"I buy things I don't need with money I don't have to impress people I don't know."
In your ongoing quest for new and quality suppliers for your consignment, thrift, of buy-outright resale shop, are you targeting the right members of your marketplace?
This is something to truly consider. How will you reach and impress and motivate the woman who drives this car?
PS “The 10 Best Ways to Ruin a Resale Business” is coming tomorrow. I’m having a tough time limiting the mistakes to just 10 consignment calamities/ resale wrongs/ buy-outright boo-boos. (Joke, guys, joke!)
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
[…] Attracting the High-End supplier. […]
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One of our stores is in a particularly wealthy area. If the second line of that box read ‘with all the money I don’t know what to do with’ …we market to them, yes, but at certain times of year (spring and fall before the social season sets in) when we offer a limited time frame personal pickup service. Many of our customers in this particular group of women expect and value personalized service and want to deal ‘with the owner’ and my time can only be split into so many zillion little pieces.
Funny, during those visits, which can sometimes take a while as they ask for ‘advice’/help making decisions, we have to reiterate our consignor confidentiality statement we make in the hand addressed mailing about a million times. Many of these ladies do not want it known they consign their under-loved stuff because they are worried ‘word will spread’ and others will think they are in some financial difficulty or something. It also helps to attend the most popular charity event functions in the area to ‘network’ with these women.
We also market to their maids and personal assistants.
There is another segment of the group that will not bother consigning, because they give their stuff to household help, particularly the maid or personal assistant as what they see as sort of a benefit. We offer a referral fee to the ‘staff’ of these individuals and also promote in a little handout how to turn these ‘benefits’ into cash – which they almost all would much rather have. We have quite a number of household staff members from the surrounding community that consign all manner of things with us.
I must also say that many of these wealthy clients are some of the worst hoarders I’ve ever met – especially of their clothes. The hoarders think if they hang on to the stuff long enough they will eventually be able to sell it at Christies or something like Jackie O’s stuff was sold! The latest was a women who had installed hang rods the entire length of her quite sizable walk-up ‘attic’ as it was called – a veritable graveyard of clothing. It was sad to witness the true agony this individual suffered even contemplating parting with some of this stuff.
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