by Avery Lee Williams
While it was more atypical than typical, Saturday, June 13 was a “barn burner” at the Easton Lions Thrift Store. All hands were on deck and the weather fine, as we equaled the all time record of $2,500 at the thrift for that week. Lately we have been running through inventory at a torrid pace. John Mallers brought in four truckloads of goods from a complete clean-out of a house in Sharon during the week. John brought in two more truck loads on that Saturday and Don Tuck came in with two loads. Families back up with trucks, vans and car trunks of goods all day long.
A big hit was the free lemonade that Lynn Kingsbury brought in. It was especially welcome upstairs at Ruth’s haven where there is no air conditioning except open windows. Melvin Jones Fellow, Ruth Calvagne, brings in thousands of dollars in a year with her careful attention to detail and master sales ability.
Note that the old sign out front has been rebuilt by Kevin McIntyre; he was the original builder. Recent member, Dick Lacana is working on a few new signs for the thrift.
Our Thrift Chief, Harry Lynd, did just over $900 in credit sales that day; a new record for that category which grows bigger and bigger in our overall sales.
A sight for sore eyes was the appearance of Paul Panaikes. He worked his heart out with the heavy lifting and storage of unsold goods at closing. We still could use more hands about 2PM on a Saturday, as the regular forces are getting quite weary about that time.
Matt Soeldner is the finest “packer at days end”, as he stuffs 100 pounds of items into the 50 pound trailer on site.
Best salesman title is claimed by Lee Williams, but Bob Grella, Jack Cummings and Jim Howarth dispute that claim. There’s a friendly competition going on each sales day amongst the regulars. Harry sells an item now and then (ha,ha) , while Matt Cioffi fixes and sell the bikes amongst many duties.
This is the big season for our “back to school’ sales to college students as they set up their rented but unfinished apartments. That day Harry sold over $300 of furniture, etc. to two Stonehill College young men for their apartment at the new Shovel Works. We love yard sales. They get shoppers in their cars and out to buy. After they do the yard sale rounds, we find them at the Thrift. Later in the day those who ran their yard sales bring us loads of unsold goods as donations.
We see more and more dealers at the Thrift. With our highly competitive pricing, they buy and “gussy-up” the goods and resell them at good profits. It’s win-win all around! Lee W has a committee working on liaison with real estate agents to promote new buyers and sellers of homes in Easton to make donations to the thrift. One of the biggest rewards to the Easton Lions Club is the prospective members Lee gets at each sales day. Never less than one and frequently two or three people express interest in attending one of our upcoming meetings.
