One of the reasons I loved my consignment shop was that I truly could see… and hear… that my daily work was making a difference to my customers, consignors and my town. Loved the instant feedback that “the prom dress was perfect,” “you helped my budget balance,” “Oh! My grandmother had one just like this!”

Perhaps my favorite made-a-difference remark was the consignor who brought in armload after armload, day after day, of great clothing… and said after a few weeks of this activity

“THERE! That’s the DINING ROOM done.”

As a web host at TGtbT.com, a blogger at AuntieKate, a Facebook commentator (and video star 🙂 ) on our business page and our restricted-access  Seasoned Shopkeepers Salon, plus all our Pinterest Boards for resale, consignment and thrift shops…  hearing that my efforts have made a difference is a much rarer occurrence.

I know, I throw a lot of ideas out there to my resale sistern (and brethren) and lots of it isn’t necessarily applicable at that very moment.

Plus, quite often, they have to mull them over for a while, adapt, nurture, change around a bit … such a while, in fact, that they forget that the seed was planted at TGtbT etc.

So it was sweet when I got this personal email thank-you and acknowledgment one day:

Hi Auntie Kate,
I commented on your blog a little more than a month ago that I was the new store manager of a nonprofit resale shop in Chicago… I just wanted to say I read your daily posts I get in my email, and have implemented several of the tips, with success.
I write on my windows with the Crayola Markers for glass.  I write brief descriptions and state the prices of items we put in the windows, so evening passersby can still see what we have, and that they aren’t as expensive as they might think, as our shop is surrounded by upscale boutiques and our display windows look the part. I pile jewelry on my mannequins, I put a gorgeous silk drape ($5 @ another thrift shop) up where one room stops and another starts, so now the fluorescent lights aren’t the first things you see in the second room, and the the two rooms now feel as if they are related and equally desirable to shop in.  I frequently tell people that your blog is where I get many ideas for the store.  Also, when I was bemoaning the dust bunnies in the shop, I received your post on not having to be a perfect shopkeeper.  That helped me.  I haven’t yet evicted the bunnies, but am gearing myself up for it–soon!

Thanks again, Heidi Olson, Store Manager, New Elephant Resale Shop of Chicago, NFP

Thanks Heidi, and guys, doncha LOVE the pricing on the window glass idea!?! Heidi’s making a difference too!