enlarge Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Shannon Schwartz and her daughter Sophia, 2, shop on Wednesday in the Goodwill store in Biddeford, where the merchandise includes Halloween items, at left. The store’s sales and donations climbed after it moved from downtown to a shopping center with easier parking.

enlarge Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Michelle Holt sorts through donations at the Goodwill store in Biddeford.

enlarge Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Shirley Lavigne places a box of donations in a cart held by Michelle Holt outside the Goodwill store in Biddeford on Wednesday. Lavigne donates and shops at Goodwill often.

Although national retailers are seeing sales slip, thrift shops are thriving in Maine.

Thanks to a precarious economy, a transformed image of resale and the adoption of savvier marketing techniques, thrift shops in Maine and elsewhere are seeing sales skyrocket this year. And while donations have dropped in some other regions of the country, donations in Maine are booming.

Sales at Goodwill Industries of Northern New England's 25 retail stores in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are up 4.6 percent over last year. Donations are up 16.8 percent, said Jane Driscoll, Goodwill Industries spokeswoman.

But thrift store operators in Maine say they are nervous that donations could quickly evaporate as they have in other parts of the country.

The resale industry has taken off in recent years. It's been growing by about 5 percent a year, according to the National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops, which attributes much of that growth to the advent of online shopping and auction sites, such as eBay, that have made resale trendy.

There are other factors at work, such as environmentally conscious shoppers who are turning to recycled clothes and household goods.

The love of a bargain is also a strong factor, said thrift store managers.

Driscoll said Goodwill Industries heavily promotes its stores, and has been moving locations from downtowns into suburban shopping malls. It also is offering drive-through donations.

"The biggest thing is convenience at this point," said Driscoll.

Those measures have paid off. Goodwill Industries' store in Hooksett, N.H., saw donations shoot up by 81 percent this year after moving to a new plaza with drive-through donation facilities.

After the Biddeford store moved from downtown, where parking was scarce, to the Five Points Shopping Center earlier this year, the store took in as many donations in the first eight weeks as it did in 33 weeks at its old location. Sales jumped from between $8,000 and $10,000 a week before the move to $20,000 a week.

Moving to a larger location at the Meadow Mall in Boothbay Harbor has boosted business at the Saint Andrews Hospital Auxiliary Thrift Shop.

"People are giving stuff away like nobody's business. This past weekend we were inundated," said Kim Bradley, a volunteer at the store.

The Saint Andrews shop raises about $80,000 a year for the hospital by selling donated used goods. Since the move to a larger store with much more space to display items, sales have doubled, said Carol Ostermann, who manages the books.

Bridgton Hospital Guild Thrift Shop in Bridgton has stepped up its marketing by advertising in the local newspaper and adding new signs at its downtown store. Emily Hammerle, store manager, said sales, which average about $20,000 a year, have gone up by several hundred dollars a month.

An exception to the trend are the retail stores of Salvation Army Northern New England Division, where Capt. Mark Unruh said donations are down. He said clothing donations, which represent 75 percent of Salvation Army thrift store sales, are down 25 percent in the last three years, mainly because of competition from out-of-state agencies that receive clothing through roadside collection boxes and resell it.

Unruh said heavy advertising in the past six months is helping to revive donations, but not by enough.

"We don't have enough in our warehouse to take us through the winter," Unruh said.

Other thrift shop operators also say they are worried their brisk donations could quickly disappear as they have in other parts of the country. Although no one knows why donations are down outside of Maine, particularly in affluent areas, thrift retailers speculate that in down economic times, people wear their clothes longer, rather than give them away.

"We are worried. It could happen here," said Driscoll.

Donors were still turning up in droves at the...