If you’ve driven through Harleysville, Pennsylvania, there’s a good chance you recognize the massive former Harleysville Insurance headquarters along Maple Avenue. After sitting largely unused in recent years, the property is getting a very different second life: Care & Share Thrift Shoppes is moving to Harleysville.
The move will bring one of the area’s best-known thrift shopping destinations from Souderton to a much larger location at the former insurance campus. And if you’re a bargain hunter, there’s a lot to know about the new store, including its massive size, Care & Share’s weekly discounts and a question I’ve heard more and more from thrift shoppers: Why have the prices gotten higher?
Where Is Care & Share Moving?
Care & Share’s longtime location is:
783 Route 113
Souderton, PA 18964
The new Care & Share location is:
355 Maple Avenue
Harleysville, PA 19438
The Harleysville property is the former Harleysville Insurance campus, which later became part of Nationwide.
Care & Share announced that it entered into a lease-to-purchase agreement for the property, with plans to eventually purchase its portion of the campus.
A Much Bigger Care & Share
The size of the new location is probably the biggest part of this story.
Care & Share says it currently has about 55,000 square feet of space in Souderton. The new Harleysville facility provides approximately 129,500 square feet, more than twice as much space.
Instead of having Clothing, Books, Furniture and Variety spread among separate stores, the new facility will bring the operation together in one massive building.
The property also has loading docks, a centralized donation area, modern restrooms, elevators and plenty of parking. Solar panels on the roof are expected to provide a significant portion of the building’s electricity.
For anyone familiar with the current Care & Share, this is going to be a major change.
But Will a Bigger Store Mean Higher Prices?
That brings me to something I’ve noticed while shopping at Care & Share: the prices seem to have been creeping up.
I’m definitely not the only thrift shopper who has noticed higher prices at thrift stores in general. Care & Share can still have some great deals, but there are also times when I’ll pick something up, look at the price tag and be surprised by how close it is to what the item might cost new.
The move to Harleysville makes me wonder how much the economics of operating a thrift store this large play into pricing.
Going from around 55,000 square feet to nearly 130,000 square feet is a huge jump. A building that size comes with substantial costs for the property itself, maintenance, utilities, insurance and improvements. Care & Share has also said it plans a capital campaign to assist with eventually purchasing the property.
That doesn't mean the move is responsible for higher prices, and Care & Share hasn't said that it is. But a much larger operation certainly isn't free.
It will be interesting to see what happens with pricing once the Harleysville store is fully up and running.
How to Get a Better Deal at Care & Share
The good news is that you don't necessarily have to pay the price written on the tag.
Care & Share has a rotating color-tag sale that can make a huge difference.
Each week, merchandise with a designated color tag is 50% off Wednesday through Monday in the Books, Clothing, Furniture and Variety shops. On Tuesday, that week's discounted color drops to 75% off.
So if you're willing to wait and take the chance that an item will still be there, Tuesday can be a particularly good day to shop.
Go Shopping on Your Birthday
Care & Share also has a pretty unusual birthday promotion.
On your birthday, you can receive 50% off your purchases, up to $25 in each Shoppe, by showing an acceptable form of identification at checkout.
The birthday shopper needs to be present, and the discount can't be combined with other offers. If your birthday falls on a Sunday, when Care & Share is closed, the offer is honored the following Monday.
For regular thrift shoppers, that's a birthday perk actually worth remembering.
A New Chapter for a Familiar Harleysville Property
There’s something interesting about seeing the former Harleysville Insurance campus get another life.
For decades, this was a major employment center in Harleysville. Now, instead of people heading there to work for an insurance company, potentially thousands of people each week will be heading there to donate, volunteer and hunt for secondhand bargains.
At roughly 130,000 square feet, the new Care & Share should be one of the more substantial thrift-shopping destinations in the area.
The bigger question for shoppers will be whether the larger location also brings a larger selection of genuinely good deals.
I’ll definitely be checking it out.