A Kansas City-area discount store has arrived in a new Johnson County city.

Earlier this month, locally owned thrift store chain Maj-R Thrift opened a new store in downtown Shawnee.

Maj-R Thrift opened at 6220 Nieman Road

• The store took over a space at the Nieman Plaza shopping center, which is just off Shawnee Mission Parkway and Nieman Road.
• Fellow discount store Family Dollar previously occupied the space, until it closed its doors late last year.
• Maj-R Thrift is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

Maj-R Thrift offers discounted clothes and more

Shoppers at Maj-R Thrift can find a wide variety of clothes for women, men and children.

That includes items like blouses, shoes, pants, coats and more.

In addition to clothes, Maj-R Thrift also offers cut-rate books, toys, home decor, furniture, and even some cookware and electronic items.

“Clothes is our top seller,” said co-owner Rhonda Edwards. “And we’ve got shoes, we’ve got furniture, we have electronics, we have everything you could think of.”

Though items at Maj-R Thrift stores are already discounted, the thrift store chain is also known to offer “blowout” sales on major holidays.

Those sales can range from everything in the store being 50% off to specific sales on clothing.

This marks the second Maj-R Thrift in Johnson County

Founders Malcolm “Mac” and Joanne Ayer opened Maj-R Thrift’s first store more than 50 years ago, in Kansas City, Kansas.

Today, Maj-R Thrift is run by the Ayers’ daughters, Rhonda Edwards and Angie Ayer.

The unique spelling of the brand’s name has a familial tie. Each letter in “Maj-R” comes from the first name of someone in the family: “M” for Mac, “A” for Angie, “J” for Joanne, and “R” for Rhonda.

Besides its Shawnee store, Maj-R Thrift has one other Johnson County store in Olathe. The brand also operates stores in Topeka, as well as in Gladstone and Grandview, Missouri.

Maj-R Thrift also previously had a store in Raytown, Missouri, but that store has now closed and ultimately been replaced by the new Shawnee store.

The building that housed the Raytown store ultimately became too costly to maintain, Edwards said. In the end, she said, heading back to the brand’s original roots on the Kansas side of the state line made natural sense.

“We decided to make a move towards home,” she said. “We were just looking forward to getting back towards the original spot.”

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