by Joe Kelly
GEORGETOWN – Peace Love Thrift opened on May 1, 2021, at 22 E. Main Street in Georgetown, inside a building that still holds the vault from an older bank that, according to local legend, burned down sometime in the 1880s. The vault survived, and the town rebuilt around it. Today, you can walk right inside it, though instead of bars of gold, it holds racks of clothing and small treasures that used to belong to someone else and now can belong to you.
The vault is such a clean physical embodiment of Peace Love Thrift’s whole deal (reuse, re-circulation, value that isn’t “market value”) that it feels too good to be true. But that’s exactly why Kim Therrien, a retired nurse who has lived in Georgetown for more than 35 years, opened the shop in the first place: to give things, and people, another chance to be useful.
Most items are priced at five dollars or less. This is not a practical strategy in the business sense. Seasoned resellers regularly stop in and leave with pieces they will later mark up 10-15 times. Kim does not mind. She prices her items with the belief that useful things should stay within reach of people who need them. The shop’s hours reflect the habits of a person doing this for love as well: it’s only open Thursday and Friday from 12–6, Saturday 11–6, and Sunday 12–5, so Kim can have time to enjoy retirement and spend time with her family.
Over time, Peace Love Thrift has become more than a place to shop. Customers linger, catching up on town news, sharing stories, and checking in on one another. Kim and her employee-number-one Tony have filled the store with tiny notes and jokes that visitors can spend hours discovering, and on Instagram (@peacelovethriftstore), Kim’s “Thrifty Minute” videos offer quick, often hilarious glimpses into the day-to-day life of the shop. Donations come in steadily because people trust PLT to be fair and thoughtful with what they give. What the shop cannot keep, it donates. Kim supports Camp Denison in Georgetown, a recreation center set on 45 acres along Baldpate Pond conservation land. She also donates to schools, nursing homes, and the library. And twice a year, she contributes to donation efforts coordinated by her friend Amos, sending items to his home community in Kenya’s Maasai Mara region, near Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Kim thanks her customers, her family, and the friends who have supported her along the way. ♦
