In style for 85 years

85 YEARS IN STYLE

NCJW/CLE’s Thriftique Showroom engages volunteers, shoppers for a cause

By Jane Kaufman

As it enters its 85th year, Thriftique Showroom has become more than a way station for gently used clothing and antiques, more than a bargain hunter’s gold mine, and more than a mission-driven charitable endeavor on the part of the National Council of Jewish Women/Cleveland.

It has become a community, and even a family, to its customers, volunteers and sta .

“Even now, when I pop in the store, the best (is) when I see some of my old customers, and it’s my understanding they still ask about me,” says Jackie Rothstein, who was formerly vice president of Thriftique for nine years.

As a volunteer, Rothstein helped Thriftique manager Abbe Froimson oversee the entire operation.

Rothstein, who grew up in the family that owned Jo-Ann Stores, says she has “a business sense.” She occasionally drove the box truck with Froimson to retrieve donated items on days when the driver was absent.

“I remember carrying sofas out of apartments at Acacia,” Rothstein says. “Pickups couldn’t stop just because we didn’t have a driver.”

She also credited the late Sarah Weintraub with teaching other volunteers “so much,” including how to sort dollar bills e ciently into the cash register.

A member of The Temple-Tifereth Israel in Beachwood, Rothstein says she conceived of a weekly sale, a concept that entails marking down certain items in the store – and sometimes all of them. She enjoys watching customers “go hunting for their treasure.”

The Bedford Heights showroom is the latest adaptation of one of Cleveland’s oldest thrift shops. After opening in the mid-1930s, it has continued for generations to be a major source of

Above: The Thrift Shop, Thriftique’s predecessor, located at 16701 Chagrin Blvd. in Shaker Heights, opened in 1981. | Photo / Western Reserve Historical Society Below: Thriftique Showroom relies on both volunteers and sta including Rosean Schmidt, from left, Abbe Froimson and Karen Morris. | Photo / NCJW/CLE

NCJW/CLE’s original Thrift Store at 2035 E. 105th St. sold clothing and soft goods donated by members. Inventory was eventually expanded and the store doubled in size to include furniture and giftware as well as an antique department. | Photo / Western Reserve Historical Society

funding for NCJW/CLE and its endeavors focusing on bene ting the lives of local women and children.

THE HISTORY, VISION

Started in the height of the Great Depression by Mrs. Jac (Ruth) Einstein, the original NCJW Thrift Store opened at 2035 East 105th St. in the heart of one of Cleveland’s Jewish neighborhoods.

The store doubled in size in that rst year to expand from clothing and soft goods to furniture, antiques and gifts, according to research provided by NCJW/ CLE.

The store was remodeled and renovated in 1942. In 1958, a second store opened in the same building for furniture, household items, appliances and giftware.

The store has since held several di erent locations across the east side of Cleveland. In 2011, Thriftique Showroom moved to 26055 Emery Road in Warrensville Heights, where NCJW/CLE has its o ce and warehouse, and in 2012 to its current location.

On entering the vestibule to the showroom, one becomes immediately aware of the mission of NCJW/CLE, with photos showing the work of the nonpro t organization in a mural featuring the words, ”Changing the Lives of Women, Children and Families in CLE. NCJW/ CLE.”

Among the projects NCJW/CLE has launched are Share What You Wear, which collects and then distributes clothing and supplies to children in need or in crisis through school and agency social workers. Volunteers ful ll orders by shopping Thriftique’s inventory of donated new and gently used clothing to create gender and size-speci c clothing bags, according to Mindi Axner, executive director of NCJW/CLE. Toiletries and school supplies, also provided through donations, are included upon request.

That program, Axner says, was started more than 10 years ago on the initiative of two Orange High School students who had come to NCJW/CLE’s Designer Dress Days, the organization’s fundraiser that sells designer clothing. Attending the sale with their mothers, they decided they wanted to do something like it for teens in need.

“We created a little ‘store’ where the students and their foster parents would come and they would shop,” says Axner, a member of Park Synagogue in Pepper Pike and Cleveland Heights.

NCJW/THRIFTIQUE SHOWROOM HISTORY

1936

NCJW’s original Thrift Store, the first resale store in Cleveland, opened at 2035 E. 105th St., offering clothing and soft goods donated by members. It was founded by Mrs. Jac (Ruth) Einstein. Later that year, inventory was expanded and the store doubled in size to include furniture and giftware as well as an antique department.

1942

The store was remodeled and renovated.

1958

An adjunct store opened at the other side of the same building at 2049 East 105th St. The main store continued to carry clothing and soft goods, but the furniture, household items, appliances and giftwares moved to the new location.

1967

A second store, Council East Thrift Shop, opened at 11707 Buckeye Road. Merchandise included clothing, furs, jewelry, furniture, appliances, draperies, linens, kitchenware, china, silver, books, records and antiques. Proceeds from all stores supported NCJW/CLE’s everexpanding service projects in the community.

1970

The original Thrift Store closed. Two new stores opened, at 10638 Euclid Ave. in Cleveland and 2242 Lee Road in Cleveland Heights, replacing the stores on East 105th. The Cleveland Heights store was called Thriftique.

1980

A fire destroyed the Buckeye store, and it moved temporarily to the then-new NCJW/CLE building at 3535 Lee Road in Shaker Heights.

1981

Thriftique II, or the Thrift Shop, opened at 16701 Chagrin Blvd., in Shaker Heights.

1990

Thriftique moved to 12611 Larchmere Blvd., in Cleveland, where it remained for 21 years. It replaced all other NCJW/CLE Thrift stores.

2011

Thriftique Showroom moved to 26055 Emery Road in Bedford Heights.

2012

Thriftique Showroom moved to its current location, 5055 Richmond Road in Bedford Heights

2019

Thriftique Showroom closed for five months as it underwent remodeling. It reopened May 29, 2019. Source: National Council of Jewish Women/Cleveland

Above: A collection of thrift items at Thriftique Showroom’s Larchmere location in 1990, where it remained for 21 years. | Photo / Western Reserve Historical Society. Below: Thriftique Showroom’s “the Tique” section, o ers the latest contemporary and trendy brands. | Photo / NCJW/CLE

Axner says the top reason children don’t go to school is “because they don’t have clean clothes to wear.” Share What You Wear aims to alleviate that concern.

In addition, through Thriftique, NCJW/CLE holds Operation Warm Up, which builds an annual collection of winter clothing for homeless people.

And through sales at Thriftique, NCJW/CLE has launched initiatives under the name Partners in Literacy. They include a monthly book club for children in fth grade; a reader’s theater for fourth graders; Building Bridges With Books, which contributes to school libraries; and Reading Buddies, which pairs volunteers with rst graders once a month to help them learn to read.

In addition, NCJW/CLE launched and stocked a community resource room inside Bedford High School starting in the 20192020 school year through donations it received.

“We wanted to do something within the backyard of where we were,” Axner says of the Thriftique showroom. “So we reached out to the Bedford Heights schools and asked them what their needs were.”

A JOB WITH PURPOSE

Froimson, Thriftique’s manager of 28 years, says she enjoys working there for several reasons.

“It feels good to come to work because I know I’m doing something bene cial,” Froimson says. “Believe me, it gets complicated. It gets crazy, but I think I thrive on that.”

In addition to the Thriftique Showroom, there is also a warehouse in Warrensville Heights. Froimson, a member of Park Synagogue, spends time at both the warehouse and the store, collecting items which are then brought to the stock room that is part of the 9,100-square-foot store. She is one of eight employees.

Thriftique also o ers truck pickup for donors, who may be experiencing a tender time in their lives – a death in the family or a move that may be fraught with mixed emotions. Froimson says donors have given “such positive feedback.”

From the warehouse, items that aren’t suitable for sale are recycled at a per-pound rate, bene ting NCJW/CLE and its causes.

Assistant manager Karen Morris is a third-generation member of NCJW/CLE.

“Just the whole mission of being here as a community service for people who need us became very important to me,” says Morris, who is a 10-year employee, coming from retail. “And especially the mission of sustainability. … Land lls are lled with unused old clothing. So it’s nice to be able to be helping the world with being sustainable … to not have so much going to the land ll and being able to reuse.”

TRENDING NOW

The store belongs to the National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops, and Froimson looks to the association’s Facebook page every night to see what’s trending. She also watches what customers buy, particularly those whom she knows are in the resale business themselves.

“Currently, ‘80s is huge right now in furniture and clothing,” Froimson says.

Formica, or laminated, furniture is popular as are Levi’s dark, sti blue jeans and athleisure clothing.

What’s not selling? Men’s sport coats, suits and ties, and women’s suits. Business attire, it seems, went out with the remote work lifestyle brought in by the COVID-19 pandemic, Morris says.

Women’s sweaters are $8, women’s tops are $6. Jewelry is priced at $5, belts are $1.

Inside the store, smaller items are closest to the walls with larger items in the middle of the store, including framed artwork, bric-a-brac, children’s toys and books, furniture, clothing, shoes and purses.

Thriftique also has a designer and high-end section called the Tique, where clothing and other items are individually priced.

Volunteers work to give the store a di erent look each week, moving items from place to place to showcase them in a

di erent light.

“And we do have a lot of the same people shopping, so it makes it more interesting for them,” Froimson says.

At the showroom, volunteers price and stock the shelves using a color-coded tagging system. They also size clothing.

Each week, Thriftique still stages the markdowns that Rothstein started. From Sept. 22-24, for example, all furniture was 30% o .

“What we get for donations is incredible. I mean, you could walk in there right now, it looks like a department store,” Froimson says. “You can make the most gorgeous event just shopping with us.”

LOOKING AHEAD

As NCJW/CLE celebrates Thriftique’s 85th anniversary and in recognition of National Disability Employment Awareness Month in October, Thriftique partnered with Twinsburg-based model Olivia DePiore, who is showing some of Thriftique’s fashions on her Instagram account, @oliviadepiore2018. In addition, from Oct. 13-15, the store dedicated a portion of its proceeds to livespecial.com, a project of NCJW/CLE that provides support and resources for those with disabilities.

DePiore, 24, who has Down syndrome, “has tied her love of fashion (and thrifting) with her passion for empowering others with her can-do attitude,” according to an NCJW/CLE news release about the partnership.

DePiore’s mother, Vicky, says her daughter enjoyed picking out clothes at Thriftique for the fashion shoot after her friend, Zoe Felber, a summer marketing intern for NCJW/CLE, reached out about partnering.

“Then we went and visited the site, which is fabulous,” Vicky DePiore says. “There are such high-end products and just stu that we … don’t know if we’d ever be able to a ord it any other way. And it’s all in great condition, beautifully kept. Their displays and their marketing, they’ve done so well.”

Olivia DePiore, who has modeled in New York City and internationally, put together some out ts, which Vicky DePiore photographed. They then returned to Thriftique for a professional photoshoot by Mariana Edelman.

The hope, Vicky DePiore says, is that “Olivia’s exposure can help Thriftique, and vice versa.”

FINDING TREASURE

Rosean Schmidt of Pepper Pike is a 15-year volunteer at Thriftique and coordinator of the 20 to 25 volunteers who help sta the store.

Schmidt got involved after serving a four-year stint cochairing NCJW’s Designer Dress Days, which this year was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While Schmidt usually shops rsthand, she has made some signi cant purchases at Thriftique: artwork, jewelry, and blocks and books for her grandchildren. Her prize nd was a set of Mikasa plates, which she uses every day. She noticed them when she was volunteering in the warehouse.

“You just never know what you’re going to nd,” she says.

Schmidt says she most enjoys her interactions with customers and other volunteers.

“One person I hadn’t seen for a long time, you know, our kids were at temple together,” Schmidt says, referring to Park Synagogue. “And here, we would get reacquainted. And we’re very close.”

And as thrift shopping only grows in popularity, Thriftique may be one of the oldest and largest stores of its kind in Northeast Ohio, according to NCJW/CLE.

“It’s really interesting because the resale business has really come into its own,” Schmidt says. ”And when you consider that (Thriftique) has been in business for 85 years, it’s amazing.” sj

Twinsburg-based model Olivia DePiore models fashions from Thriftique Showroom in Bedford Heights for National Disability Employment Awareness Month. | Photo / Mariana Edelman Photography & Design

Thriftique Showroom’s 85th anniversary sale

WHAT: Featuring discounts, raffles (for $85 gift cards) and other surprises throughout the day. WHEN: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Nov. 3-5 WHERE: 5055 Richmond Road, Bedford Heights

Donations accepted

To donate clothing and other items, visit Thriftique’s warehouse at 26055 Emery Road in Warrensville Heights, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. For free furniture pickups, call 216-378-2264. For more information, visit thriftiqueshowroom.com.