Posted in quotations of use, tagged thought for the day on September 28, 2007|
Finish each day and be done with it.
You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in;
forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it…
Serenely, and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
Posted in Shopkeeping talk on September 26, 2007|
It appears that sometimes, folks have a problem distinguishing “sell” from “sale”… and since they are both words dear to my heart, I thought I’d give a quick tour of when to use which word.
SELL is a verb. You sell something, or someone sells you another something. If you’re a retailer or a wholesaler, that’s your business: you sell stuff. You can also “sell someone on” an idea, a thought, a premise: She sold her mother on the idea that everyone (more…)
Posted in Shopkeeping talk, tagged sea of sameness, shop local, small business on September 25, 2007| 1 Comment »
Posted in Shopkeeping talk, tagged christmas, merchandising on September 24, 2007| 5 Comments »
One of the most exciting things about secondhanding, for shopkeeper and shopper alike, is the incredible ebb and flow of goods. Sometimes this is due to style and fashion (what housewares shop hasn’t experienced too many George Forman grills?), sometimes it’s season (too many coats in November, too many shorts in April), and sometimes it’s holiday.
Managing to properly present
of a category is an ongoing duty of the shopkeeper. We owe our best selling attempts on both sides of a bulging intake.
As an example, take the holiday goods that the not-for-profit consignment shop, Woman’s Exchange in Sarasota FL, has dealt with recently. Since I volunteer as Merchandiser there, let me tell you how I managed. The shop started accepting Christmas on October 1st. The final deadline was November 30.
My first duty, as these items started hitting the floor, was to find a spot for them. Now, holiday goods are highly desirable for a very short period of time… about October 15 until about December 10. So we had goods coming in a bit early, then we had things arriving only days before the season-selling would grind to a halt. Christmas selling is not only time-delimited, but it’s also very lucrative for the shop so it needed to be in a prominent area. The area closest to the front door, visible from the cashier’s line, was chosen.
At first, we didn’t have enough to make a nice, fully-stocked merchandising splash. I selected goods to “pad” out the area. Remember: you cannot sell ANY of a few little things… they look pitiful. Customers want to feel they have a good selection. So I added merchandise like red glass vases, green goblets, angel statuettes, damask napkins, crystal candlesticks to create a true holiday section.
(A side note: if you want more suppliers to bring in more of a category, let them see it… thus the “padding” of the department not only sells what’s there, but what will be there in the near future!)
As more and more holiday-specific goods came in, I gradually retired unsold “fillers”. The green goblets went back into the glassware area so I had room for reindeer-decorated china.
Then, as you can imagine, the area started to overflow. The stuffed penguins and the Christmas teddy bears had to have their own area. Poinsettia centerpieces migrated onto tabletops. By mid-November, there was Christmas everywhere you looked in our 12,000 sq ft, but still (somewhat!) categorized. Dickenesque cottages on a mahogany sidetable. Angels got their own department near the garden decor. We even had a “decorate-a-tree” subsection with ornaments, garlands, and tree-toppers.
Then (thanks, I like to think, to my merchandising efforts) things started selling like mad. As they did, categories and selections had to be rethought. By about December 1st we were “selling down”. The categories started looking a little skimpy. For a week or so, I could make do: I filled in the Christmas stuffed animals with some Garfields and macaws; the cottages that had become picked-over were snuggled next to the dinnerware with turn-of-last-century farm scenes. I added non-specific twig wreaths to the trim-a-tree area. That worked for another week or so.
But finally, I had to pull in all the tendrils. The remaining silk poinsettias filled the bottom shelves so the mugs and music boxes still could be clustered abundantly on the shelves above. We recruited the angels back and even stuck in some little cupids. Gold-rimmed champagne flutes and silver serving pieces add sparkle to what otherwise might look bare.
As I write this, there are eight more Woman’s Exchange shopping days until Christmas. I’m on my way in to the shop to further fluff out the remaining goods. I want to sell them, so I’ll need to make them appealing even this late by adding more “selection.” Wonder if I can “persuade” shoppers that those red kitchen canisters are a good holiday buy? Maybe if I glom a few green stick-on bows onto them…
Posted in Shopkeeping talk, tagged consignment, HowToConsign.com, starting a consignment shop on September 23, 2007| 98 Comments »
Today is my anniversary. On September 23, 1975, I opened One More Time, gently-used good clothes, in a blue-collar neighborhood of Columbus Ohio. Doesn’t seem that long ago. That’s my father, there, with the broom. He also painted my “coming soon” sign (which went upthe literal MINUTE I signed the lease) and was the owner of the Ford station wagon (1969 vintage if I remember correctly) that’s reflected in the shop windows.
I had, in reserve that September day, all the money I had in the world (less than 3 months’ expenses for the shop); a father and step-mother willing if necessary to feed me; a boyfriend willing if necessary to pay my apartment rent; and a whole lotta moxie.
I talked the landlord into taking half the rent for the first 6 months, then taking 1 1/2 the rent the remaining 6 months of the lease. Figured (correctly) that would help my cash flow.
When, a few weeks after opening, several customers mentioned that they had
been hesitant to come in because the window displays made the shop look expensive (one of my past jobs had been as a window trimmer), I started doing the windows less perfectly. I didn’t know where to buy price tags (this was pre-Google, remember!) so I used little squares of paper safety-pinned to the upper left chest. I found a lot of peach index cards on sale, so for the first couple years, all my financial records were in peach. Sales counter? Door on frame, sided in plywood, created in BF’s garage (and believe me, he was no finish carpenter!)
Now one thing you have to realize is: back then/ there: NO ONE had a clue as to what consignment MEANT, yet alone how it worked. A whole buncha time was spent explaining the whole idea. By me, in between everything else! Dressing room? I replaced the door to the storage closet tucked under the staircase that led to the upstairs offices with “saloon doors”, swinging half-height shutters. Layaways? In the bathroom. Which I had to WAIT to use (remember, I worked alone) until a friendly pair of local secretaries (Nancy the blonde and Mary the brunette) stopped by every lunch-hour to relieve me for 5 minutes!Excited to start your own shop? Check out TGtbT.com’s Start-a-Shop Page, and get The Manual!
A part of any profits I made, those first few months, went to the Grandview Cab Co. because my old red-and-black Toyota often refused at 8am to transport me from my German Village apartment to my Grandview Heights shop.
Yes, my parents fed me more often than not (my step-mother made her charity festive by bringing me lunch disguised as a “shop picnic”… her AMC Gremlin would pull up outside and my taste buds would perk right up), but The Boyfriend never did have to help out with my living expenses (and yes, he’s STILL The Boyfriend).
A year after opening, I had two (very) part-time employees (both of whom became full-timers and stayed on for 8-9 years longer) and I was able to buy a house. A modest house, yes, but houses should be modest.
Eight years later I began publishing a newsletter for consignment, resale and thrift shop owners. A few years after that, I wrote the first edition of Too Good to be Threw, The Complete Operations Manual for Consignment Shops (Note: Updated every few years, the Manual is still the MAIN resource for shopkeepers, I’m proud to say!))
Twenty years after I opened the shop I sold the business to my manager of ten years and retired at the ripe old age of 48, only to start a career as the web hostess of Too Good to be Threw, TGtbT.com (as you can see, I thought the name was too good to be threw as well!) One More Time is still growing and prospering under the guidance of Chris, who not only succeeded at shopkeeping, but who fulfilled a dream of hers: to serve as president of the industry association!
So if you doubt you can make a success of a small (mine started out at 750 sq ft) shop on an even smaller budget, remember me, way back when people didn’t even understand consignment!
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Too Good to be Threw is the flagship site of the TGtbT Family of Sites for the Professional Resalers
With all the 
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 