Salvation Army Captains Oliver and Tabitha Knuth, thrift store manager Jennifer Sanford and the Ottumwa Chamber of Commerce cut the ribbon at the Salvation Army Thrift Store.
/ KTVO's Kate Allt
OTTUMWA, IOWA -- Members of the Ottumwa Chamber of Commerce gathered at the newly revamped Salvation Army Thrift Store to host the official ribbon cutting Tuesday morning.
"We had been receiving some less than positive comments about the store's customer image," said Salvation Army Captain Oliver Knuth. "It was important to the community to do this."
The store was closed for a period of time to hire a new manager, staff and give the entire store a facelift.
"It's supposed to be so the community can have a place to shop where things are lower priced than you would find at the regular retail stores and then also the money we raise goes right back into the community to support all of our other programs," said Captain Tabitha Knuth. "So if the store isn't organized and isn't nice and clean, people aren't going to want to shop here and it just defeats our purpose in the community."
Jennifer Sanford, the store's manager, said feedback from the community has been overwhelmingly positive since the re-opening, and sales have doubled.
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