Every year at this time, the not-for-profit consignment shop I volunteer in has its clearance sale. It’s not really a seasonal clearance sale since our seasons are all pretty much the same, but it’s a left-over tradition from when Woman’s Exchange used to close the month of August.
All year long, things too ugly to sell, things that someone thought were okay to sell but which no shopper ever fell for, things donated by their owners as too ugly to stand-in-line-to-consign, and things that became, through time and wear, ugly even if they weren’t to start with, are garage-sale priced and packed away, to be put out on long tables after closing on Thursday. From clothing to paintings, lamps to cookware, linens to old 78’s, it’s all there, in boxes, and takes a crew of 20-25 people 2 hours just to get everything onto (and under!) the tables.
That’s where I come in. I roll up my sleeves and move all that stuff around. I’m not fanatic about this, but things really DO sell better if they are somewhat sorted. Here’s the “categories” from this year’s sale:
- Kitchen stuff (utensils, cookware, that sort of thing)
- Holiday (mostly Christmas but stray bunnies, turkeys, and ghosts go here too)
- Glassware, vases, clothes, books, etc etc
- This year, we had enough to do a vintage/antique section of collectible china, old kitchenware, funky Fifties stuff (but they call it “Mid-Century” now, isn’t that adorable?) Next year, I want to be sure to advertise the sale in the media that the college students will see (we have 3 colleges plus the Ringling School of Art) because they were the ones delighted with the things in this area.
- And the table that gets sold out FASTEST: <b>Manland.</b> Think of it. About 25% of the people who come to the event are male. They have a limited interest, for the most part, in Holly Hobby and floral arrangements. So we gather electronics, gadgets, barbecue tools, sports-themed ANYTHING, hardware and tools, model cars, even statuettes that you can imagine in a guy’s office… and it clears out almost immediately.
We done good. Lines at the four registers were 10-15 people deep all morning. The sale’s 10-9 on Friday and 10-4 on Saturday, and we’d already sold over $10,000 worth by late lunchtime yesterday. That includes the regular stock of the shop as well as the August Sale Uglies (and YES, we were moving sofas and armoires through those crowds of people with shopping baskets full of quarter items!) Great fun…I’d go from selling a $400 bronze life-size mermaid statue to defending the $3 price tag on a Rosenthal plate.
To be truthful, we didn’t expect such a good response, because of the housing/jobs situation which is noticeable in the retail stores, restaurants, and theaters in our community, and the fact that the road to our shop is torn up with detour signs everywhere, and the fact that everyone’s watching their gas consumption.
And all the time I was working, I only spent $16.45 myself. On uglies, yes, but uglies I found endearing. (And beware, Flamingovillians from Too Good to be Threw‘s Sharing, there are things in that pile of uglies for YOU too!)
Men ARE overlooked in resale (and retail). But for good reason.
Have you ever seen a man BROWSE? Buy just because “it’s cute” (oh scratch that, they buy it because “I may NEED it someday” like during Armageddon) or “my best friend will DIE with envy when he sees me with this” (oh scratch that, that’s what sells Corvettes and speed boats, heck even fishing lures)?
My man will browse garage sales (for some reason he’s attracted to bags: camera bags, duffle bags, laptop computer bags although he never carries his laptop out of the family room) and book sales, but knick-knacks? Never.
And forget the clothes. A man will NEVER understand why you’d get rid of a perfectly-good, almost-brand-new pair of pants, just because you feel fat in them.
BTW: Anyone know what a duffle is, and why it would be content to live in a cylindrical canvas bag?
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I think the “Man Stuff” is very interesting. We have had a huge uptick of men interested in both consigning and buying.
They are definately underserved in the industry.
Ohh- best sellers for us in the mens: Rock n Roll T shirts and DVD’s, Slippers — apparently college kids wear them 24/7 along with flip flops.
Thanks for an inspiring!
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We try to our darnest not judge anything by what we like. Because I will swear that what I think is so adorable will just sit until it is marked down to $1 and the thing that I think is the worst will go just like that no matter what the price.
June and July were slow months for us and overall sales for those two months were down, but that is totally my fault for dropping the ball on advertising.
For the year we are up almost 10% and August has started out strong with our seasonal clearance and our Back to School/Fall and Winter Items selling. Sold my first heavy weight fleece Winter coat today and the weather, was humid and in the 80’s.
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Well, it’s a matter of perspective I think. For all the small retail shops and boutiques around our two locations that have absolutely no customers -‘like a ghost town’ they say almost to the shop – ANY business/customers in the current economy would be most welcome to them.
We feel very fortunate that we even HAVE customers! And, although they now noticeably arrive in ‘clumps’ as they condense their driving trips/errands – at least the clumps arrive!
That said, we are up 22% over 2007 for June and July. July saw a record 30% increase in the number of ‘new’ consignors – (not consignors that just hadn’t been in a while). WHAT is selling is certainly different, and we have lowered our prices on our clothing across the board to keep it moving – so many ‘big’ retailers are over run with clothing/having mega sales to ditch the stuff that we want to be competitive, make our consignors happy by getting rid of it and putting money in their pocket.
With all the free publicity generated by local and national media about the beauty of our industry – we have not been spending much in advertising. Once some new people are trained and I feel confident we are equipped to provide the service and experience we ‘say’ we offer – I’ll advertise heavily and am quite sure our sales numbers will climb.further. More and more people are curious and WILLING to give consignment a try – see what we are all about – and those customers are a VAST pool of untapped sales!
If less than 15% of the public have or do shop consignment – and now thanks to the free publicity/media the last several months they see it as something they should check out/’it’s cool now to do’ – again – than that leaves 85% of our public we have yet to ‘draw’ on for sales! Fabulous!
What a wonderful time to be in our business!
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Okay, the year’s half over and I’m getting a little tired of hearing my customers tell me that “…your business must be booming with this economy!” So lets take a little informal pole to see how the “economy” is affecting everyones consignment business. Ready? Here we go….
Is your business up, down or flat over 2007 and by what percentage?
I’ll go first. My store (women’s consignment) is flat YTD over 2007. However, the last two months have been very slow compared to last year. So far, my customers (and the media) are dead wrong about consignment stores thriving in a slow “economy”!
How are you doing?
Thanks,
Linda
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Super nice and awesomly profitable… way to go!
We once had these really indescribable lamps that came in to the shop. I said NO in my head but before I could mutter the word my mom took them in. I was in complete shock… but not even a half hour after they were priced a girl came in and SCREAMED (literally) at how beautiful the lamps were and oohed and awheed and carried on and on… SOLD… and everytime she comes in she tells me how gorgeous the lamps look in her bedroom
What is the saying… one mans, well you know!
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