Items in the shop are organized by type, such as shirts and bottoms, rather than by gender, owner Jessica Morgan said. Photo by Victoria Hernandez.
A new store is open in East Dock to make thrifting affordable and give back to Oak Cliff.
Cliffhanger Community Store opened April 11 with a selection of tops, bottoms, shoes, accessories, snacks, home goods and children’s toys available.
Owner Jessica Morgan said she decided to open the shop because of her passion for thrifting.
“I always really liked thrift shopping and the really big corporate thrift stores are getting really expensive, and you don’t really know where your donations (go) and what goes where. And most of them are for profit anyway,” she said. “And then some of the other really good thrift stores are kind of a mess, even though those are my fun ones to go through, they’re not everybody’s cup of tea.”
With Cliffhanger Community Store, Morgan said she aims to make a neat, curated thrift store based on her own searching and donations, selling items at a more accessible price. The toys in particular are available as pay what you can, and near the check out counter, shoppers can find a bin of items available that don’t quite make it to the racks.
The children’s section of Cliffhanger Community Store. Photo by Victoria Hernandez.
“I have a free bin here of things that I may not necessarily want to sell. I think I found a little tiny stain on this shirt or something, but somebody might like it,” she said, holding a baby pink shirt with a kitten on it. “I don’t like to waste. I like to be kind of be zero waste, as low as I can … so I’m still curating, but what I can’t or won’t use, I’m still trying to find a great place for.”
Morgan added that within her first month open, most of the store’s inventory has been donated.
“That wasn’t really what my plan was, but I was like ‘well, if I get donations, I’ll give 10% back to Oak Cliff-based nonprofits, and I’ll change those every month,’” she said.
For April, donors can choose between The Well Community and After8toEducate. Morgan said she also hopes to host donation events in the future where nonprofits or schools can have a night of drinks and raise funds for their organizations within the store.
“I’m trying to sort of come in and bridge that gap, and we have so many great places here and Oak Cliff loves Oak Cliff. Like if there was a tornado here, everybody would rally, right? Because we know that about our community, so that’s why I want to be able to sort of have a job and work, but be helpful and philanthropic.”
Cliffhanger Community Store is located at 900 E. Clarendon Drive, Suite 175. Hours are Wednesday-Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
