SIDNEY — It’s not “Black Friday” shopping in April but the volunteers at FISH sometimes wonder if the official start to holidy shopping is now all year round.
“As volunteers at FISH, we continue to be amazed at the ‘line up’ every day,” said Darla Cabe, FISH president/secretary.
“We open at 10 a.m. and on ‘big days’ at FISH (like Christmas store opening day, the day after our ‘changeover’ from one season to another, etc) we usually have customers who begin forming a line outside very early,” said Cabe. “They want to be the first in to see and purchase the new merchandise. They line up as early as 2 hours ahead of us opening.
“But for the past many months, customers have begun lining up as early as 9 a.m. to come in and shop each day….. no ‘Black Friday’ type events or nothing special…. just daily, regular shopping. Usually it is the same group of folks, but not always,” she said. “There is typically anywhere from 10 – 15 people waiting in line each morning. Thank goodness we have a covered porch because they are there in snow, sleet or rain or windy weather.”
Cabe said a few weeks ago she was stopping in at FISH to take care of some business.
“It was not my regular day to work. It was a Saturday,” said Cabe. “I arrived at FISH about 9:55 a.m. The parking lot was totally full … even overfull. I counted over 30 people in line waiting to come in. I am the president of FISH and even I had no idea what was happening! The gal who unlocked the door said she counted 34 people who walked in at 10 a.m. It was just a regular Saturday.”
Cabe and the other volunteers know that FISH is needed in the community and even more so now with inflation hitting people hard.
“We offer great quality clothing and household items for very low prices compared to retail and even other thrift stores. This is the only reason we can think of as to why there is a long line of people waiting outside for us to open our store every single day,” she said.
