husband, says, “I find thrift shops very interesting. I say, ‘Gee, I haven’t seen that [item] since 1986!’ ”
She says of Notable Thrift, “It’s fascinating the way it’s laid out—I can come here over and over and see something different five minutes after I leave the store because there is so much to see…something always catches my eye.”
Both Gibbons and Maclean say that financially, their businesses are doing “very well,” which is essential to their sustainability, but that their central focus is always community.
Maclean says that personal contact motivates her. With no online presence, word has spread through “having conversations with people and having repeat customers…and [I] love just that.”
Gibbons says, “This is a doozy of a job to manage a thrift store for free…I do this because I’m passionate about it…I love [it]. I have fun. I mean, I meet…wonderful people all the time, and I wouldn’t trade [it] for anything in the world…but it is kind of hard to do!”
This article was produced as part of MCCC’s Community Reporting “J Lab” certificate program made possible by grant funding from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and The New School: Journalism + Design.
