Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

If your shop has a dollar rack ($2, $3, Final Clearance Rack, I’m not fussy: whatever works in your consignment shop or resale store or NFP thrift store), here’s a terrific Community Service Idea.

The ad in the graphic appeared in my morning newspaper. SteinMart will give their shoppers 20% off on an item for every “gently-used” (I am proud to be the originator of that phrase*) item they bring in to be passed on to Salvation Army.

So, this is SO worthy of immediate action on YOUR part: send an email to your mailing list with the ad (see it here) and tell them something like “A BUCK here at MyShop can save you BIG at SteinMart”. The idea, of course, is that they come in to buy a last-ditch-price item from your clearance, then take it to SteinMart to get 20% off something new!

This:

• Helps you clear out your Pitiful Dregs
• Shows your clientele you have their Best Interest at heart
• Helps SteinMart draw customers (oh, and shows your customers that YOU have better deals!)
• Helps Salvation Army (and sends your non-sellers to Sallie).

But most of all, it gives YOU a reason to connect, person-to-person, with your shoppers.

Send me a copy of your email, if I am not already on your list! I’d love to see your adaptation of this idea. (Not in a SteinMart area? No worries…new-merchandise retailers do this promotion often, Prepare your broadcast email now, so you can whip it out on a moment’s notice!)

For more ideas on how to clear out and clean up, check out one of the most popular Products for the Professional Resaler from Too Good to be Threw, Bag Sales, Dollar Racks & BOGO Deals

* Actually, “gently-used” was the tag line of my mother’s consignment shops, Pin Money, in Roslyn, Babylon and Manhasset LI NY in the 1950’s. It was a creation of my father, Ed Grauer, whom you’ve read about. I “inherited” the phrase in 1975 when I opened One More Time in Columbus Ohio. Betcha didn’t think you were using a 50+year-old phrase, didya?