If you weren’t looking for it, you would look right past Blessingdales. Located on Eldorado, the non-profit thrift store is about to celebrate its second anniversary within that space.

The idea for Blessingdales originally started in 1998 and was conceived within a church here in Decatur. It was located in a donated space just down the street from where the store now stands.

In August of 2013 they bought and moved. Susan Bacon, the store’s current manager, took the position when they moved and has been working there ever since. “I had just started just coming in part time, kinda scoping it out and seeing how things we run,” Bacon said. “So that was my initiation, moving the store.”

Walking through the door, it’s always an adventure, within the store there are rooms within rooms filled with donations from people that come in daily. Sometimes, on successful days, the donation room is so full that Bacon and her staff of employees and interns cannot walk through it.

The thrift store takes almost everything, from gently used clothing to seasonal decorations, the store has it all. As Bacon said, “I’ve always said that we sell anything that you could find at Sears.”

Just recently with Halloween right around the corner, there was even a blow-up sumo-suit donated and posted on Blessingdales’ Facebook page.

The store’s staff is friendly and inviting, and the customers are more so, everyone who walks in through the doors is considered family. Generations have walked through and continue to walk through the door today.

There have been times where Bacon has recounted how people have moved away from Decatur, but every time they come back to visit family, they always make it a point to at least stop by, and maybe pick up a few essentials while they walk through the store.

“A woman [will] come up to me and say that when her children come in from Chicago they want to come here. So my greatest joy is that people come in here and bring their friends, and they make it a priority to make a trip to here [Blessingdales],” Bacon said in a conversation she had recently about the generational commitment to the store.

Through those generations the thrift shop has had many joys, one of them being the fact that their run of luck has never waned. Almost every shelf or display has been donated or given to make the store to help it compete with other shops around the store.

“Sometimes when I go out onto the floor and I look around, I think, man I have an awesome team because I think we run on about five and a half people to sort through, price and place everything that we have. I think that is simply amazing.” Bacon said about the accomplishments her and her small team have achieved.

The store looks impeccable, clean and welcoming. It is well worth the visit for any young, broke college student looking for clothes, shoes, blankets or anything else they need.

Also be sure to make it out to Blessingdales’ second anniversary celebration on October 7.