Good time of year to Visit Other Resalers with your “field notebook” nearby. (If you don’t already have this PDQ from our inexpensive Lunch with Kate series, order it now!)

Here are some tips for getting the most, and the most goodwill, out of your visits.

What’s Visiting Other Resalers? A little field notebook to help you examine other shops with an eye to making yours better. Download it; print out copies to stick in your glove compartment. Learn every time you visit another shop!

Print out as many copies as you need, and get on the road. I promise you, even with gas prices now in the news again, it’ll be worth it to see, and make or strengthen connections with, other resale, consignment, or thrift shops.

When you visit other resale shops, there’s a lot to see and understand. Don’t forget the basic rules of visiting your industry peers:

* Introduce yourself, business card in hand, before browsing. Ask if they mind if you shop. Get their names right! Make every effort to learn and use their staffers’ names as well. Easiest with name badges, but not all shopkeepers understand the importance of these. (Wear YOUR badge when you visit!!) If you are as bad at names as I am, double-check them as you leave (thanks, Pam…oh, sorry, Pat!) and write them down in your notes as soon as you are out of sight.

* Do not interrupt their daily business; never tell their clientele about your shop. Be careful how much you talk to their customers, and make sure anything you DO say has NOTHING to do with YOUR shop and is complimentary to the shop you are in. If their customer asks about your name badge, just say you’re one of [shop owner’s name]’s peers.

* Never take any handout without asking. (Have available, if you’re asked, copies of any and all handouts you use in your shop, including your consignment agreement.)

* No photos or notes while in the shop, unless specifically invited to. Fill in your printed-out “Visiting Other Resalers” booklet after you leave the shop.

* No personal or private questions. Find things to praise.

* Buy something. Always. Never leave a shop without buying SOMEthing… the more time you and Ms. Owner spend together, the more you should buy. No excuses. Nothing fits? Buy something to resell. Her prices are too high compared to yours? Buy something anyway.

* If your shops are in the same area, discuss referring customers or suppliers. Ask what the other shopkeeper would like you to keep in mind (example: she doesn’t take bridal gowns.) Ask if you can take a handful of their cards to give people. THEN offer yours in return if the response is positive.

* Don’t ask nosey questions. How much they sell on Sundays is a nosey question. Have you found Sunday opening to be worth it? is not. If you promise to get her the name of your padded-hanger supplier or whatever, DO IT. ASAP.

* Don’t eat all the cookies.

And finally, a word of advice:

If you are rebuffed, live with it. Chances are, she’ll be out of business soon. Do NOT tell your friends/ family you were rebuffed and she’s a snot; leave it at “she doesn’t wish to exchange business courtesies.” If pressed by ANYone to express an opinion on said business, a simple “we all have different ways of dealing with our clients.” PERIOD.

Have a ball Visiting Other Resalers. I’m going shopping now!