Bag sale days can be wonderful for you and your clientele… but they can be a logistical nightmare. Lines, lines, everywhere lines…
Bag sales can also mean great income for your shop from scads of items that might have to be otherwise disposed of dumpster-direction. But hey, couldn’t your local charities use that stuff?
Here’s a way to address all 3 issues at one time:
1- Sell your bags ahead of time. So upon entrance into your sale, there’s 2 lines: those who have purchased their bags already, carrying said bags into the sale, and those who have to stop and pay the $10 or $20 or whatever. (During the actual sale, of course, there will be roving vendors selling 2nd and 3rd and 10th bags to shoppers who just have to have it all!) Pre-sales increase commitment and involvement: suggest they buy an extra bag for their shopping buddy.
2- A bag sale isn’t exciting unless you have loads and loads of things to offer. Be sure to save up saleable goods to add to your sale. These could be out-of-date consignments, not-quite-ready-for-prime-time sales-floor rejects (you might wish to red-dot any flaws in these to alert your shoppers), or even things in a category you usually do not put on your sales floor (men’s ties? books? logo t-shirts?)
3- Charities. Ah yes. As resale owners, we know that not all charities can actually use the unsold items that you’re including in your bag sale: they don’t have the clientele for items; they don’t have the storage space needed to maintain a clothing pantry; they don’t have the volunteer manpower to sort, organize, distribute. But we ALL know they need cash money, right? How about selling those bags ahead of time? For a bit MORE than if the customer stood in that long buy-your-bag line? Say, $12.50 instead of $10? $22 instead of $20? With that premium going directly to the charity? (“That donated $2 goes directly to Local Charity Group.” “Thanks for donating 10%/ 20% of your splurge budget to Local Charity Group.“) This pre-sale improves visibility of your upcoming sale, gets the charity involved in social media-ing it, and drives traffic to your shop before the sale, so newbies can see your business in all its everyday glory. Stick a thank you/ reminder label on pre-sold bags for your customers’ convenience.
I think a special color of bag for the pre-sale folks makes so much sense: every staffer/ volunteer at the sale will be able to say a warm “Thank you for supporting Local Charity Group!” as they encounter these civic-minded folks.
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Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
Wow!! I try to do bag sales a few times a year and I would get no one in the door if I priced the bags at $10 or $20!! I ask for $2/bag and sometimes that seems a struggle if I don’t have “enough” items marked down. I recently went to a thrift store where they charged $5/bag and I know of another one that charges $3. These were thrift stores and I am a consignment store. I cannot put everything in a bag sale, only items that are no longer under contract. Do you think if I raised the price per bag and donated some to charity that would help? I myself love bag sales, and right now I am competing against garage sales so it seems the best way to go. (Note: I am in the Midwest and a small rural community, so that has a lot to do with pricing.)
You’re right, Gloria, pricing for a bag sale is dependent upon your marketplace and how you have positioned your business in that marketplace. $2 a bag barely covers the price of the darn bag, extra staff for the sale, and the electricity, right? I mean, what can $2 buy? MAYbe, advertising/ social media for a $2 Bag Sale simply tells folks unfamiliar with your shop that…. the stuff you’re selling is not worth driving over there for???
Without knowing anything about your shop, some suggestions: you might want to increase the size of your bags while you increase the price (and make a point to tell your customers so!), and before you make a decision, read up on all the wonderful ways you can polish your shop’s image WITH a bag sale that makes money in Bag Sales, Dollar Racks and BOGO Deals.