It's hard to say who's more excited about the new Salvation Army Thrift Store: the customers or the employees.

"This is awesome," said Rebecca Anderson, who was shopping for clothes Thursday for her 7-week-old son, Rayden. "You're not crammed into one little space. And there are bathrooms!"

The smile on store manager Dorothy Young's face clearly showed her feelings. "It's just wonderful to be here," she said.

The Salvation Army's downtown store closed Jan. 22, and that building will be sold. The new store, at 621 East St. Patrick St., opened a week ago.

The new store is more than three times bigger than the old store, making its shelves and racks look a bit sparse and lonely right now. But with more room to handle donations, Young expects to soon fill the extra space.

Thursday morning, more than 30 shoppers browsed through racks of clothing, household goods and furniture.

"It's great," said Jacky Dreamer, who was also a regular customer at the downtown store. "This is where I decorate my home from."

She's bought furniture and bedding from The Salvation Army store. And with five children ranging in age from 3 to 13, she has also bought her share of clothing.

"I'm so used to the prices here," Dreamer said. "I'm still waiting for them to fill the shelves."

Lee Zenahlik of Black Hawk and her sister, Virginia Back of Rapid City, came in to check out the new location after dropping off some donations. "It's nice and big," Zenahlik said as she looked at some lace pieces.

Nearby, Anderson shopped with her sister, Heather Kirkley, and mother, Glenda McGinnis, along with Kirkley's 2-year-old daughter, Kinley, and 2-week-old son, Peyton. Anderson is from Rapid City, and the others live in Faith.

McGinnis and Kirkley came to Rapid City on Thursday for a doctor's appointment, but The Salvation Army store was "second on the list," McGinnis said.

Kirkley, a stay-at-home mom, has five children. "We have to shop in places like this," she said.

Anderson is happy to help her shop.

"I think I've been here four of the five days since they opened," she confessed with a grin. "There's new stuff that I didn't see yesterday."

Even the racks and cases are new to the thrift store. Young said they were able to buy racks and jewelry cases from Shopko when that store remodeled recently.

"It's like a mini-Shopko," she said. "It was worth the storage fees."

The store's added space and new cases allow better display for some of the fancier items the agency receives. One area, dubbed "Sally's Boutique," features antique hats and baby clothes, old china, cut-glass bowls, and even a fur stole with matching hat.

Along with restrooms and more elbow room, the new store also provides plenty of free parking space.

Behind the scenes, employees are reveling in the covered loading dock and the huge clothing baler, not to mention the large sorting room.

"There (were) clothes up in the rafters" at the old store, said Kim Warner, who is in charge of sorting clothing donations.

You might be shocked to learn that The Salvation Army Thrift Store doesn't want your unwashed laundry.

"Yesterday, I got a whole garbage bag full of dirty underwear and socks," Kim Warner said. Needless to say, that "donation" went straight into the garbage. "The dirty socks were just nasty."

Stained or torn clothes that can't be sold are now compressed into 1,300-pound bales that will be shipped to California, then distributed to Third World countries. Machinery at the old store made 250-pound bales, staffers said.

With space so tight at the old location, donations were sometimes turned away. People also left donations piled outside the store on weekends, leaving them open to the elements and to looters who sometimes pillaged the best items.

The store also had to deal with more than one broken refrigerator, each of which required a trip to a disposal site and payment of a $45 freon-removal fee.

That won't happen now. The covered loading dock is brightly lit and monitored by security cameras.

"If somebody would drop off a refrigerator, we would know who did it," Young said.

Luckily, the thrift store also receives many good, useable items, including brand-new clothes with the tags still attached and some antiques.

"Just about anything you think somebody might be able to use, we'll take," said Young.

Hopes are that the newer, bigger store will help generate more revenue for the nonprofit organization, which helps provide food and shelter and rent and utility assistance to low-income clients.

Maj. Robert McClintock of The Salvation Army estimated last fall that for every day the old store was open, the agency was able to help two families pay one month's rent and heating bills. He said the agency hoped to double thrift-store sales in the first year, and triple sales within two years' time.

"It's going to take a lot of donations to operate this store, so we appreciate all of the public just getting behind us," he said.

Folks like Dennis Smith of Rapid City are doing their part to help. Thursday morning, he was unloading a horse trailer filled with stuff onto the thrift store's new loading dock.

"We were going to have a rummage sale and didn't get it done," he said, laughing. "We have a little bit of everything."

You might even be able to buy it now.

Store hours

The Salvation Army's new thrift store is at 621 E. St. Patrick St. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. The store is open until 7 p.m. on Thursdays. For more information or to volunteer, call 342-8849.

Items the Salvation Army doesn't want

* Broken appliances

* Water beds

* Torn or stained clothing