Houlton thrift store going out of business Decline in sales forces shop’s closing

HOULTON – A long-standing store that has supported both the needy and the thrifty will be closing by the end of the month.

The Salvation Army Thrift Store has not been garnering enough revenue to justify keeping it open, Capt. Paul Knickerbocker said Thursday.

“We just don’t have enough sales and customer traffic, and it has been costing more than it has been bringing in these past few months,” he said.

The store will close on March 26.

Located in Market Square, the thrift store offers low prices for used clothing, toys, footwear and other goods. The shop has existed for a number of years in several different locations, according to Knickerbocker, but is no longer thriving.

“Over the last year, we’ve noticed that sales have been dropping,” he said Thursday. “We’ve been able to maintain it for a while, but it soon became obvious that business was not going to turn around. It was a hard decision to make to close it.”

A massive “store closing sale” sign was plastered over the windows late last week to sell off inventory.

“It is selling pretty well right now,” Knickerbocker acknowledged. “In the event that it doesn’t all sell, there will be a time when we just start giving it away. The rest will go to our Presque Isle store.”

The store employs one full-time staff member and one part-time person, and several volunteers assist.

Although the possibility exists that the store may open again, Knickerbocker says he is unsure whether The Salvation Army could find a deal as appealing as it is receiving at the current location.

“We are paying extremely low rent there that includes utilities,” he said Thursday. “I just don’t see us getting a deal like that again.”