Okay, a bow to the Olympics.
When asked what his secret of success was, hockey great Wayne Gretzky said
“Others skate to where the puck is. I skate to where it will be.”
Can you anticipate where the puck of the resale industry will be? Are you getting to that place so you’ll be ready to score a goal?
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
The puck is heading towards selection, ambiance and service! Customers need your smile, support and to feel that things are well and they are important.
Don’t have the selection… go get it! Don’t have a smile… find it! Your store is just as much therapy as the hairdresser! Believe it!
Don’t have customers… reach to the ones that are shopping and they will bring their friends!
I LOVE Hockey!
Kate – would you please run a quick pole for your readers? I’m interested to know if others are seeing a decrease in sales, consignments and quality of consignments like I am. Perhaps you could ask how their sales compare to this time last year. This is really just a reality check for me and I think others would be interested in this too. Like Carolyn said above, it’s time to get out of the defensive mode and put the gloves on.
Marla,
As far as sales go, here’s a press release from NARTS. They have a wealth of cyber-survey results available to members only (and one of the questions asked recently was Are you experiencing a change in the QUALITY of merchandise you are receiving? which makes for very interesting reading.
These posts on Auntie Kate the Blog may give you some food for thought: Is it time to HOARD used goods?
The Shift Towards Thrift (just imagine all the untapped closets out there!)
Proactive is definitely the mode you need to be in right now. ESPECIALLY as this recession lingers on. I expect to see a lot of resale shops fail and that’s a shame, because each failure makes it harder for other shops to thrive. Is YOUR shop going to go under? Not if you’re out there spreading the word every day. Like our HowToConsign Sponsor shops are, for a quarter a day.
GO CANADA! Ha Ha Ha, just being cheeky, but yes, Kate, I agree, we need to play an offensive game…it’s very tiring to always be in a defensive state.
Forward thinking, not every one has it but those who do…