Holdrege Mission Avenue Thrift opens in former Hilsabeck Sporting Goods building

HOLDREGE, Neb. — There’s a new retail shop open in downtown Holdrege filling the vacancy of a legendary sporting goods store.

But that wasn’t Daniel Buller’s initial plan. He came to town to tour a different site for a Mission Avenue thrift store. It didn’t work, so he took a cruise on the brick downtown streets and spotted the former Hilsabeck Sporting Goods building.

“I noticed there was nothing in there, so there were a couple of people on the sidewalk," Buller said. "I said, ‘do you know who owns this building?’ Really, within a half-hour we were able to find the owners and make a deal so that we could lease the building.”

Mission Avenue Thrift opened May 1 at the site of the sporting goods store that operated for more than 70 years. Some items are about that old, like the school desks from the old school in Glenvil. Others are much newer and lightly used.

Almost all of the merchandise was donated locally.

“Most of what you see in these stores came right from the communities," Buller said. "So it’s just a neat picture of the community to support and be able to help out.”

It’s the fifth Mission Avenue Thrift location, after the Lexington store that opened earlier this year and the locations in each of the Tri-Cities. Profits support the Crossroads Mission Avenue homeless shelters in Hastings, Grand Island and Kearney and the non-profit’s homeless outreach efforts across the region.

“That means that we are serving homeless people, that means that we are serving elderly people, that means that we’re addressing mental health issues, that we’re helping people who are in abusive situations and the list goes on and on,” Buller said.

Buller doesn’t plan to open a shelter in Holdrege but does plan to start a food pantry in the future.