GREENSBORO, N.C. — Many people have used the time at home to clean out closets and that means an influx of donations at thrift stores across the Triad. For the Bargain Box, it means a packed stock room.
"I don’t have much room back here so I was happy to get it out on the floor to sell," manager Randall Ariail said.
They opened their doors again on Saturday, hours after North Carolina entered Phase One of lifted restrictions.
"I think everybody was just so relieved to be out of the house," Ariail said. "They were so gracious and thanked us for opening saying, 'We’re so happy you’re back in business, we’ve missed you,' and we said, 'No, you have no idea, we’ve missed you so much more.'"
The store starting receiving donations a few weeks before they were allowed to reopen and sell. Ariail said they get a new drop off about every hour. It took her days to organize and price new items.
"We had a lot of great merchandise coming in over the past two weeks that we were really excited to sell," she said. "The Symphony Guild had a big drop off from their past rummage sale, so we had a ton of great merchandise from them that we wanted to be able to sell."
Now that selling is allowed they're taking extra steps to keep customers and employees safe. Workers and shoppers are wearing masks, there's extra hand sanitizer out, employees are cleaning more often and they're closing the store at 4:00 to do a deep clean. Ariail says she doesn't mind taking the additional steps as long as customers can visit again and shop away stress.
"Everybody was smiling through their masks [on Saturday], everyone was happy, everyone was laughing and joking, so it really took a somber mood that we’ve all been on and it made it a happy joyous occasion," she said. "It’s exactly the way we want it to be."
The Bargain Box is located on Mill Street in Greensboro. They're a non-profit of the Junior League and proceeds help several organizations in the Triad.