Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

An interesting approach from this consignment shop owner:

I received this near the end of July from someone who had a concern:

I had a lady who is not a consignor yet but said that she wants to become one and that she has a lot of [fill in whatever fall goods your shop could sell the heck out of.] She was very insistent on getting to bring her fall items in now. We would like to give our current consignors dibs on what floor space we have. We told her that we will begin taking fall August 15th and to please come back at that time. That is the same date we told current consignors.
Do you think we handled this situation appropriately? I am very happy with the consignors we have and want to keep them happy and I didn’t want a new person to knock them out of floor space. Thoughts? Ideas?

Kate says:

I’m gonna go with the new consignor on this, sorry. What you need to keep in mind is that you need good, quickly-saleable goods in your shop every day. And that means constantly cultivating NEW consignors. While “old friends are gold”, we all know that consignors’ items are best and most numerous when they FIRST start cleaning out, and as time goes by they have less good stuff to dispose of (hopefully that’s because we’ve taught them to be more judicious when they purchase items new!).

Another little side-benefit to having lots of new consignors all the time: it’s the newest consignor, excited about how easy it is to deal with you and how their old clothes turn into cash under your magic fingers, who creates the most WORD OF MOUTH. Once they get used to your wonderful shop (the established consignors) they get blasé about how wonderful you are and are less likely to chatter about your shop to others.

What should have dibs on your floor space is stuff that will sell, and sell fast. Ownership of such garments really doesn’t have a place in the equation. To see the sense in this, imagine an extreme scenario: the barely-saleable goods you accept from an old buddy who really needs the money, taking up hanger space while the wonderfully-desirable goodies from a “stranger” can’t be squeezed in. What will that scenario will do to YOUR pocketbook?

Besides, that “stranger” might well take her great items to a competitor, thus boosting THAT shop’s reputation and word of mouth. Or she may give up and donate them to the thrift shop. . .. see where this is going?

Again, you’re in an awkward position because you’ve told current consignors Aug 15 and they will feel like you “lied” if they come in that day and see lots of fall items in “ahead of” theirs. (That is if they even notice, which they probably won’t.) Think you’re going to have to roll with the punches here, for the sake of the bottom line.

Final thought, then I’ll shut up:

NEVER send a consignor away to return in 2 weeks (your example, July 26 to August 15). Take the stuff, even if you have to squash it in the back room till Aug 15. You will a: annoy the heck out of the potential consignor (what’s the big deal, so she thinks I’m 2 weeks too early? What an uptight person she is!) and b: probably lose her (It’s too much of a pain to hold onto these items and remember to come back in two weeks, ah, here’s the Goodwill donation box. . .)