The blinking of the open sign lured all kinds of people to the doors at eight o'clock in the morning. As the customers walked hurriedly through the doors, employees were hanging up the last of the clothes. There were single mothers with their children, ladies all by their lonesome, hunters, and foreigners walking through the unlocked doors. It was late August with school right around the corner.

     Children running up and down the aisles of toys, wanting a new Scooby-Doo action figure or a Barbie, frustrated the mothers who only wanted to buy clothing with what little money they had. The hunters were looking through the men's clothing department for anything camoflauge. They were all going hunting together the first weekend of September, which happened to be that weekend. The ladies who showed up all on their lonesome were scattered everywhere. Some were looking for outfits for the weeks to come, some were looking for shoes, and some were looking at dishes for their kitchens. The foreigners were looking at the furniture since they had just moved to the United States in the past weeks and needed to furnish their houses as soon as possible.

     One woman asked the lady at the cash register where she could find the bed sheets and was directed to the back of the store. While the customers were busy shopping away, there were a few employess in the back room of the store cataloging the items back there. There were many new pieces of furniture to take out to display in the front of the store.

     After many hours of customers coming in and out of the store and the employess switching shifts, they made rounds through the store. Customers would ask for help trying to find this and that, looking for the bathroom, books, or the sports equipment.

     The end of the day arrived faster than the shoopers would have liked. The lights went out and the doors locked around nine o'clock that evening. While all the shoppers went home, the employees stayed back to take inventory. The back room of the store was littered with junk. The new items that had been donated that day still had not been looked at.

     There was a roll top desk sitting in the corner that they had been trying to sell for over a month. There employees decided to put it out front one last time hoping it would sell. There was a small television sitting upon a kitchen table. The television looked like it was from the late nineteen seventies. The kitchen table that it was sitting on had scratches all across the table top from people eating off of it so it was worthless.

     Some of the things in the back room were garbage and not worth trying to sell, while others looked brand new. The donated items had to be in good condition or else the employees would throw it out with the items that were going to the dump the next morning.

     The shelves were restocked that night with items that had just been inventoried. The employees finally clocked out around eleven o'clock. Leaving everything in its place, the parking lot finally emptied for the day.

     The next morning, the same group of people came busting through the doors at eight o'clock. The mothers were frantically shoving children ino the dressing rooms with clothes. The hunters were back, this time looking for boots. The foreigners were looking at the bedding. It was as if there had not been enough time in the day before. The shoppers were frantic, pushy, and rude to one another.

     A child, who would not stop crying, had been told the day before that he could not have the Scooby-Doo action figure that he had been looking at, and when he returned the next day, it had disappeared; his heart had been shattered. The mother saw how devastated her son was and went to the woman at the register to ask if someone had bought the action figure. The woman replied, "No, but..." Just as she was finishing her sentence, another woman walked out of the back room with the action figure in her arms and brought it to the little boy. He whole face lit up and he never put his Scooby down after that.

     Every day was like the day before. Shoppers came and went. Some left with treasures that they had purchased. Others left with nothing. The only difference between the two groups of people was their attitude towards the items for sale.

     Employees shifted through the donated goods every night until there was nothing new to look through. The things they thought would sell would then be placed out on the floor while the items that the employees thought were beyond repair were shoved into a corner to be taken away the next morning.

     The tedious tasks of the workers went unnoticed day in and day out by the shoppers. Donations came in by the boat load which meant more work for the employees who were scheduled to work the night shift.

     It seemed as though the same people came in every day. The workers learned the life stories of the shoppers who were willing to talk. There was one family who was struggling to pay their bills, but the children were in need of new clothes for the upcoming school year. There was a woman who came in every day. She was taking care of an elderly woman. The elderly woman would send the young woman to the store for things that had not been around for thirty or so years. The poor woman would have to make up excuses as to why she had returned without some of the items on her list.

     Other stores had nothing on this place. The other stores were more expensive, crowded, and less friendly. Only at the local thrift shop could someone get the personalized service the shoppers here got.