Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

Who loves a party? We do!

What gets us in a festive mood?

Decorations, doo-dads, dressing for holidays… the whole, real-life experience of being immersed in the holiday spirit. New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, Easter, everyone’s birthday and anniversary and bridal showers and oh my!

Just thinking about a celebration, holiday, party, makes us smile.

And you don’t get that joy shopping at Amazon or any of those online consignment vendors…

So let’s USE the advantage 

we have, to take advantage of something we can offer to real live customers in our real live store!

I’m suggesting that you gather up all the knick knacks, decor items, accessories and clothing into a

Celebration Station.

This might be a shelf or two, a shelving unit, a small under-utilized room in your shop, It could be large or small, depending on what you have to sell. The point is to make people smile. To have fun. And to make them buy.

And remember to use all your display skills. As you, for example, start ramping up the Halloween theme in your Celebration station, don’t just include things that scream Halloween (oh, the pun!) Try adding that black vase, the Frankenstein-clutzy work boots, the book on spiders. And of course, fall-season items.

Another plus to having a Celebration Station area in your shop? Goods grouped together in a theme are automatically more desirable, and thus, more valuable to the shopper, making your profits healthier.

Now if you are a consignment shop, perhaps you hesitate to accept specific items “before our schedule”… but if Cousin Ginnie is in town for a quick visit clearing out Aunt Maude’s collection of chicken-embellished goods, and there are Easter-chick items amongst the more-saleable roosters… do you need to pass them by or is there a way to sell them?

Buy-outrights have a particular need for a year-round Celebration station: the monetary investment in holiday-specific items needs to be recouped to replenish your buying budget. Yes, it’s thrilling to score vintage Christmas linens cheap in, say, March… but having to lock up the money spent buying them until November? Inhibiting to your cash flow. If you have a Celebration Station, those linens can be available for, say, the summer tourist who loves Santa (and or vintage anything!) no matter what time of year it is when he visits!

One of my consultees, Barnabas New to You in Fernandina Beach FL, took my suggestion a bit too literally… I suggested a seasonal room for Celebrations, and the sign-maker only heard the first word!

Dedicated “Celebration Station” floor space is especially useful for NFP donation-only thrift shops, whose plight is that they receive holiday-specific items generally 11 months before the holiday! The photo here is from a NFP consultation of mine. They added the spare slat wall and plan to use it to highlight whatever holiday is upcoming, and to include waterfalls of seasonal/ celebratory clothing as well.

Thrifts will likely add birthday goods, gift bags and bows, knick-knacks with potential for holidays (bunnies in the Easter display, heart-shaped baskets near the Valentine selection, and so on) and maintain a year-round selection of festive items.

More on this topic:

Clearing away a holiday quickly in consignment shops

Why holiday goods must be the exception to your consignment rules.

Using holidays to gain new, “never-shop-resale” raving fans.