With resale shops, consignment stores, and even the major thrifts all over the news nowadays as reporters try to address the changing retail landscape*, is this any time to remark, as a shopkeeper did at Too Good to be Threw, that We’re not doing well…I don’t know why, I mean, after all, we’re not doing anything different than last year or the year before.
Wouldn’t that, perhaps, be the problem? Shoppers are not shopping in the same places, in the same quantities, and even for the same reasons they were 12 months ago. Their values, outlook, and wants have changed. So if you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’re trying to sell as if it were 2007, or 2004, or 1998.
If we insist on “current styles only” in our secondhand shops, shouldn’t our operational focus be up-to-date as well?
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
Thanks Jane, for reminding us that customer service is the best way to differentiate ourselves.
The challenge right now that all retailers face, and the challenge I would like to see resale shopkeepers address more emphatically, is GETTING folks in the door.
I all too often hear shopkeepers complaining that their CURRENT and TRADITIONAL customer base is not spending as much…while these same shopkeepers are not going all out to attract the consumers who are ripe for DISCOVERING RESALE now. My goodness, the media’s done the big first step for resale shops…now, the shopkeeper needs to do steps 2 thru infinity…
which includes, as you say, exemplary customer service.
Yes, we need to be flexible as shop owners and in tune with current buyer values. That being said, there is something that should never change…GOOD SERVICE!
Good customer service never goes out of style! It does not matter if you have the best inventory, the best displays, the best prices, etc., without good customer service your customer will not return!
Yes, I know, sounds so basic, but the fact is think about the last time you visited a retail store and left thinking about how great the service was!
Treat EVERYONE that walks through your front door as a “queen for the day” and you’ll never have to worry about your bottom line!