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CLINTON TOWNSHIP — It’s 10 a.m. on a Friday. Shoppers are lined up at the door. A sales associate unlocks the door and moves out of the way as a tidal wave of thrifters pours through the narrow passage. They grab their carts and move around the outlet store’s floor, going from bin to pile to sift through a seemingly endless stream of raw clothes, hoping to be the one to strike gold first.
This is not Black Friday, nor miners in the hills of California in 1849. This is the Clinton Township Salvation Army store, and these shoppers are here to shop by the pound.
Located at the 34150 Gratiot Avenue Salvation Army outlet, the by the pound store event allows shoppers to have a chance at selecting from freshly donated clothing — garments and shoes pulled straight from donation bins and brought out on tables — rather than picking the normally processed and curated donations for sale. What they found is bundled together and purchased in bulk for $1.89 per pound for clothes and $3.49 per pound for shoes.
It’s easy to imagine that without the usual processing and curating that is done in other thrift store arrangements, potentially valuable items would slip through cracks. This is exactly the case with the by the pound arrangement, which Lori Bricolas, manager of the Clinton Township Salvation Army, calls “a reseller’s dream.”
“It’s a big treasure hunt,” Bricolas said.
Treasures abound in the mountains of donated clothing. Rodney Bivins, lead sales associate at the Clinton Township Salvation Army, found a brand-new peacoat — tags still on it — on one of the tables in the outlet. Bricolas donated her husband’s Italian suits to the store to be part of the by the pound selection. Designer garments and purses, fur coats, athletic jackets and jewelry have all found their way onto the by the pound tables over the past seven years.
“Some of everything that was made comes through the pound store, because people donate everything,” Bivins said. “Everybody has their different choices of what they buy, and a lot of times we get expensive things.”
Patrick Hardy, a regular by the pound shopper, was decked from head-to-toe in a Porsche hat, Red Wings sweater and blue jeans that were all found in the Salvation Army’s raw donation piles.
“Honestly, just searching for stuff is fun,” Hardy said. “I like the thrill of finding things … It’s exciting to be here.”
By the pound shopping began at the Clinton Township Salvation Army in December 2018. It was initially open six days a week, Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., though COVID-19 saw the dates scale back to only three days a week. The schedule has expanded steadily over the 2020s with the store announcing in late February that by the pound shopping was back to its original Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. schedule.
“The word spreads (about by the pound) and everybody wants to see it, and they come out,” Bivins said. “By the days increasing, everything started to elevate … We made more money as (dates) were added on. Everybody who, comes we try to treat them with respect with the best kindness and politeness we can, so that way they get a good report when they take the word back out. It’s mainly about word of mouth (growth).”
During its time the program has attracted attention from cash-conscious shoppers of all stripes. Sales associate Jordan Langel estimates there are at least 100 steady regulars. New faces stop by on a regular basis, while Bricolas regularly notices around “30 new faces” coming through.
“We see the same faces all the time, but every day we are seeing new faces as well,” Langel said.
Bevins said some of that growth comes from people getting curious through word of mouth.
Bricolas thinks younger, college-aged shoppers find the sustainability factor of affordable thrifted clothing appealing, along with people treating by the pound shopping as a destination activity.
For Mark Comstock, one of the shoppers on this Friday morning, it is the “thrill of the hunt” that keeps him coming back on a regular basis.
“You never know what you’re going to find,” Comstock said. “Tons of amazing stuff comes out on a regular basis and it’s just fun to dig and see what you can find … I find a lot of vintage clothing. I’m a collector of vintage clothing, so this is probably the best place to find it.”
While the potential for deals and steals on goods is high given the bulk pricing and unpredictable nature of the clothing on offer, what is certain is how the money will be used. Funds raised through the Clinton Township Salvation Army store and other Salvation Army locations are used to support the organization’s adult rehabilitation centers, which allow people facing substance abuse to stay for six-month visits in order to cause “behavioral change by redirecting addictive thoughts and replacing addictive habits” through spiritual counseling, education and “work therapy,” according to centralusa.salvationarmy.org.
Bricolas is an alumnus of the Fort Street ARC in Detroit, which can provide shelter and services for up to 300 people at a time.
“(ARC participants) are provided (for),” Bricolas said. “They stay there for six months; it’s a six-month program. They’re provided their counseling, their spiritual counseling, food, haircuts, clothing … and blankets, just all the resources that (you) would need to stabilize yourself again and prepare yourself for going back out for the rebuild of your life.
“I’m a very, very strong believer in this program, and that’s what all of our proceeds go to,” he said.
Bricolas has been sober for 12 years since leaving the program and is one of numerous Salvation Army employees hired out of ARCs.
By the pound shopping is open at the 34150 Gratiot Avenue Salvation Army in Clinton Township from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The main retail store is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
