Mike Triem sits down with Maggie from ARC Thrift for a spring-season conversation about donating, shopping secondhand, and finding fresh treasures for the months ahead. Maggie shares practical tips on finding affordable camping gear, sports equipment, lawn and garden items, home décor, furniture, fishing gear, and seasonal pieces — many gently used or even brand new with tags still attached.
The interview also highlights ARC Thrift’s mission of supporting individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities through employment opportunities and community advocacy programs. Listeners will hear about weekly 50% off sale days, the expansion of the Fort Collins store, the “thrill
Hey, it’s Mike Train. We’re here with Maggie with ArcDrift. Maggie, thanks for joining us again.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thanks for having us.
SPEAKER 01 :
So we’re in donation season, are we not?
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, the tsunami season. We love this time of year.
SPEAKER 01 :
So tell us some of the things that you don’t get that people probably have and you can really use. I don’t know if that’s a hard question, but let’s try it.
SPEAKER 02 :
I mean, you know, I always think that this time of year is a great reminder. You know, you’re thinking about your lawn. You’re thinking about your garden. You’re really starting to do work outside. And your kids are going to be outside more, so you need those toys and sports equipment and camping equipment. So I always say check us out for those, like, unusual things that maybe your kid is just trying for the first time. You don’t know if they’re going to love it. Get your used sports equipment at our store. Check it out. Try it out. If you’re camping with your kiddos for the first time, do not buy all brand new. Start off with things from the thrift store. And many times we get lots of donations. You know, people in Colorado often redo or, you know, revamp, get brand new sports equipment or camping equipment each year. And so we get really close to new items. We call them pre-loved. And let me tell you, most of the time you can find something with a brand new tag on it.
SPEAKER 01 :
I love it for camping. I hadn’t thought of that. But yeah, light. Let’s say you need a light for inside the tent or your sleeping bags can get really expensive. Well, you might have an option.
SPEAKER 02 :
Fishing gear, I’ve seen tons of like fishing nets, fishing poles, all the accoutrement. Many times we’ll get full tackle boxes donated, and you can find some real gems in there, and that’s always fun. Even brand new toolboxes with tools still inside them if you’re doing some kind of summer project. I always think we’re just like the first place to go when you’re starting whatever project it is on your home.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s good.
SPEAKER 02 :
for a camping trip, start with us. Give us a chance to meet your needs. And you’ll be surprised in our furniture department what you can find to outfit for a really great deal.
SPEAKER 01 :
I hadn’t thought of the tackle boxes. There might be some really just classic, you know, even if it’s an older tackle box, some of those classic lures are, you know, I remember from being a kid, those you can’t find anymore. And they might just be something you want to put in one of those, what do they call them? The boxes, you know, hang on the wall. Oh, Oh, yeah, shadow box, 100%.
SPEAKER 02 :
And we even get shadow boxes donated with all the stuff still in them. I mean, what I love about a thrift store, we always talk about this, it’s the thrill of the hunt, right? You just never know what you’re going to find that, like, blows your mind and is a blast from the past or completely brand new and, you know, off the shelves of Target that got donated because somebody didn’t use it.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, I love that. And you’ve said many times, and of course, Angie Austin talks about this constantly. She’ll say, well, guess what I found at Arc Thrift? Almost new.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes. Thanks. It’s thrifted. That’s Angie Austin. I always, you know, she’s the first to say, Oh, you like what I’m wearing? Guess where I got it. You know, she’s like a walking billboard for our thrift stores.
SPEAKER 01 :
She is. And she was a TV star, so she can afford new stuff. She just, she just says, she tells me always about this. Well, she used to tell me about this purse. She bought this purse. She said, did you know this purse costs $350 new? I said, I can kind of tell by how nice it looks.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah. She always, she has an eye for it. And, you know, she raised her kids in our stores. You know, now I’ve got Riley, her son, he runs Legend Vintage, which is, you know, one of the hugest local vintage places. He’s putting himself through college on, you know, t-shirts, vintage shirts that he buys all around town, a lot from art thrift stores and resells online for a profit. Yeah.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes, Riley knows what the good stuff is, and he’ll do that and buy it. Angie taught him well. She taught him well. She did. A little entrepreneur, right? That’s great. Yes. So it could be side hustle. It also, for very many of our listeners, it’s donating those items that need to be used or need to be given and also then used again. And I was thinking there was one earlier. She said gardening. Oh, and also home decor. I imagine you have home decor stuff and that stuff. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
Very popular. Yeah. And a lot of people enjoy the home decor. We call it brick brack in our world. Knickknacks. Some people call it knickknacks. And really, it’s so personal, right? You’re into owls. You’re into frogs. Your husband’s into bears and man cave type looking animals. So you can really get creative and find something one of a kind, totally unique, different than something you’re finding on the shelves at big box retail to make your home one of a kind and really stand out. People are going back to that mid-century modern look. They’re really into the old 80s. And now they’re calling, and this breaks my heart, 80s, 90s, 90s. And Y2K is considered vintage, early 2000s, right? It makes me feel old. It’s crazy.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I think you hit on the whole thing of you can individualize going to ARC because if you go to a store, you buy it, and then you’ve decided that style’s not you five years later. You’re buying all new stuff. That’s crazy. Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, it really is a fun dichotomy of your life. Like you can really change up and really change a style. You see something that you like on Fixer Upper on HGTV and you want to try it. We’re a great place to start for those pieces that can change an entire look of a room. We’re going into college season. Kids are starting to gear up. We’re expanding our Fort Collins store, Mike, because CSU is raging up there with their college kids coming to buy not only for fraternity parties, sorority parties, but to refurbish their homes, their sorority houses, their frat houses, their first-time apartments. And they’re getting it for a steal at that Fort Collins store. It’s going to be twice as big as it currently is. And let me tell you, it’s going to be a destination for people. We’re so excited. We’re literally like doubling the square footage of that store, Mike. We’re really excited. That’ll happen before the kids go back to school.
SPEAKER 01 :
Okay, but when that’s done, let’s announce it because it’s fun to go. Fort Collins is fun anyways, great downtown. And so you could go make a day of it, go to Arc Thrift, see the new store. And plus, you might find a couple of things that are, you know, a real good, good fit for what you’re looking for.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, furnish that college dorm with all the things. It’s one of a kind. And people are getting so creative with their decor of dorm rooms these days. We’re here for it. We’re very excited. This couldn’t be a better idea for us to expand this store. And it’s one of the highest donated stores in the company.
SPEAKER 01 :
Okay, good. So you get donations in and out and purchases out of that store. Yep. You said 5,000 items, new items. Out on display per day, per store. Every store.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yep. Every single store. 38 stores now. It’s insane. We’re expanding quicker than we can keep up. But people are here for it. And Coloradans are so generous. We make it so easy to donate. You can pull up to any of our stores or our donation stations. Pop your trunk. We will unload for you. It’s easy in and out. You get a tax receipt. It feels great. You know, you can wave to our ambassadors, our employees with disabilities. You’re making their day. You’re giving them a purpose. It’s just an all-around good feel to shop or donate to our stores.
SPEAKER 01 :
I wanted to bring up the new items that, you know, that comes there. They go into the store every day just because if people have that perception of, oh, I don’t, you know, if I go, it might be picked over, that kind of thing. You’ve got so much influx that it’s kind of a you better go every other week or every week or, you know, make some regular trip there because, you know, you cycle through a lot of new material all the time.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. Yeah, I love to tell people about our color tag system. Every item on the floor stays for up to five weeks, and then it’s on sale four different times at half off. So if it hasn’t sold by then, then it’s taken off the floor. So we try our hardest to really refresh. That’s about having these big square feet of space, lots of bright aisles, easy to shop, nothing too tightly packed, and removing that dead color, we call it, removing, ragging out those items that have been on the floor for too long, taking them off and refreshing with new. We really try our hardest to be seasonal too, which I think really sets us apart from our competitors. You’re not going to find a Christmas tree in July. You need to come November, December. We try and keep the items seasonal and the product turned over as much as possible. And that’s why you have people… Yeah, they’re coming every other week, but we have people who come to our store every other day, and they’ll hit two or three stores in one stop. Those are our regulars. They’re very loyal, and they really have an eye for the stuff. Many of them are resellers, and we want to be a welcoming space for anyone, whether you really need to shop here or you’re making a living as a reseller or you’re just a thrift enthusiast and you’re bringing your best friend and sticking around for a couple hours. We want to be welcoming to every single portion of our customer base. We’re really excited.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s wonderful, including Riley Austin, one of our friends’ sons. Yes. So tell me about Saturdays and then the Tuesdays, senior days, because both are really special. Sure.
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely. Our 50% off sale is something we’ve been doing for literally years, over 20 at this point. It’s every Saturday is 50% off. And again, this is an effort to clear off our floors and make sure that we are refreshing items as much as possible. We’re putting that item at half off. It’s most of the items in the store, except for the new color, go on sale every single Saturday. And then every Tuesday we do something really great for our seniors. I think we have the lowest age senior day in town, 55 plus. I mean, most of these places are like 60, 65. So 55 plus, you can qualify and get this 50% off most items in the store. Again, similar to the Saturday. And so it’s twice a week you’ve got a chance to get half off. And again, this is pushing us to really refresh that floor and keep the newest product available to the customer.
SPEAKER 01 :
That sounds great. That’s just that, you know, our thrift means so much to our communities. And we try to always remind people that you have how many ambassadors working in the stores now?
SPEAKER 02 :
We are about to hit 600 employees with intellectual or developmental disabilities. And that’s over, you know, 20% of our workforce here in Colorado. Same within New Mexico. And, you know, we hope to open a store in Texas before the end of the year as well. So we’re on our way to really making a difference. And as you know, Mike, we’re the funding arm of the ARC chapters in the state of Colorado and New Mexico and now Texas. So every time you shop or donate, you’re really helping that money go directly to those chapters so that they can provide services to people, their families and individuals with IDD.
SPEAKER 01 :
It’s services, it’s employment, it’s so many things.
SPEAKER 02 :
Advocacy in school. These are very important services that are needed.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yep, because of schools, if there isn’t that advocacy, then it doesn’t happen in the schools. Now that they’re resistant, it’s just somebody has to kind of push that, right?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, they need a coach. They need people to assist them. You know, our school is stretched thin. I think these ARC chapters do a great job of helping the schools really navigate and make sure that people with IDD are being included in everyday activities. And our schools in Colorado do such a great job of it. You hear stories from other states. It’s so sad what they struggle with. We don’t have that problem here. Our schools are amazing at inclusion and integration of people with IDD into the system. It’s pretty impressive.
SPEAKER 01 :
That’s so good. And we’ve seen that with some of the schools. Typically, we’re working with Christian schools with one of our other stations, and we’re seeing some of that because of Art Thrift. We’re actually getting to see it. So I guess as we close, social media, you do a lot of things with socials, and you have a podcast. Tell our listeners about that.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, I always encourage people to follow us on Facebook at Arc Thrift Stores, as well as TikTok and then on Instagram at Arc Thrift. And you can find us on YouTube as well. We do host a weekly podcast and that’s where we talk to people. Our goal with the podcast is really to normalize shopping secondhand. So we talk to people across the world, really. that do secondhand in other countries or other parts of the country. In the United States, people who make a living or they’re collectors of unique items. You wouldn’t believe the number of really unique collectors out there. And they’re looking for that really special piece of Viking glass or Pyrex. We get to hear their stories and we love it because they make a living from us. We make a living from them. It’s a win-win relationship with all of us. So we’re really lucky in that regard. We get to kind of tell those stories every single week and share in it. encourages people. You know, we have groups of people from Indiana coming this summer and they’re getting an Airbnb and they’re going to shop our stores and then ship home what they get so that they can resell it in their home state. Isn’t that cool? That pop-up shops all summer long.
SPEAKER 01 :
That is so wild. Just that they can do that, how they make that work is fascinating to me, you know?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah, it’s fascinating. It’s really, I feel lucky every day that we get to do this, Mike, and like share this with everyone and normalize how cool it can be to shop secondhand.
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, you can give and donate. Just go to arcthrift.com, right, Maggie? That’s kind of the first step.
SPEAKER 02 :
Yes, absolutely. Arcthrift.com, easiest way to find us. And that has all the links to all of our socials as well. The socials, we try and keep you up to date on any of our sales coming up. Right around the corner, we’ve got a kid’s sale. We haven’t announced the date yet, but that’ll be a 99-cent kid’s sale. For all kids’ clothing, it’ll be 99 cents.
SPEAKER 01 :
Sweet. That’s always a huge day. Okay. Well, whether it’s pickup, and you can go to arcthrift.com to see what pickup looks like for large furniture, plus you can include some bags of other donations, or just go to the store if you can. Just go to Arc Thrift, and they make it so easy. It’s great.
SPEAKER 02 :
Oh, yeah. Load up your car. We make it real easy.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hey, Maggie, thanks so much. It’s arcthrift.com. Maggie with Arc Thrift.
