CNN has an article on the increase of middle and upper-class customers who shop at thrift stores. Here’s an excerpt:

The Salvation Army store in Dublin, Georgia, located halfway between Atlanta and Savannah, has seen its sales increase by 50 percent this year, said store operator Gary Spivey. The comparative affluence of his new customers is obvious.

“We’re seeing a lot more middle-class and upper-class customers we haven’t seen before,” he said. “Without even asking, you can just look in the parking lot (at their cars).”

Savers Inc., a for-profit thrift store chain based in Bellevue, Washington, has had a 10 percent growth rate, said chief executive officer Ken Alterman. The company now has 220 Savers and Value Village stores in the United States, Canada and Australia, and expects to open 25 new stores in each of the next several years.

According to Alterman, 75 percent of the company’s customers are college educated, with an average income between $50,000 and $65,000. Thirty percent of its customers have household incomes exceeding $100,000, he said.

Some of the chain’s most successful stores are in Redmond, Washington, home to Microsoft; the high-end waterfront in Victoria, British Columbia; and the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

Do you shop at thrift stores regularly? If so, what have been some of your best finds?

I stumbled upon this t-shirt probably four years ago or more. We’ve become good buds.