There’s one woman who shops at the new Whitmire thrift store on HIghway 121 sometimes just to spend a quarter.

But she’ll say that spending 25 cents is the only way she can still shop without much money, says store manager Bonnie Batson.

And that thrifty spender isn’t alone.

After Whitmire lost its main job line with Renfro closing in January, many citizens have been financially hard-pressed.

“I don’t know what the percentage is,” says Batson, “but there is a huge amount of unemployed people here.”

So the Hospice of Laurens County Thrift Store, which opened in June beside the Piggly Wiggly, helps out with inexpensive clothing.

“Whitmire needed a place like this,” says Carol Marrs, holding a skirt in front of her to decide if her mother would like it. “The prices are right. The prices are very right.”

Before the store opened, the town had few choices for bargn shopping, says Marrs, who drove to bigger cities for deals on clothes.

The store is chock full of everything you’d find in a house—antiques, books, jewelry, clothing, Halloween garb, exercise machines and even tile and toilets.

And its racks have deals that please many who buy with Social Security money.

“We have a lot of grandparents come in and buy for their grandchildren,” says Batson, because their grandchildren’s parents—their own children—are jobless.

Some parents who do shop for their own children are penny wise and plan ahead.

Two months ago, Batson sold winter clothes for 25 cents.

One woman filled an entire buggy with items like coats and sweaters for her kids’ school clothes. She spent around $60 all on 25 cents items, says Batson.

The store is also a sort of social refuge against hard times.

Marrs for one, just likes visiting the store.

She brought her parents in Wednesday who were in town from New Mexico, but Marrs herself didn’t bring spending money.

“I like that the people here are so nice. They will carry on a conversation with you just like family,” Marrs says. “I love coming down here.”

The store is run by volunteers—many who are unemployed—and two paid workers, Batson and Sandra Aujhtry, who volunteered at the store 30 hours a week before her promotion to assistant manager.

Batson says the work is “like a ministry.”

Recently, one man thanked her just for talking with him.

Because people are familiar with Hospice care, customers more readily tell “heartwarming” stories about their life, she says.

“They just open up to you,” says Batson. “You feel like you’re doing more good than just selling things.”

Because of the store’s Hospice connection, people also readily give.

Donations are abundant, though Batson admits she worried if the small town would provide enough merchandise.

The store is closed Sunday and Monday, but by Tuesday, the store’s biggest day, donations are stacked to the ceiling in the donation building out front. Also, weekend yard sale leftovers have lined the sidewalk in front of the store.

The store is like a recycling center, says Batson.

Even broken toys or soiled clothes that the store won’t sell support Hospice work. The thrift store sells the unusable items by the pound to a transport company that recycles the items.

And store profits go to the Hospice of Laurens County which cares for “all patients, regardless of their...ability to pay,” says their brochure.

The store’s snacks and raffle events fund the children’s bereavement program.

But it’s not all touchy-feely work.

Working in a thrift store provides the occasional history lesson, too, says Batson, plus unique meetings.

Someone recently dropped off donations with a 1946 photo of an attractive woman store workers dubbed “Ms. Virginia.”

They also received buttons, dishes and metal hair curlers that may have belonged to her.

“We attribute them all to her whether they are or not,” she says. “You kind of are getting to know the person through her personal items.”

And recently, a couple spotted the thrift store while passing thorough Whitmire southward.

The man was particularly interested in a pocket watch on display in the front of the store.

“That’s my watch. I need to see that watch,” Batson says he told her.

The man said he worked at a plant in Carlisle 30 years ago and left the gold pocket watch on a machine before taking a break.

His wife gave him the watch for their anniversary and when he returned to his work, the gift was gone.

Batson says she found the watch in a purse someone donated.

The man’s wife also spotted the watch right away and both told Batson about the man’s initials inscribed on the back of the watch.

“They’re both telling me what’s on the back of it before I can even get it to them,” says Batson.

Batson offered him the watch for free, but the man insisted on paying the $10 to buy it back.

“I would have paid anything you asked,” Batson says he told her.

Batson says the store is the “baby sister” of the other two Hospice of Laurens County Thrift Stores, one of which is Clinton and the other in Laurens.

The store opened because Hospice needed more funding and the some thought Whitmire would benefit from the store.

Batson agrees that Whitmire needed the store in light of the town’s money-tight situation.

Plus, she is glad Whitmire got the store because as a Whitmire High School graduate, she says she loves Whitmire because it’s small and the people are friendly.

And after working 18 years in textile in Spartanburg, her love of her town now matches the love of her job.

“I love it. I feel like I’m a part of something important,” she says.