Oldest thrift shop closes owing to COVID
TAUNTON — If you live in Taunton, you’ve definitely handed it on Bay Road plenty of occasions, never supplying it a second thought. But now, a beloved Taunton staple has closed its doorways for fantastic.
Cut price Bazaar — Taunton’s oldest thrift shop — took its last bow Dec. 23 soon after 67 many years of operation. Acknowledged for its family ambiance, dedicated staff members and high-quality items, the non-profit small business will surely be skipped.
The thrift store was designed in 1953 by a team of 70 ladies who desired to volunteer their time to operate the shop to assistance guidance the Taunton Location Mental Well being Clinic, according to Nancy Souza, president of Cut price Bazaar’s board.
“They had bake sales. They had all of the things that persons usually do. But they required something more,” she stated. “A girl named Rachel Morse…considered of opening up a thrift keep, which was a new concept at that time.”
Discount Bazaar was first located on Winthrop Street where by the A & P supermarket experienced been, Souza explained. The ladies, all volunteers, were being given the location rent-free.
At to start with, the thrift keep was only open up just one working day a 7 days, Souza mentioned. The women of all ages would consider turns undertaking 3-hour shifts.
In 1957, the store moved to its final site at 320 Bay St. upcoming to the Polish Club, which owns the constructing. Slowly, it commenced to improve, Souza said, being open up for far more days a week and using the services of a supervisor and assistant manager. When it closed, it was open up Tuesdays by means of Saturdays, and had expanded inside the making.
“They made a accomplishment of it,” Souza explained. “They ended up really recognized as the Jordan Marsh of Bay Avenue.”
The store took equally donations and consignments, but no subject what, they in no way place out just about anything small quality, she reported.
“They had been very selective in their garments and their products and they bought it so cheaply,” Souza claimed. “It was just a well-liked location.”
In 1985, the whole block was demolished in a fire, but the Polish Club rebuilt the making and Deal Bazaar was in a position to reopen soon after a few months. That very same yr, Souza said, it was nominated for a Volunteer Motion Award by President Ronald Reagan.
Around the yrs, Souza claimed, TAMHC merged with other organizations, switching names and broadening its mission. It is now element of the Justice Source Institute in Needham. But Bargain Bazaar’s goal of supporting them never transformed.
“There was a need to have in the mental wellbeing region locally, and they have been there to aid it,” Souza mentioned. “And they stayed with it above the years.”
Around the many years, girls like Marge Largey, Jean Pratt, Pat Boyle, Sandi Amaral, Jacqueline Tripp, Rose Hirsch, Lori Frizado, Betty Sylvia, Sharon Olsen and numerous others stepped up to volunteer at and direct the thrift shop.
Like so many other small businesses, it was the lockdown brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic that led to Discount Bazaar’s destroy. Souza claimed the shop stayed closed until eventually September, and by that time racked up rent and utility expenses that they could not fork out.
When Deal Bazaar closed on Dec. 23, Souza mentioned numerous shoppers came by to say goodbye, and both clients and workers had been in tears.
“We had been a extremely serious presence in the Whittenton location of city. We experienced our regulars who would appear in each individual working day, from the community and from the town,” she claimed. “If they wanted anything, they would inform us…and they realized that we would check out out mainly because we receive goods each and every day and we hardly ever knew what we would be having in. People came to know they could depend on us.”
The former place of Deal Bazaar will quickly be occupied by Bargains Galore, owned by Steve and Sue Fernandes. They program on opening this week just after ultimate approval from the law enforcement and licensing committee.