Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

As you can guess, my answers to our headline question will be positively in the affirmative. But before we get to explicit idea-sharing, let’s take a look at one seasonal sale venture: the Just Between Friends event in Tampa, Florida. Follow me, year-round consignment and resale shops, as I explore:

Thanks to my Just Between Friends Sale HQ friends, Shannon and Daven and Michelle, as well as the Tampa-area franchise owners Holly and Christina Ruhlig (they’re married to brothers), I was invited to poke around at the JBF seasonal sale in Tampa this week.

A necessity for seasonal sales: laundry carts so consignors can put their own big items on the selling floor.

Seasonal sales depend on three groups: the consignors, the volunteers, and the franchisee owners. I think consignment, resale, and thrift store owners can learn from, teach, and work with seasonal sales, so let’s take a look at all three groups. First:

The Consignors: Intake Day

I arrived just in time to watch the first consignors arrive with their racksful, armsful, laundry-basketsful. Because this was only the third sale the Tampa franchise has held, intake day was not a mob scene. Rather, a steady and good-natured stream of consignors brought their goods in. After a quick check on the computer, the consignors were directed to take clothing items to the inspection station, then, while the clothing was checked for acceptability, to place non-clothing items in the appropriate areas around the arena.

Having consignors prepare their own items for sale is a major plus for seasonal sale owners!

One aspect which could be very useful to year-round retail resalers: each consignor was requested to fill in, in her own handwriting, the pick-up date on her paperwork. This helps the consignor remember any pick-up date she might be concerned about by making it more “tangible,” and helps the consignee be sure that the consignor has heard and understood about pick-up.

Thanks to explicit and clear directions on the web site the consignors I observed had their items completely ready for sale. Not only were things freshly-cleaned, hung, tagged and bagged, but these moms had obviously done their homework in researching pricing. They’d spent a lot of time getting ready for this event.

When I asked a few exactly how much time, they played down their efforts with Well, I did a little at a time or It really wasn’t so bad. A few consignors seemed to be professional pickers…the man with the pickup plus a van full of items, for example. Others stopped in just to say hi: One woman said she was disappointed that she couldn’t participate this weekend because I’ll have house guests Saturday morning and won’t be able to pick up my things that don’t sell. (The sale, like virtually all shops, works with local charities so un-reclaimed items go somewhere useful.)

Clear, and durable, signage to guide consignors in placing their goods on the sales floor.

Signage is of prime importance in a temporary store, of course. Signs on racks, signs above the slanted shelving (bleachers, in the photo!) holding laundry baskets labeled toddler sox or feeding equipment, signs on PVC-pipe stands saying potty seats and so on. Since consignors place their own items on the sales floor, these signs must be explicit: outdoor toys is not the same place as bikes and riding toys.

Another intriguing idea: JBF consignors receive a sticker to put on their shirts saying JBF Consignor/ Checked IN. I assume this is for crowd control, to assure volunteers that the consignor placing her items on the sales floor has completed all her paperwork. But I’ll bet a lot of those badges got forgotten…and worn to the grocery, library, school or bank, where the consignors became walking billboards!

And of course, as in any well-run small business, there were cards and fliers for consignors to take and spread around their circle of friends. In fact, placing fliers is one way that consignors can “earn” their shopping-early passes. We’ll talk about that tomorrow when we discuss volunteers, the second of the 3-legged support any seasonal sale needs!

Listen in on seasonal sales’ consignors and their viewpoints at these  JBF franchisees’ Facebook Pages:

• The Tampa JBF Facebook Page
• Kansas City MO JBF Sale
• Lee’s Summit Missouri JBF Facebook Page

Read Part 2 of this series.

Read Part 3 of this series.