A little thrifty in Hanna

There is another thrift store business that has established itself in Hanna. It is located in the St. Joseph's Catholic Church in the basement.

It is named the Hanna Thrift Store.

The Catholic church has had thrift shops in its basement years prior, and often was run by volunteers of the church. The volunteer system was replaced by an owner who ran the store and its contents as a non-profit.

This tenant left and Marcia Beals, and San XXXX decided to open a thrift store again to be non-profit but start from scratch with their items. The reasoning behind the new start was to display all the items in an organized manner.

The operation was actually started by Hanna resident Bonnie Hawks but due to health reasons, she had to turn to Beals to take her place.

"I still support the shop how I can and I want people to come to see how nice this place has become," Hawks said. "San has done a great of displaying and organizing the shop. San also cleans everything that goes out on display."

Hawks is correct. Hanna Thrift Store is very organized with a lot to choose from, but not crowded.

The shop has holiday sections with a variety of things to grab the attention of a customer, whether it is a black cat statue for Halloween or a ceramic turkey for used to celebrate Thanksgiving.

The ladies credit store manager Abby Dulaney for getting the location really cleaned up before any items were brought in and displayed. After the shop was clean to put everything out, the ladies estimate it took about three months before they felt the store was ready to open.

The store opened in May.

Beals said her is job is to go out and collect the items for the store.

"I basically go and bring the stuff in and then come here and dump it off here and say 'here it is guys'," Beals said. "San is the decorator. She is the person who creatively gets it out in the shop. San is the reason this place looks so nice."

The Hanna Thrift Store may have limited hours for some people, but the women running it say the opening times work for now.

"We are being consistent with our hours and days of operation," Beals said. "We are open 1 to 5 on Wednesday and Thursdays and 9 to 1 on Saturdays."

Being new and in a location that is not on the beaten path even by Hanna standards, The Hanna Thrift Store offers a draw for every person that have a purchase. It might surprise some customers on the quality of the prize given away free in this draw.

The ladies admit they are looking at ways to bring people in the store so they are being creative where they can.

Currently The Hanna Thrift Store sells a lot of clothes. The ladies attribute this to fact they sell a bag of clothes for a dollar.

"This bag fits a lot of clothes," Beals said. "Then while people are in here, they look around for other things."

One thing the store has for sale that is not common are church pews.

"We have old St. Michaels pews," Beals said pointing about a dozen or so wooden pews. "All the money sold on these pews will go to the St. Michaels church in Medicine Bow. Some of them even have kneelers."

Paintings, glassware and porcelain figurines are abundant throughout the store but the ladies admit they would like to offer a stronger selection of furniture. Beals believes it just a matter of time.

When coming into Hanna, the St. Joseph's Catholic Church is hard to miss out on the hill to left. The store having this location means it is not hard to find the town.

"This store has an awful lot to offer," Beals said. "It really is a matter of people discovering us."