Less than two months after announcing they were being priced out of their longtime home on Partition Street, Saugerties-based volunteer-run community thrift store The Well has found a new location quite literally around the corner.
In a Thursday, August 1 post to their official Facebook page, The Well announced they’d just signed the paperwork to move to 257 Main Street, formerly occupied by Joseph’s Beauty Salon.
“Over the next couple of months we will be moving and organizing our new space,” read the post, adding that they would not accept donations until after they relocate. “Once we get moved we will resume accepting donations at our new location but we have a lot to move and additional donations will add to the moving process.”
The Well will celebrate its 50th year in 2025, and they’ve had a home at 80-84 Partition Street in the heart of the village for over two decades. But the thrift store, sponsored by the Saugerties Area Council of Churches, announced on Thursday, June 13 that their building had recently been sold, and they were faced with a difficult choice: Remain in their current setup on a three-year lease with their new rent starting at $3,000 per month, increasing by five percent each year; or keep one unit — the Well’s choice — and sign a three-year lease at $1,700 per month with the same five percent annual increase. The Well currently pays $1,477 per month plus utilities for both spaces on Partition Street.
The Facebook post about their new location did not specify their rent, but in a June interview with Hudson Valley One, Jane Bird, chairperson of The Well advisory board, said the shop already operates on a shoestring budget because they give so much to the community, and simply raising prices to compensate for a rent increase wouldn’t’t necessarily make a difference.
“I don’t know how far raising the prices would go,” Bird said in June. “A lot of the people that come into our store, they have like $10 to spend. And if they can get five things at $2 apiece, that’s what they’ll get. But they can only get two things at $5 apiece, they’re only going to get two things, because they only have $10. Raising our prices isn’t necessarily going to raise our sales. And really, what that does is it reduces the amount of clothing that they can buy for their kids to go back to school in the fall. It could prohibit them from getting a $1 winter coat for one of their kids.”
Bird said she didn’t fault the new owners of the Partition Street property for trying to meet current market rate rents, but she added that there was no realistic way for The Well to make up the difference.
“I don’t think they’re overcharging us by any stretch of the imagination,” she said. “But that’s $36,000 a year, and we don’t take that much in as far as gross receipts go. And that’s before the insurance and the electric bill and all that.”
In June, Bird said The Well hoped they would be able to find a new home nearby because for many of their customers, especially those without their own transportation, traveling outside of the village could prove burdensome.
“If we move to say (Simmons) Plaza in Barclay Heights, that would be a couple mile walk for some people,” Bird said. “And, you know, especially with little children in tow, it would not be a safe situation.”
Happily, they will only need to relocate around the corner, and will rely on volunteers to help make the move. The Facebook announcement did not indicate an opening date at 257 Main Street, but they have until the end of September to vacate their space on Partition.
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