Photo obtained via https://www.facebook.com/nearlynewatl/

The Nearly New Shop thrift store has been in business since 1949 and has supported the Junior League of Atlanta, a nonprofit focused on women and volunteerism.

But the days of the thrift store supplementing the nonprofit’s income and supporting its mission have run their course. The company announced it is closing its Toco Hills location in the spring of 2017. It moved to its current location on North Druid Hills Road in 2014.

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Junior League President Deanna Anderson said the decision to close has been years in the making.

“We have obviously been in the thrift store business a long time, but over the last 15 years we’ve seen a steady decline in our revenue,” Anderson said.

The store has faced increased competition, both locally and online and a decline in volunteers due to more JLA members working outside the home. JLA has also found increasingly innovative ways to raise money. Anderson said the recent Little Black Dress Initiative, in which women raised money by wearing the same clothes every day to raise awareness about poverty, netted $79,000 in one week. The Thrift Store, by contrast, has reported raising more than $4 million since it opened 68 years ago.

“We’re celebrating our centennial,” she said. “As we think about our next 100 years, it was the right time for us to make a decision to close the store and refocus our energies on more dynamic fundraising.”

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