Hotline Thrift Store is returning to Hatteras Island with a new Frisco location

The Hotline South Thrift Store has been a Hatteras Island fixture for two decades, but for a brief spell in 2024, the island community was concerned that the store was in danger of permanently closing.

After leasing retail space in Buxton for roughly 20 years, the store discovered in 2023 that they would need to find a new location by the end of January 2024. Unfortunately, the options were limited at the time, and Hotline temporarily closed while the hunt continued.

The first-ever Outer Banks Hotline store opened in 1987 in Rodanthe, (a store that remains operational to this day), and a second store followed in Hatteras Village a decade or so later, before it moved to Buxton.

Popular with both residents and visitors, Hotline has always been known as a resource for folks who need essentials, as well as anyone who loves to browse and shop without breaking the bank.

However, the charity thrift store is much more than a cheap and convenient one-stop shopping destination. On a much larger scale, it serves as the frontlines for the non-profit Outer Banks Hotline organization to connect with the southern Hatteras Island community, and it’s the place that people often turn to first when they are in dire need of help.

Outer Banks Hotline provides immediate short-term help to individuals and families in crisis, and also works to find long-term solutions. Focusing on sexual assault, domestic violence, and human trafficking situations, Hotline collects funds for the organization through store purchases and donations, but also works with Dare County Social Services and other resources to help the residents of southern Hatteras Island when they need help the most.

“That store is our gateway for helping with domestic violence and sexual abuse situations on the southern Outer Banks,” said Bronwyn Thornton, Executive Director of Outer Banks Hotline, in an earlier interview. “It’s a store, but it’s our window to reach out to that community as well.”

It’s for these reasons that Outer Banks Hotline representatives and personnel never gave up on finding a new home after the Buxton store closed.

And per a recent announcement, the Hotline Thrift Store is indeed returning, with a new location that’s bigger than its Buxton predecessor.

In the near future, Hotline will be moving to a new home on N.C. Highway 12 in Frisco, at the site of the former Surfside Casuals retail building. Outer Banks Hotline purchased the property in mid-April, and representatives – including longtime manager Donna Covey – are already making plans on how to best utilize the space.

“It was Donna Covey who found that property for sale, and who told us about it,” said Thornton. “We were thrilled. It’s a much bigger and beautiful space, and has everything we needed.”

The new Hotline will have some extra features and amenities that weren’t available at the former Buxton location. For one thing, because of its size, the Hotline Frisco will be able to accept donations, and will also be able to sell furnishings in addition to clothing, household items, and miscellaneous goods.

In addition, the new site is also large enough to house a satellite Outer Banks Hotline office to quietly and discreetly help people who need assistance.

“We still have some work to do on the inside, but we’re hoping we can open [and start taking donations] by Memorial Day Weekend, and have the client services [center] up and running by the fall,” said Thornton.

The main thing that the new Hotline Frisco needs right now in order to open as soon as possible is volunteers.

From helping with small tasks to get the store ready for customers, to sifting through donations when the store opens to the public, volunteers are the only thing that’s missing for the next phase of Hotline to begin.

“We really will take all the volunteer help we can get,” said Thornton.

Folks who are interested in being a volunteer – now and/or when Hotline Frisco opens – can contact Outer Banks Hotline at 252-423-4674.

In the meantime, thrifty islanders can be assured that while it may have seemed like this local icon was gone for good, it’s returning, and will be even better than before.

“We never gave up,” said Thornton. “We were determined. We knew we would reopen… and we couldn’t be happier with the new location.”