Red White and Blue Thrift Store’s Mercerville location, at 2055 Nottingham Way just outside Trenton, is one storefront in a chain whose roots stretch back further than most secondhand retailers in New Jersey. The company traces its history to founder Ray Ellison, whose parents partnered with the Salvation Army in the 1920s to help establish some of the country’s earliest nonprofit thrift stores. After Ellison returned home from service in World War II, he and his uncle opened one of the first for-profit thrift stores, and by 1965 that groundwork had grown into the officially founded Red White and Blue Thrift chain, whose original store still operates today in North Miami, Florida. The Mercerville and Trenton-area shop is a later link in that same chain, carrying forward a business model built on high-volume, affordably priced secondhand goods rather than a boutique-style curated edit.
Inside the Nottingham Way store, shoppers will find the full range typical of a large-format thrift retailer: clothing, shoes, and accessories for the whole family, furniture and home decor, kitchenware and glassware, small appliances and electronics, toys and games, sporting goods, and tools and hardware. The chain restocks aggressively, with more than ten thousand new items added across its stores every day, which means the Mercerville racks and shelves look meaningfully different from one visit to the next. That constant turnover is a deliberate part of the business, aimed at giving budget-conscious shoppers, vintage hunters, and anyone furnishing a home on the cheap a reason to make repeat visits rather than a once-a-year stop.
The Mercerville store keeps long, consistent hours that make it easy to fit into an errand run: it is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., among the longer weekly schedules of any secondhand shop in the area. Shoppers with questions about specific inventory or store policies can call the location directly at 609-586-1608. One point worth understanding for shoppers who care about where their dollars go is that Red White and Blue Thrift is explicitly a for-profit company rather than a charity-run operation, even though its founder’s family background is tied to nonprofit thrift work; the chain is upfront about that distinction in its own materials, positioning itself around value pricing and job creation in the communities where it operates rather than charitable donation.
Sitting in the Mercerville section that borders Trenton in Mercer County, the store draws shoppers from across the capital region who are looking for secondhand clothing and household goods without paying retail prices, and its long operating hours mean it can absorb both weekday errands and weekend treasure hunts. Whether the goal is furnishing an apartment from scratch, finding a costume piece, or simply digging for a designer label at a fraction of the price, the Mercerville Red White and Blue Thrift Store delivers the same high-turnover, all-department selection the chain has built its reputation on since 1965. The sheer breadth of categories under one roof, from clothing racks to furniture floors to tool bins, means a single visit can replace several separate errands for shoppers furnishing a home or refreshing a wardrobe on a budget.
In short, it is a large, seven-day-a-week thrift store on Nottingham Way in Mercerville that restocks daily across clothing, furniture, and household categories for shoppers throughout the greater Trenton area.
