Auntie Kate The Resale Expert

I’ve seen more wimpy-ass resale shops in my time than any personal trainer has seen saggy butts.

And it’s a shame, really, because our industry lends itself perfectly to having strong, vibrant shops. Shops which offer goods their marketplace wants, in a presentation that makes shoppers feel that they must have that table, tunic, or toy.

And our potential customers are hungry for shops with some personality-muscle. Make a statement with your shop’s branding. If you sell designer, LOOK and ACT designer (really? You can’t take my name and call if a Hermes scarf comes in?) If you sell vintage, make that statement with your decor, logo, and displays.  Make your business stand out in a seas of resale sameness.

Actually, I think this is what reporters mean when they talk about “dusty musty” shops. They are reflecting on shops which have no vibrancy, no personality, flabby little shops which are the retail version of a (poorly-run) garage sale.

Selection is number one, of course. You have to have the goods people want, when they want it. I think most resale shopkeepers do a decent job at this.

Presentation is the heavy-lifting part of the secondhand business, though. Since we cannot totally control what we have in our shops at any given time, we have to use every ounce of our imagination’s strength to arrange our goods into strong, original, and even amusing vignettes.

It’s all too easy to let your shop become a mish-mash, dusty-musty mess. Flabbiness abounds. A two-way chockful of out-date sweaters on wire hangers, because you ran out of store hangers, smashed into a corner with a scribbled $3 sign. (At some point, left-overs become liabilities.) 25¢ items all jumbled into a shoe box… apparently the tag-sale leftovers of the owner’s sister or aunt. Even a Chanel bag laying flat and deflated on your designer shelf for lack of some crisp clean stuffing paper. I mean, really.

And these are examples I’ve seen just this week.

Get fit! Exercise your creativity muscles. Make your shop be a place your customers, parsimonious or ostentatious, feel proud to patronize. I want to hear people BRAG about their “little shop where I get the best stuff.”