Amy Johnstone set the small rack up Monday in front of her shop, Eco Living, at 23 Broadway, which sells fair-trade goods from Ecuador among other things. A sign hanging over the rack says, “Need a coat? Take one. Want to help? Leave one. Thank you!”

As of midday Friday, Johnstone figured more than 40 coats had been taken. The pace of coat donations is also high.

“People are dropping stuff off in the middle of the night, ’cause I leave stuff out at night thinking, ‘Oh, it’ll be empty in the morning. Yea!’ And I come in; there’s more than when I left,” she said.

Not all the donated coats fit on the rack, and Johnstone said she frequently has to restock it with extra donations she keeps inside.

“This morning, this guy came in, and he said, ‘Oh, do you have any down vests?'” she said. “Somebody had just left one, either this morning or last night. I said, ‘As a matter of fact, I do!’ I came in, got one, brand-new Lands End. I mean, the quality of the stuff has been, overall, amazing.

“I’ve seen a lot of locals — you know the locals that walk the streets? — and they’re grabbing some, which is cool.”

The donors seem to appreciate the opportunity at least as much as the recipients, Johnstone said. She thinks people needed a pick-me-up for the holidays.

“It kind of shifted the energy, instead of people moaning and groaning about everything,” she said. “Giving is fun.”

She said she got the idea from a Facebook post.

“Somebody did it in St. Louis, and I saw it on Facebook, and I said, ‘Oh, I can do that,'” she said. “And then, wow, did we open a can of worms.”