Car Dealership Now a Salvation Army Store

Christian Wagner is pretty busy these days inside the Salvation Army's new discount store on Lafayette Road.

He and several Salvation Army employees are working three shifts to set up their new 34,000 square foot store at the site of a former KIA dealership.

Inside the store, which is about the same size as a Wal-Mart, are racks and racks of used clothes, accessories, furniture, linens and many other goods that have been donated by area communities to help others in need.

"You name it, we have it," Wagner said.

The Portland-Maine based non-profit will use all of the sales from the new store to support the Salvation Army's adult rehabiliation services program in Portland.

Wagner said the new store is accepting applications and hopes to hire as many as 35 new part-time and full-time employees. In the meantime, Wagner and the other Salvation Army workers keep unpacking boxes of donated items and setting up the store.

He said the new store's hours would be 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday. It will be closed on Sunday, but donations will still be accepted.

With the recession in full swing, Wagner anticipates the new store will see strong traffic of people from throughout the Seacoast area.

Major Franklin Dodridge, the administrator of the Salvation Army adult rehabilitative services program in Portland, said the non-profit group paid $2.2 million to purchase the property and they wanted to find a suitable location in the Portsmouth area for quite some time.