We have a winner: Readers select the best thrift store in the Triangle
Your passion for local thrift stores is clear.
We had more than 100,000 total participants in our bracket to pick the Triangle’s favorite thrift store, and our finalists were two beloved local institutions: HandMeUps Thrift Store and North Raleigh Ministries.
The winner, with nearly 80,000 votes in the final round alone, was North Raleigh Ministries.
Both stores rallied workers, volunteers and customers to show their support through voting.
Here’s more about each organization and what they do.
North Raleigh Ministries: ‘From crisis to stability’
North Raleigh Ministries was founded in 2004 by five local North Hills churches who wanted “a more efficient way of helping people in the community,” Donna Pygott, executive director, said on Wednesday.
Since then, North Raleigh Ministries has grown from a small food pantry to a crisis and development center and two thrift stores, on Strickland and Brentwood roads in Raleigh.
The thrift stores are the primary revenue source that funds the crisis development center and food assistance programs, which includes a large, fully stocked food pantry that serves thousands of people each year. The group also offers guidance and prayer to people in crisis, Pygott said.
“We want to connect with them as soon as possible and see if we can help engage them in some of our other programs that get to the root cause of their financial challenge or help them overcome financial hurdles,” Pygott said.
The case workers take a very individualized approach to helping those who seek out their services, Pygott said.
“So whether it’s perpetual poverty or meeting a crisis financially, we will meet with them and find out what’s going on. We have case managers and we offer the Journey program and the Transitions program that help move people from crisis to stability. And it depends on where clients are in their lives and how much of a change they really want to make and we can bring them to a place of long-term stability.
“We’ve had some incredible outcomes,” Pygott said. “And we really do try to engage them to move forward and make significant change in their life, and really address whatever is the root cause of poverty.”
Pygott was a little shocked to learn that North Raleigh Ministries came out on top in voting, especially against such a worthy opponent.
But she credits the “hundreds and hundreds of engaged volunteers” and loyal customers for making them the top pick. Their Strickland Road location gets about 600 to 700 customers per day, she said. The Brentwood location is newer, having opened in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic, but also does well.
“Thrift is a serious business,” she said. “People who do it love it, love it, love it. And we have so many stories I feel like we could have a sitcom.”
A few Saturdays ago, Pygott said a customer broke out in song in the middle of his shopping, belting out the 1970s Village People hit “YMCA.”
“The entire store stopped and did it with him,” Pygott said.
HandMeUps Thrift Store
HandMeUps Thrift Store, the second-place finisher, was started by The Power of the Dream, a local non-profit founded to advocate for and help adults with Autism and IDD (intellectual or development disabilities) and their families.
The store was “started solely for the purpose of creating jobs for adults with Autism and IDD, because 80% of adults with Autism are unable to find employment,” said Whitney Orr, the general manager at HandMeUps.
All of the proceeds from the store go back into programs that help those with Autism or IDD.
The Power of the Dream is also a financial backer of 321 Coffee.
Orr said everyone at the store got involved in the bracket campaign. They even posted a video on their Facebook page asking people to vote.
“The team has been over the moon,” Orr said. “This has been such a huge deal for them.”
Orr said HandMeUps has a very loyal customer base, with many who come in a couple times a week to check the inventory, so the customers got into voting as well.
“We have people who only bring in things to donate to us because they believe in our mission,” she said. “So we just got everyone really involved. ... We made some fliers and handed them out and just got customers really excited.
“I think it’s so important, what we do, and I think when people believe in that, they just become so loyal to us,” Orr said.
How our bracket worked
We started the bracket on April 7 with a list of 16 local thrift stores (see the full list at the bottom of this story) and had voters narrow it to eight.
▪ The Elite 8 narrowed it down to: Cause for Paws, Dorcas, Durham Rescue Mission, HandMeUps, Missions Thrift, North Raleigh Ministries, Recovered Treasures and ReTails.
▪ On April 13, our Final Four gave us: HandMeUps, Missions Thrift, North Raleigh Ministries and Recovered Treasures.
▪ On April 15, the Championship round matched HandMeUps Thrift Store against North Raleigh Ministries. (Voting among the top three stores was very close, with HandMeUps getting 37% of the vote, North Raleigh getting 34% and Missions Thrift getting 31%.)
The final round ended at noon on Tuesday, April 19.
What we included in our list: We tried to include local, charity-based thrift stores, though we realize a couple here may have locations in other states.
What we did not include: We did not include the massive operations, like Goodwill Industries, Habitat ReStore and Salvation Army, though we know those shops have big followings. We also didn’t include for-profit vintage, consignment or antique stores this time, though we love them as well.
About voting: This was not a scientific poll — all just for fun — so readers could vote as many times as they liked.
List of 16 Triangle Thrift Store Bracket entries with links:
▪ A-Z Thrift Shop: 1621 North Market Dr., Raleigh; facebook.com/AZThriftShop
▪ Cause for Paws: 1657 N Market Drive and 1634 S Saunders St., Raleigh; thrift-stores.cfp-nc.org
▪ CommunityWorx: 125 W. Main St., Carrboro; communityworxnc.org
▪ Chatham PTA Thrift: Locations in North Chatham Village in Chapel Hill, and in Pittsboro and Siler City; Chatham PTA Thrift on Facebook
▪ DejaVu Thrift: 1301 Buck Jones Rd, Raleigh; hope-connection.org/deja-vu-thrift-store.html
▪ Dorcas Thrift Shoppe: 187 High House Road, Cary; dorcascary.org/dorcas-shop
▪ Durham Rescue Mission: 10701 Glenwood Ave, Raleigh; drmthriftstore.org
▪ HandMeUps: 8320 Litchford Rd #102, Raleigh; handmeupsthrift.org
▪ JCI Thrift Store: 912 N. Brightleaf Blvd., Smithfield; jcindustries.com/retail-operations/jci-thrift-store-and-donation-center
▪ Missions Thrift: 2721 E. Millbrook Road, Raleigh; missionsthriftnc.com
▪ North Raleigh Ministries: 9650 Strickland Road Suite 161 and 2821 Brentwood Road, Raleigh; northraleighministries.com/thrift
▪ Recovered Treasures: 4011 Capital Blvd Ste 113; healing-transitions.org/about/thrift-store
▪ Rescue Missions Ministries: 2821 Brentwood Road and 9650 Strickland Rd, Suite 161, Raleigh; northraleighministries.com/thrift
▪ ReTails: 2821 Spring Forest Road, Raleigh Info: animalkind.org/retails
▪ Scrap Exchange Thrift: 2050 Chapel Hill Road Durham; scrapexchange.org/retail/retail-store/scrap-thrift
▪ Thrift2Gift: 900 E. Chatham St., Cary; seedsofmustard.org/shop
▪ TROSA: 3500 N. Roxboro St., Durham; trosathriftstore.org
This story was originally published April 15, 2022 at 2:00 PM.
