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Schuylerville Store Offers Quality, Used Clothing at Modest Price
SCHUYLERVILLE – A new store in Schuylerville where customers are shopping for clothing items by Nike, Ralph Lauren, and Coldwater Creek to name a few, is getting a lot of attention; especially since they’re only paying $2 or less for each item.
The Way, located at 3 Green Street, is a community-centered retail store founded by the Schuylerville United Methodist Church. The store sells quality used clothing items at a fraction of the price big-box stores sell them for. All adult items are sold for $2, while children’s items are only $1 with sales tax included. The store invests 10 percent of the proceeds from every sale back into the community.
“Our goal is to provide gently used clothing so that people can come in and shop,” said Schuylerville United Methodist Church Pastor Al Johnson. “It doesn’t matter if they drive up in a BMW or if they walk in from the food pantry across the street. They’re valued as a member of the community and we want them to know that people care and are willing to sort clothes and put them out on racks so that they can have a shopping experience at an extremely modest price. “
The Way opened its doors Saturday, Aug. 2 and sold $254 worth of merchandise on its opening day. Johnson says at least $25 of that will go toward a local food pantry, volunteer fire department, or a children’s sports program.
“On opening day, one of the volunteers was helping a customer and that customer, a lady, said ‘This is so wonderful. I can’t afford clothes like this and I just can’t believe I’m able to shop in a store like this and buy the clothes I’ve wanted for so long, but couldn’t afford,’” said Johnson. “That’s exactly what we want to be able to do.”
Johnson says The Way is far from a rummage sale. All shirts, pants, dresses and shoes are carefully inspected and organized, making sure only the best gently used items are on the racks.
Johnson says he and his wife, Dee, named The Way after their neighboring business, Subway, coupled with the faith significance as well. Their logo is an arrow pointing upward. They also started a similar store in Mooers, New York with the Mooers United Methodist Church called “Souled Out.” Johnson said Souled Out was extremely successful and decided to bring that model to SUMC.
In the next five years, Johnson hopes the store’s proceeds grow to make significant financial contributions to help the local food pantry and volunteer fire department; but he also hopes the store will speak highly of the volunteers who donate their time.
“I hope folks can see that people of faith are genuinely interested in their neighbor and in giving back to them,” said Johnson. “The Bible says love God and love thy neighbor and that’s exactly what we want to do.”
The store is staffed entirely on volunteers; both from the church and the community, and more volunteers are always needed. If you’re interested in lending a hand, give Johnson a call at 695-3101 or send him an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Those interested in making donations can drop them off at the back porch of the Schuylerville United Methodist Church. Eventually, Johnson says he’d like to get a donation box set up at the store.
The Way is open every Friday from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
For more information on the store, visit www.thesumcway.org
