WESTWOOD, N.J.—It’s a sad ending to a 63-year success story, as Our Thrift Shop, at 245 Old Hook Road, finds itself with only weeks left to serve.
The last day of sales is Nov. 15. The lease is up at the end of the month. Local charities have pledged to make good use of whatever remains after the final retail push—though it’s not clear how organizers are going to get the heavier fixtures out.
“Due to the pandemic and the loss of revenue for over six months, we have been unable to stay in business,” said Suzi Gerace, an artist and designer, on behalf of manager Vivien Woodford, 94, and a dwindling roster of other volunteers.
Woodford told Pascack Press on Oct. 28, “I’m sad. It was this pandemic.”
Our Thrift Shop was originally a fundraiser for the Pascack Valley Hospital. When the hospital closed in 2007 it reopened to benefit the nonprofit Art School at Old Church in Demarest.
Our Thrift Shop’s five showrooms are rich in affordable quality clothing, shoes and accessories, housewares, books, children’s items, works of art, and more—all packed into 2,500 square feet.
The shop is having a liquidation sale and everything must go. All clothing is $2 and all other merchandise is at greatly reduced prices. The shop will be open Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“Please come and see us and take advantage of the great bargains. For safety purposes we are taking temperatures, using hand sanitizer and are requiring masks and social distancing. We will also be selling racks, bookcases and other store fixtures,” Gerace said.
She added, “It has been a pleasure to take generous donations and distribute them to our local residents. We will miss you all.”
Garace told Pascack Press, “In March, when we closed, we had rent of more than $5,000 a month. We had all these expenses and no income. The landlord cut the rent for a while, but then when we opened in September—with temperature checks at the door, restricted occupancy, hand sanitizer and other precautions—our staff didn’t want to come to work. And he [landlord Nick Theisz] wanted his money.”
She added, “A lot of our people are older volunteers, so their health is at risk. Vivien can’t really be exposed to strangers coming in and out of the door; we we keep her home and try to protect her so that she’s not with the masses.”
She said receipts have been about $200 a day since reopening.
“It’s not enough. The best thing would be for people to come and buy our stuff so we can get rid of it,” she said.
Gerace said the Salvation Army, the Lions Club, and the American Veterans have promised to put leftover goods to work, and that Our Thrift Shop supports a thrift store in southern Vermont and a mission to Haiti. “We don’t want it to go into the landfill; people can be using it.”
She added, “At one point we had 30 or so volunteers, and now we have like 12, and that’s because of covid. Some of our senior citizens have passed on. Younger people don’t want to do it.”
Of Woodford, she said, “Vivien’s a pip. She’s been running it for 20 years. But what’s she going to do? I mean, is altruism dead?”
And, Gerace suggested, the loss will be felt in ways that can’t be seen on a balance sheet.
“We have people that come into the thrift store at least once a week, maybe even more often, just to talk. They come in, they shop around, maybe they buy something for $1, but there are people who need to talk to somebody. I mean it’s literally a community service, or has been,” she said.
In addition to the closeout sale, Woodford is hosting a pop-up sale the weekend of Oct. 31 at her home, at 42 Prescott St. in Demarest, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
We reached out to the Art School at Old Church for comment. They’re between executive directors and we couldn’t reach anybody authorized to discuss this by press time.
Landlord: ‘We don’t chase people out’
Landlord Nick Theisz said as soon as the shutdown began he cut the shop’s roughly $5,000 rent by more than half and carried the losses for months. When the store was allowed to reopen, he said, he didn’t see a lot of activity.
“We’re not going to reduce your rent forever. Their problem is they can’t get help. They can’t get enough people to staff it and make some money. You know, they’re all volunteers,” he told Pascack Press on Oct. 28.
Theisz is a driver with the Washington Township Volunteer Ambulance Corps. His wife, Naomi, is a corps EMT. Together they own four commercial properties on Old Hook Road, including medical offices.
He added, “It’s not us: We gave them a whole lot of different options of things they could do… but nobody said anything. It’s like nobody wants to talk to anybody; I don’t understand it.”
He said he’s leased to the shop for 15 or 20 years and presented several options to keep them.
“We don’t chase people out. We try to make it work for them. We said go month to month and see how it goes. Nobody said anything.”
He said he’s had some tenants for 30 years and understands their pain. “It’s not great! It’s not easy for the tenants. A lot of them have lost employees who won’t come back to work; they have restrictions on how many people they can see. It’s very difficult for everybody. They’re starting to build their businesses back.”
Asked if he had any leads on a replacement tenant, he said, “Do you want to move your operation into ours? It’s a great location. Everybody knows where it is. It’s got parking. It’s got everything you could want.”