A Touch Of Magic Returns In Marblehead

MARBLEHEAD, MA — The Marblehead Magic Hat Thrift Shop looked a bit different when the doors opened to the public for the first time Friday compared to when customers last walked through aisles overflowing with unique and vintage clothing, gifts, books and toys back in March.

The inventory is dramatically reduced from the congested racks of clothes and packed shelves of goodies customers have combed through for the 14 years since the upscale thrift store launched as a way to raise funds for Marlbehead school programs and initiatives. The hours are a little less, the staff and volunteers are pared down — at least for now — with more open space for socially distanced entrances and exits amid the coronavirus health crisis that kept the store closed for more than eight months.

But the optimism was back on Friday that the mission of the Marblehead Veterans Middle School shop remains the same at a time when supplemental funds are needed more than ever.

"Fantastic," Karen Lemmond, a member of the Magic Hat Board of Directors, told Patch. "It's fantastic to be back. We'd love to have all of our volunteers back too.

"But it's day one. We're playing it by ear and seeing how it goes. With everything going on, we are waiting to see if we can expand our hours and donation times."

For now, the store will be open Wednesdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for shopping and Monday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for donation drop off.

The store accepts all kinds of donated items for re-sale with proceeds going back to the Marblehead Teachers Association to be put toward programs that enrich the experience of students. Since 2006, the store's website said there have been more than 5,500 items donated and sold, and more than $1.3 million given back to Marblehead Schools.

"Sadly, everybody needs money more than ever right now," Lemmond said. "It's a great way for us to help out and helps kids get money without going through the school budget."

The Magic Hat shut down, along with most other retail stores, at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March. Yet, unlike most stores that took a few days to weeks to ramp up inventory and put in safety protocols before reopening to limited capacity later in the spring, the Magic Hat's location within a school, its staff considerations and its reliance on donated merchandise made opening up this summer prohibitive.

The store was able to maintain a small presence with the help of some shelving space and a sidewalk spot out in front of Marblehead Antiques, but it wasn't until November that the Board of Directors felt the time was right to bring the public back into the main shop.

"We were cognizant of our employees' safety and at first we weren't able to access the school," Lemmond said. "There were parking issues as they were getting ready for the schools to reopen."

Marblehead Public Schools started the first three weeks of the school year fully remote before transitioning to the current hybrid learning model last month.

Lemmond said there was also a lot of "cleaning and culling" of merchandise needed before the reopening to make sure there was enough space for social distancing. She said that while the selection remains a fruitful and eclectic mix of designer clothing — much of which still has the original tags — seasonal items and mint or near-mint condition books, the Magic Hat has had to cut back on items that might not move this time of year — such as summer clothes and outdoor items — and is not re-selling sporting goods for now due to coronavirus-related restrictions.

The store is still accepting walk-in donations on Mondays, but is doing that on a separate day to keep the donors and shoppers separate to thin out crowds.

"It's all to improve traffic flow," Lemmond said. "We have about half the amount of merchandise we used to have in the store.

"It's still the biggest gamut of everything under the sun you can imagine. But we've had to be more stringent in what we're putting out than we had been in the past because of space. We are trying to sell the best of the best in the limited space we have."

Gifts bought at the Magic Hat this holiday season will go to support student programs as they hopefully begin to ramp back up in 2021.

"We're just absolutely thrilled to be back," Lemmond said. "We're so happy with all the support from the community and everything Marblehead Antiques did to give us some space and some presence to make a little bit of money when we were closed."

(Scott Souza is a Patch Field Editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)