Consignment, resale, and thrift shop owners and managers have a hard-enough time deciding what to take, and how to price it, without worrying about

training their helpers to accept and price!

This is a huge topic, and one that the NARTS Conference 2011 workshop I presented did not have time for.

You can get the entire topic in

Money-Wise Guide to Accepting & Pricing which  includes

* Quicken the check-in process
* Designing your check-in counter
* How to Say “No”…and mean it
* 10 Quick and Easy Refusals
* “How can I cope with no-thank-you’s and still have my suppliers happy?”
* How many items to accept and methods for getting items on the floor efficiently
* “How do you take unlimited quantities?”
* Give yourself a break in your intake
* Making your Goods Worth More
* “But I do it differently!” 
* Developing an Instinct for Pricing

This Product will have you making more profit today!

here.

Using clothespins as a visual aid:

I am renowned amongst select circles for my love of spring-loaded clothes pins. I use them to hold paperwork together, to clip notes to myself, TO myself (well, my shirt!) and more. But clothes pins are also a training aid. Here’s how to use them.

Buy various colors of plastic clothes pins. Set a price range for each color. For example

• Blue clothes pins mean “price between $5 and $9”
• Green, $10 to $15
• Yellow, $16 to $22
• Red, “see me“

Once your trainee has inspected and hung clothes from an incoming batch, you simply go through them, clipping the appropriate color to each garment (for high-volume thrifts, a similar division of price ranges can be done en masse using designated racks.)

The trainee is able, with these visual cues, to price on her/his own, without fear that they will be way off-base price-wise. This gives them experience and confidence, and allows them to grow into their tasks. Bonus: You get to tie on a cute clothespin apron!

PS The red see me pin? This is used not only for more-expensive goods that need careful pricing, but also for anything you’d like to discuss with your staffer: goods which perhaps aren’t up-to-par, odd items needing research, or even items you’ve pre-selected to be photographed for your blog, site, or Facebook promotional activities.

PPS If you deal in furniture and home decor, colored sticky notes can be used in the same manner.