Savers debuts in Orland
By Mike Nolan mnolan@southtownstar.com August 16, 2012 2:38PM
People enter Savers, a thrift store that opened Thursday in Orland Park. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun-Times Media
Related Documents
Article Extras
Updated: September 18, 2012 6:17AM
Savers Inc., which boasts that it’s the world’s biggest for-profit thrift retailer, opened the doors Thursday of an Orland Park store that’s a variation of the traditional resale shop.
The 28,000-square-foot store, 15625 S. 94th Ave., is at the south end of a strip mall, occupying space that formerly housed Season’s End and Teachers Delight. Charter Fitness and Pro-Time Billiards also are tenants in the shopping center.
While the Southland is dotted with for-profit resale shops, they’re typically niche oriented, focusing on used sporting goods or children’s clothing. Savers, however, says its stores stock more than 100,000 items at any given time, including clothing, housewares, electronics and furniture.
Although the privately held company is profit driven, it partners with nonprofit organizations around the country.
Typically, Savers pays local charitable groups for clothing and household goods they collect, which are then resold in its stores. In the Chicago area, Savers has partnered with the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicago and the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America.
The company said that, in the past decade, it has paid more than $1.5 billion to nonprofit groups.
Savers on Thursday also christened stores in Arlington Heights and Carol Stream, and now has seven outlets in the Chicago area.
The company, based in Bellevue, Wash., operates more than 280 stores in North America and Australia under various names, including Value Village and Unique Thrift Store. A spokeswoman for the chain said it is not affiliated with another local resale chain, also called Unique Thrift Store, which has several outlets in Chicago as well as Dolton, Markham and Joliet, and operates the Spree resale shop in Orland Park.
