Oct. 11--Lindel Richardson smiled as she dropped a pair of shoes into her shopping cart.

They were new, the brand was Unisa, and they cost all of $3.99.

Elsewhere at the Goodwill store in Pennsauken, she found a sweatjacket for $3.99, and a linen skirt for $1.99.

"Isn't this nice?" she said, holding it up. "I can wear this to church."

Richardson, of Lindenwold, is paying college tuition for herself and her son, and like so many others, she's hoping to stretch fewer dollars farther these days.

Even as traditional retailers saw their clothing sales fall 0.3 percent this August compared with last, at least one group of stores is watching its business boom: consignment shops and thrift stores.

Michael Shaw, chief operating officer of Goodwill Industries of Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia, said the agency is experiencing an "incredible upturn" in business, although the flip side in some cases is that donations are down.

Comparing September 2008 with the same month in 2007, sales were up 9 percent.

Likewise, the Salvation Army is seeing sales rise from 5 to 20 percent nationally, and 10 percent locally.

The National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops surveyed its members in September and found that among 204 respondents, sales from August to August rose an average of 30 percent.

The group's member shops recently launched a marketing effort to attract a more affluent group of shoppers.

Richardson, an only child who said she never had to wear hand-me-downs, had not really considered thrift stores. Now, "when I need things," she said, "this is where I come."

A few aisles away in the busy store, where dozens were shopping, Dorothy Frampton of Camden was browsing the pants rack.

"I'm retired," she said. "I'm on a pension. Things are getting more expensive." And she has seven grandchildren who will want Christmas presents.

At higher-end stores, shoppers whimsically refer to themselves as "discount divas" or "markdown mavens."

But a San Francisco Chronicle writer has coined a term for shoppers in the new economy, recessionistas, defining one as "someone who wants to update her wardrobe without emptying her designer wallet."

At the Ardmore Thrift Store, run by the Junior League of Philadelphia, "business is booming, absolutely booming," said manager Patricia Franks.

It may have to do with receiving 670 new designer items a few weeks ago from the Philadelphia fashion retailer Diane Beloff, who closed her store.

But even that doesn't account for current daily sales averages of $2,500, an increase of roughly $500 over several months ago, Franks said.