Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

Consignment and resale shopkeepers are well-known for being frugal. They want to help their customers get the best buys.

But when is your floor space simply NOT WORTH selling left-overs at 75-80-90% off the price you originally set for them? What about those tired clearance racks, those “dollar bargain” sections, merchandise that 3 or 4 or 8 months’ worth of browsers have passed up? When does your space become better-used for fresh incoming goods?

I submit that October is just too late to clutter up your shop with picked-over summer merchandise. Your summer clearance items should be gone, gone, gone. I am tired of reading Tweets like Take 80% off OUR price on Clearance items TODAY and New Items on Dollar Rack this weekend! Get rid of that stuff, move on.

I volunteer at an NFP consignment shop. They are refusing to take, in new items because the sales floor is “full.” Yes, it’s full…of (literally!) 50-cent and $2 items eating up space that $15 or $30 items could be occupying. Disappointing consignors, boring the heck out of browsers, downgrading the image of the business…to make a buck instead of $10?

Are you using your floor space to its potential? Or are you dragging DOWN the perceived value of your new arrivals by trying to wring the last pennies out of stuff you made a mistake accepting? Are you handicapping the future of your business to make a buck or two, maybe, today?

If you are: stop it. Right NOW.

Enough already. Move forward.