Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

While gathering my thoughts and notecards and camera for the NARTS Bus Tour of consignment, resale, and thrift shops coming up soon during their annual Conference in Indianapolis, I ran across some notes from past events…

Looking out the windows going from shop to shop on the bus, I spotted a funky antique shop called Rust & Dust. Wouldn’t that make a great name for a furniture resale shop’s back-room as-is bargain area?

At a children’s shop, this sign in the restroom might help a bit in cutting down the odious task of cleaning up after less-than-considerate parents and caretakers…whether or not it is strictly true:

OSHA Regulations do not permit disposal of dirty diapers in our store. For your convenience we have provided plastic bags.

We also visited a vintage and ethnic shop. It had something I really thought could be interesting: each dressing room had a short, cabineted clothing rack with a selection of interesting stock in it. Now, some NARTettes thought these were just try-ons that hadn’t made it back to the racks. Maybe that was true…but my mind went immediately to what a great place to showcase some special items, especially one-size things like shawls, caftans, ruanas…

Thanks to us switching bus seats from shop to shop, I got to visit with some great people. Some interesting items I collected:

• One shopkeeper used a greeting-card creation software to make a classy handout about her alterations service. Why didn’t I ever think of that?
• A not-for-profit thrift shop had a business card with rounded corners. I checked around and these cost about two cents more per card, which may seem like a lot, but it looks really high-class.
• A couple of good taglines on consignment shop business cards: Sassy, sophisticated and fun. (Unfortunately, this shopkeeper didn’t use this phrase on her web site, settling for the negative version of an all-too-common phrase, Don’t pay the difference if you can’t see the difference) And Unique Finds & One-of-a-Kinds has a nice rhythm to it and is intriguing. And how about Yummy designer fashions, accessories & gifts? I like that one.
• Interesting observation: only one business card that I received, out of over 100, had Member of NARTS/ National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops on their card… not even the President of NARTS had it on hers! The public values businesses which belong to their trade group higher, so for all the money you’re spending to be a member, why not use your membership to build business?

Oh, the treasures to be found on a NARTS bus tour…

that is, the ideas and inspiration. But you’re allowed to shop, too. To get the most out of this once-a-year opportunity, you might want to print out half-a-dozen useful copies of Visiting Other Resalers, a little field notebook to help you examine other shops with an eye to making yours better, available in the TGtbT Luncheonette, part of the Too Good to be Threw Products for the Professional Resaler shop.

(More Conference ideas, INCLUDING ideas for those who can’t make it to Conference this year.)