The Ann Arbor Thrift Shop is a community service organization that has been operating non-stop since April, 1932, when Margaret McOmber opened a small resale shop in the old Cornwell Building at 207 E. Huron St. to raise money for the Public Health Nursing Association. At the end of that year, Margaret turned the shop over to Mary Cristy who ran Harris Hall as an Episcopal student center for St. Andrews Church. She recruited church members to help staff the Thrift Shop and by the end of 1933, the Thrift Shop Association of Ann Arbor had about 20 volunteer members, had named a Board of Directors, and gave most of its $343 profit (over $5,000 in today’s dollars) to the Episcopal Church’s “Poor Fund.”

By 1935, the Thrift Shop was so successful that they needed more room and moved into 120 N. Fourth Ave. where it was located until 1980. During the nineteen thirties the association tripled its membership and its donations to various charities. To get gently-used merchandise to sell, the association began sponsoring regular “bundle teas” at various friends’ homes including that of Alexander Ruthven, President of the University of Michigan, in 1942. Attendees would bring a “bundle” of used clothing to donate to the shop’s efforts. The shop began accepting merchandise donations in the sixties rather than having bundle teas.

Membership, donations, and sales continued to increase and by 1972 the shop was able to donate $9,000 to the community in emergency aid. In 1980 the Fourth Ave. location was sold to a new owner, and the shop moved to 1149 Broadway where it stayed until that location was sold to make way for the Broadway Village at Lower Town in 2003 when the shop moved to its current location at 3530 Washtenaw Ave. across from Arborland.

Over these 75 years of continuous operation, the purpose of the Ann Arbor Thrift Shop Association has remained the same—to raise money for charity primarily through the sale of donated, gently-used merchandise. Last year, the shop gave $152,254 to help social service agencies meet their clients’ emergency needs and for direct grants to social service agencies.

The Thrift Shop Association of Ann Arbor was founded by Margaret McOmber in April 1932.