Remember Savers, Lubbock’s Huge Thrift Store? (And A Look At What’s To Come Instead)

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I worked all kinds of jobs before I was a DJ/ writer person. One of the very first jobs I ever worked was at the Lubbock location of Savers (2015 50th) which sat empty for a long time before construction recently began on the building for its new life. We will get its metamorphosis soon, but first, I'd like to take a moment to remember Savers, "warts and all".

I was 18 when I started working at Savers and it was my first foray into retail. I would go on to never work in retail again because, woof, it was a challenge. I had a particularly petty and mean-spirited male coworker who oddly shared his name with that of a high-end car, much the way some girls are named Porsche. The store attracted difficult customers as well, including The Backpack Man, who would come in once a week to buy a backpack with change that he would throw in your face. Savers did not adhere to the logic of the normal world outside its walls. Additionally, the bathrooms and changing rooms were vile for reasons I won't go into here.

I know it sounds like I hated it, but I loved it, too. It was aptly referred to as a thrift department store because it was massive. We actually had a guy that tested and repaired electronics, unlike some other places that will sell these items "as is" and let you figure it out. We had a dedicated true-vintage rack that I would frequently pillage. I was able to stalk items and bide my time until they went on sale for 99 cents, and take home clothes by the cartload, including a like-new pair of Dr. Martens. I also got some nice muscle tone from lifting sweater after sweater off the rack to be thrown into a massive compactor. If you donate a sweater, the odds of someone actually buying it are nearly nil, FYI. At least they were recycled into material for rags.

Later that year, we had a massive ice storm. I was called to work anyway, alone yet again, on a Sunday. I quit. I had been hanging on a $7.25 per hour thread as it was and that was simply the final straw. I never went back in, and when it closed in 2017, I wasn't too heartbroken. It seems that it was part of a larger company-wide downsizing.

I've driven by the old Savers many times since, and recently the construction around it has really blown up. I had no idea what was going in there, but after doing a little digging, I've discovered that it will become, "Lubbock's public health and community development departments," according to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

I am very happy that the long-empty building will have a new life of helping people in need. That's lovely. Just don't ask me to clean the bathrooms.