New Bedford thrift stores offer more than just clothes

New Bedford’s network of thrift stores offer more than just affordable, stylish clothes: each shop serves a broader mission.

Clothes as low as $1 offer a cheaper alternative to brand-name shopping. With the cost of clothing anticipated to increase due to tariffs, and the average cost of apparel for women already more than $600 a year, these deals help many New Bedford residents.

This is the latest installment of a series that answers questions about what’s going on in New Bedford. Ask the Light your question here and our reporters will look into it for you.

The Light visited five local thrift stores to discover where to find quality threads for affordable prices and to better understand how these stores — and the owners and volunteers who run them — stitch the community together. 

St. Martin’s Episcopal Church: Clothes for growing families

Located at 128 Rivet Street, St. Martin’s Episcopal Church thrift store operates out of a tiny rectangular building staffed by volunteers. Between bright purple walls, the majority of items fall between $1-$3. A range of feminine and masculine clothing, shoes, bags, various fabrics, and house decor items are available on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to noon. 

Joan Indio, a volunteer at the thrift store, said that the store attracts many regular shoppers. “We have the same mothers come in and then you’ll see the children [as] they grow up,” Indio said. 

“Not many people know about [our store]. It’s usually by word of mouth,” she added.

Indio remembered one great deal, where a mother was able to buy a bag of UGG boots valued at around $1,000 for her two daughters. The price? $80.

Before the store shifts to a different set of clothes for the summer and fall seasons, St. Martin’s does a “fill a bag” sale. Normally at the start of September and April, customers can buy a bag full of clothes for $2. 

All of the money from item sales goes to the church, supporting its food and pet pantry (which also receives support from donors, the Greater Boston Food Bank, and local volunteers). “The philosophy of the church is to serve the community, not to make money,” Indio said. The food and pet pantry is open on the third Saturday of every month from 10 to 11 a.m., and on the last Tuesday of every month from 5 to 6 p.m. 

Sam’s Sanctuary: A former counselor empowers women

Johan Santiago stands behind a desk in the corner of Sam’s Sanctuary, her thrift store on the first floor of the Kilburn Mill. Racks of clothing fill up most of the room and are primarily feminine, varying from basics like tank tops and blouses to business clothing, blazers, and dress shirts. Her highest priced item is about $10. 

A massage table hidden behind room dividers hints at the mission that started Santiago’s thrift and retail store: healing. 

Santiago opened Sam’s Sanctuary to provide a safe space for women to shop, talk, and engage in self-care. With a background in social work, Santiago wanted to infuse her business with the same approach she learned working at the Women’s Center in downtown New Bedford for 12 years as a counselor for victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault. 

“I saw what people go through and sometimes there’s just the littlest things that can brighten people’s day. Who doesn’t like to shop, right? It’s like retail therapy,” she said. 

During the week, Santiago keeps her store open exclusively for referrals from programs for women in recovery. 

“Their counselors, clinicians, and recovery coaches send me referrals and they get to shop here for free,” she said. “Instead of getting a bag of donations or rummaging through what’s left over, they can come here and it’s more empowering.” 

She has also started to offer massages on her website for a reasonable fee. For the general public, her shop is open Saturdays and Sundays from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. 

Community is a founding pillar for Sam’s Sanctuary, Santiago said. The title of the store is made of the first letters of the names of her children: Sky, Antonio, and Marcel. The racks that hold all of her clothes were donated by small business owners. One volunteer from another thrift store in the Kilburn Mill, GRAB DAT B4 U MISS DAT, even stops by Sam’s Sanctuary before her shift to shop and chat.

GRAB DAT B4 U MISS DAT: Wiser, more fun, and more affordable

Audley Bodden owns GRAB DAT B4 U MISS DAT, a secondhand clothing shop, and Green Miles Properties LLC, a local affordable housing development company. Through these businesses, Bodden focuses on providing affordability for New Bedford on two fronts, clothing and housing. 

GRAB DAT B4 U MISS DAT is a large space on the Kilburn Mill’s first floor, housing both feminine and masculine clothing. By the entrance, a small area displays a few pieces of house decor and a bookshelf filled with novels for sale. There are sections in the back of the shop for shoes, bags, and children’s clothes. Bodden’s items range from $3 to $20. 

His motivation to start a thrift store came from helping a friend discard unwanted items. During the move, Bodden considered where the bags upon bags of clothing, some brand-new with tags, would end up. To prevent the clothes from going to waste, he decided to resell them.  “As a young person I couldn’t afford certain things. And I was like, you know what, this is a great opportunity to help someone save money,” he said.

Bodden finds fulfillment in his shop, Friday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., witnessing the customers’ excitement when they come across a good find. “A lot of individuals come in here and find an outfit for under 20 bucks. I hear people scream, ‘Ah yes! My mom used to have that!’” 

He wears a light grin and talks about how he would like to start a podcast. He shared that he would use the format to have conversations about navigating life with the young adults who visit his shop.  “We should be excited and happy about growing and seeing all the beautiful changes that’s taken place — and the bad ones too! I love the idea of growing old and becoming wiser. It’s fun for me,” he said.

Recently, Bodden’s housing development company received the okay to convert an old sweets shop on Ashley Boulevard into affordable apartment units.

Gates of Hope/Blue Anchor Provisions: Clothes that support hunger-relief

Close by, Gates of Hope, a faith-based and hunger-relief organization, offers affordable clothing at its Blue Anchor Provisions thrift store, located in the basement of the Kilburn Mill. 

Clothing items are $1, shoes are $3, and the knick-knacks, which overtake multiple display tables, are 50 cents. The thrift store also offers belts, purses, jewelry, home decor, and other funky odds and ends, all at comparable prices. Sequin-covered dresses hang from racks in the back and a hodgepodge of various clothing items overflow from baskets. 

Faith Bonjovi, the president of the Fall River-based Gates of Hope, said that when the organization moved in, it found itself with a bunch of clothing filling up the space but no funds to pay the rent. “We figured, we have all these clothes that were intended for a thrift store anyway. Why not start our own?”

The thrift store works as a fundraiser for the services that Gates of Hope provides, not just for paying the rent. “The food pantry in Fall River is open to anyone. We also run a pet food pantry out of Fall River and a small pantry in New Bedford with items we have to move quickly, like produce,” Bonjovi said. 

The thrift store is open on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

First Unitarian Church Thrift Stores: Clothes for a cause

The First Unitarian Church thrift store is a social place for its frequent visitors, said Pam Sherman, the store’s coordinator. “We know them by name,” Sherman said.

Located at 71 8th street, the store is open on Saturdays and Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. It’s in the basement of the church; customers enter the side of the building and walk through a hallway. Multiple rooms offer feminine and masculine clothing, books, picture frames, plates, cups, and other household items. 

Sherman said that the store was started by a woman who would pick up discarded items around the city to sell.

The items in the store range from $3-$5, but once in a while Sherman and volunteers will stumble upon antique items. One time they came across an old woven basket from Nantucket made in the 1800s, which they transferred to Marion Antiques, where it sold for $1,000.

Both the First Unitarian Church and St. Martin’s thrift stores say they often have too many clothes. When clothing is switched out or rotated, both donate the leftover clothing to the Epilepsy Foundation.

Avary Amaral is a summer intern with The New Bedford Light, as part of the South Coast Internship program, designed for local students.

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