Advice for your consignment, resale or thrift shop is as close as your computer: Just Ask Auntie Kate!
Update June 2016: There are now about 700 comments on this page, and while they are completely fascinating, it can be difficult to find your specific issue. For more guidance see our Products for the Professional Resaler, covering over 30 areas of resale shopkeeping.
Also, check out the articles at Too Good to be Threw in our Back Room. They might have the info you’re looking for.
In the tradition of Dear Abby and Ask Ann Landers, we present Ask Auntie Kate. Well, actually, it’s Ask Auntie Kate and her resale industry buddies, because I expect you… yes you, Dear Reader… to chime in with your thoughts, experiences and perspectives. Don’t be shy. People ask questions because they want answers.
To keep questions and responses together, you need to be sure to hit “reply” when you’re reading the post that you want to, well, reply to. Otherwise everything gets all mish mashy and tops hang off their hangers and placemats are stuck in with the pillow cases and tags get lost and it looks like a mess.
Yes, Auntie Kate will reply to your most vexing problems, most heart-felt concerns, your secret shames and undiscovered desires. After she gives her friends a chance to put in their 1o-cents’-worth. So ask, answer, or opinionate away.
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
Kate, Driving home from dinner last night my husband and I were commenting on the waning moon…which lead to our discussion to a blue moon. Hmmm, how about a “Once in a Blue Moon” event. I researched it and found that August will have 2 full moons, the 1st and the 30th (then we have to wait till July,2015 for the next one)…so am currently planning our after hours event…tossing around ideas of snacks…blue nachos, a bleu cheese dip,a blueberry dessert, blue punch….and more! Thought I would share the idea…since there is not much time to plan…and perfect time to launch new season stuff and offer a great promotion on it. Anyone else have ideas on this promo?
Thanks, Connie, for helping other resalers come up with new and fun ways to help their shops stand out from the crowd. It’s fun, of course, to have refreshments, but to make your event memorable, give them something to take with them.
Perhaps you could play around on picmonkey.com or ribbet.com and make a giveaway poster for your visitors that includes, of course, your basic shop info. Here’s a pin from my “Ideas for your Shop Blog” that would be PERFECT: http://pinterest.com/pin/8655424254585744/
I think it was last year that we had several blue moons, so perhaps some other shopkeepers might want to add their knowledge and experience here?
Auntie Kate: a new question please…do any consignment stores use sophisticated (e.g., software solutions versus paper lists) tools for matching shopper needs (e.g., want a Fisher-Price Easy Clean High Chair) with a consignor who might have one ready to sell? The store is the intermediary and handles the transaction.
Not sure what you’re asking here, Sharon. I believe at least several of the inventory software programs have some sort of “match-up” as the item is entered into inventory (although I have NOT heard good things about how they function)… but do you want to talk to a customer, who needs X, then have the computer do…what? Inventory your consignors’ basements? Just kidding…
In responding to your “How to indicate markdowns” I do not redline mine at all.
We have a star shaped paper punch (Hobby Lobby has many different shapes) that we use on our loyalty cards and use that to punch a star on the tickets. Our sign at the front door tells customers (as well as the gals announce to all incoming customers when they greet them) that “All star punched tickets are __% off this week!” Downside is some folks can’t do the math! But we only touch the markdowns once and let the POS figure the new price.
Hi Auntie Kate! In response to Little Green Beans, I carry Melissa and Doug and discount it 10% every day. I have big box stores in the area as well as a Teacher’s store that carry them…but find that when you carry a nice assortment you sell them well. I keep a rack of puzzles, plus another area with maybe 20 others, all of the wooden play food, floor puzzles, and wooden toys. Shopping carts are important to sell…I need an odometer on the one on the floor as the kids put miles and miles on that as they “shop” the store…and keep a store dollbaby in it! I did not do well with the arts and crafts, but carry a rack of the art supplies and the other art activities like the water color book, stickers, etc. The puppets are fun, but also huge upkeep as they are played with constantly. I finally dropped them and the rack was recycled as a hat fixture…works great!
Connie: I missed your message. It sounds like 10% off works well! Do you mix the new with used items?
Connie just answered this question elsewhere, I’ve transferred her comment here: “In response to your question about mixing Melissa and Doug with my used toys, no I don’t, other than they are in the same room. The M&D are on shelved slatwalls on 2 walls or on their merchandise racks. Used toys are either on the floor or on small tables (recycled, originally the round tables from a fabric store in our strip mall).” Thanks Connie!
Kate I love the blog. I am now reading the info that I printed after I bought the CD. Thanks for all you do for our stores. Love JOANNE
Thanks Joanne, and thanks as well for hosting the bus tour at your shop. Quite a challenge, 2 busloads of NARTettes in your shop in addition to your regulars… I think we scared them with our enthusiasm!
I have a children’s resale store and I would like to know what type of music other shop owners play that gives the store an energetic and family friendly shopping experience?
We have some Laurie Berkner that is great! Cute songs, sung by an adult, not too cutesy, very upbeat.
My radio is set on K-Love. I realize all of my customers may not be Christains but no one has ever complained about the Christian music. However, I have several ppl a week compliment our choice b/c they never have to worry about the kiddos hearing unappropriate music.
I have a local radio station playing in the background…it’s The Joy FM, they are a contemporary christian radio station in Florida. No crazy DJ’s or soundbites that are inappropriate. I also have a television with a built in DVD player. Rio, Cars, Finding Nemo, Veggie Tales and any other kid friendly movie can be playing throughout the day. Keeps the kids entertained while Mom is shopping.
Thanks so much for the ideas….I shop a lot, and even more when the music is good. I think I will go with “family safe station” on my Pandora radio.
In our children’s store we alternate between classical music and toddler music (for everyone’s sanity). Pandora (paid service) is the ideal choice to keep a great mix.
hi,
i have a question. Is it legal for a consignment store to sell, unsold clothes for 1$ and not give nothing to the owners? let me explain better..after the 60 days consignment you can pick if get the clothes back or not. If the owners says “no” can the store sell for 1$? isnt that still being sold?
thanks you.
ill open a consignment store myself and i was just wondering.
sely
Hi Selene, While I cannot give you legal council, since I am not a lawyer and don’t know under which government you live, I do believe a contract is a contract, and if you have worded your consignment agreement correctly (see the Manual for this), had the consignor sign and date it, and have given her/him a copy, that probably covers it. However, do see your lawyer if you have any questions.
Melissa and Doug products are great. I have a place about a mile from me that offered them and I purchased some for my kids. I know the lady that sells them and she can’t keep them in her store because they sell so fast.
Hi again Auntie Kate. I am strongly considering offering New Art Supplies in my store knowing that young children (ages 1.5-5, my core audience) love to draw and paint. I heard from my NARTS peers that Melissa and Doug products are ones to consider. I also like Faber Castell, which are high quality and not as common in my trade area. (Melissa and Doug products are sold in 4 full-price retailers in a 3 mile radius of my store.) It’s a big inventory investment and I am curious to hear what you and your readers think.
My one year anniversary is in 2 weeks and I am trying to come up with a “catchy” promotion for this event without spending a lot of money on advertising. Any suggestions?
Karen,
We are celebrating our second anniversary in August and our theme is “Bubbling over with Gratitude”. We bought a large bubble machine ($30.00) will be hung over our awning, champaign mini cupcakes, and of course my hubby in his tux pouring bubbly. We have shopping bags that will be giving out with wedding size bottles of bubbles with our logo…and some other things. Still working on it. But you get the idea. I think my windows will be done in champaign colored balloons too. Happy anniversary and congrats on your first year!!!!
Laurel, that’s great! I SO agree with the thanking of clients for business anniversaries… something like this is SO much more word-of-mouthy (is that a word?) than some humdrum (and profit-eating) %-off sale that is simply remembered as “well, obviously their prices are too high if they have to have a sale..”
And think of the headlines for your press releases! Champagne celebration for a beer-budget idea….Shop thanks its partners in consigning at a gala fete… This frugal shop is no slouch when it comes to celebrating in style!
You’ve got the vision Kate!! Still looking for ideas of something small to put in the gift bags tho. Anyone have any ideas ?
Hi Laurel! I too am celebrating our 2 year anniversary next week. Funny..we are a maternity store and my event is called “glowing with gratitude” we are thanking our customers and the community for their support by handing out gift bags like we did for mothers day. The bags work as advertising as well. They are stuffed full of samples, coupons, fliers and brochures from us and from other local businesses that are not direct competition but draw the same target market. This way we get free materials for the bags, we help fellow local business owners, and customers find value in the items that are in the bags. Our community event is a baby shower for a pregnancy care center and every customer that donates gets a discount on their purchase, not to mention all the drawings and prizes 🙂 its gonna be awesome!!! Best of luck…my press releases went out today and I hope we get some buzz!!!
Hey Kate 🙂
I am wondering if you could recommend of a point of sale software to use. I am opening up a small women’s resale boutique and have been looking into the software but am not sure on wich one to buy?
Thank you
Hi MaryJane, thanks for asking… I strongly suggest you read my manual which could save you money and worry…
On the links page on TGtbT.com we have links to the major consignment software programs, but please heed my warning there: The companies above are not guaranteed or warrantied by TGtbT.com of course; this listing is simply here as a courtesy. Make your own choice by trying their demos and following my guidelines in the Manual; I cannot and will not “recommend” one over the other.)
And best wishes on your new shop!
What do you do when you, personally, want to buy something that comes into your shop? This question applies to resale and wholesale merchandise.
Beth, what’s the problem? You put the $ in the till. Yr accountant might ask you to keep a record of these purchases, easy enough to do. Or are you asking for guidelines on pricing incoming, so you don’t “cheat” the consignor/seller or pricing donations so you don’t short-change the charitable group you work with or for?
Say someone brings in a cloth diaper for a buyout, I give them what is fair, and they take the offer. But I want that diaper for my daughter. Do I pay the business the retail price or the price I paid the person who brought it in.
Also, same question, but for things I buy wholesale. If the business paid for them at the wholesale price, do I have to pay the msrp if I want an item?
It depends on your legal structure and the advice of the person who is helping you with your accounting. As a sole prop., I put the COST of the item in the till as income for the business, but that might not fit in with the way your professional has your books set up. And if you are NOT set up as a sole prop, the answer’s gonna be different. You don’t HAVE to do things one way or the other, you just have to account for it, in your income, in a way that satisfies the IRS that you aren’t cheating them out of “their” money.
Gotcha. Thanks so much. I’ll ask my accountant.
In regards to the show size stickers, try placing them on the inside of the shoes. We have noticed that this works a lot better for our customers.
As far as the color coding dots, you have to be careful not to buy the ones with removable adhesive. The ones with permanent adhesive will usually stick pretty well. If the problem continues there are places that sell “tamper proof” labels. These have little slits in them and if someone tried removing the label, you would be able to tell. If you can’t find those, you might want to try a larger dot, like say a 3/4″ or a 1″. It is much harder to remove those. We have 3/4 silver metallic color code labels that seems to have a stronger adhesive because they are not paper.
Good Morning
I have been using the color tags for two years now. I have found them great for sales every and when it comes time to cull or racks, we can just go by color.
Customers now come in to my store asking what color is on sale this month.
I found taking the time to mark the items on the floor every month with a pen took up too much time that could be spent on doing other things.
Thanks for the information, it is always helpful.
Donna @ Donna’s Consignment Shop Ltd.
I think the best thing for clothing is Febrez
Well. as always, I seem to be weeks behind these conversations. But I did find the “dot” discussion interesting. Here is my experience. Here in the Northeast, Winter never really got here. Thankfully, I saw this trend coming in early December and cut back on what we were accepting. But that doesn’t take away from the massive quantity of “leftovers”. Traditionally, winter clearance meant going around and marking down. This year, I dug out some “dots” and held a $5-$10 – $20-$50 sale (we wrote the $$ on the dots – I don’t like basic color coding – hard to remember”. Then we put them all together for three weeks and started “dot deals”. We usually don’t segregate sale items. No mattter – It was a hit. People brought friends and we added to our mailing lists. One weekend, it was 1/2 off the dot value and we’ll do that again this weekend to clear out the dregs. Lots of Spring items went too. Donated 40% less than usual and really helped a traditionally slow time for us (financially)
Only problem…perhaps Ryan has the answer. The dots are “removable” on thermal coated tags and “fall off”. Politely saying that a couple customers were caught “swapping” dots.
I do use shoe size stickers and funny thing is, I have to break fingernails to remove them!!
Regarding smoky items…I’m brutally honest and tell the customer that these are beautiful items that would do well…if only they did not smell of smoke. Hand ’em back. I used to cringe at giving up nice things, but tell myself that there will be many more nice things that don’t require my staff “cleaning” them. Febreze is good for light odors, but I find it never gets the smoke smell out.
Kate, We would like to know how other consignment shops handle perfectly acceptable items that come into the store smelling of cigarette smoke.
Please help,
I am opening a large resale store, no consignments. What is the best sotware and/or POS system to use. I need to track whats coming in and going out, then see all the tons of money I’m making.lol. I want something not too complicated, just be able to scan an item in, scan it when it sells. I probably need “the book” whatever it is also. If you have any good ideas of “How to run a resale shop type book”, please let me know. God Bless you Auntie Kate
Hi Darla,
I invite you to spend a few days exploring not only this, my blog for resale shopkeepers, but also our flagship site, TGtbT.com and our consumer-oriented site, HowToConsign.com. I think you will find all the information helpful, and you will also find the specific answer to your question re software, on our Links page.
We’ll all look forward to hearing back from you when you’ve had a chance to see what’s available to help get you started!
I’m looking for suggestions on fair rent/commission to charge a vendor for items that they are selling in my shop. My shop is BOR but I have a few vendors like a lady that has a baby’s ceramic impression up in my shop and pays $50/mo, then another who has a few hair bows and pays a certain commission %. Now I have a lady selling cloth diapers and they do AMAZING! She takes up a pretty good amount of space on my wall. Her profit on these items is not very large and we were working with me getting 15% commission on them. That is why I do not sell them, the profit margin is so low. She also has a very large inventory and it would cost me way too much to bring in that much of a variety. It’s been only 2 weeks and she’s made almost $800 and I’ve made about $100 off of that. The system that we have set up requires a lot of time on my part and knowledge but it does bring in new customers although they do not spend a lot on MY merchandise, they have found my store and are telling others about it. Does it sound like I should charge a flat rate for rent AND commission on top of that? Maybe just a flat rate if sales do not reach a certain amount and if they exceed a certain amount then comission? I’m so confused about this. HELP…just looking for advice or experience. I do feel that I am not getting out of it what I am putting in but they are wonderful additions to the store! I also don’t want to take too much to where she is not making a profit at all because then no one is benefiting from that. 🙂
Good points Auntie Kate. The stores we work with range from small to large. They all have different ways of doing things. Most tags have the price written on them. With a little color dot, it tells them how much they would receive off. We also sell % off stickers and “sale” or “clearance” stickers where you can write the new price. We have found that more than anything this gets the customers searching the store for deals, therefore buying more than they came in for. It’s almost like a marketing tactic because people love deals. For example If I go in a store and see a shirt for $21.99 but the sale sticker shows 20% off, it gets me excited to buy it. I then keep searching for more deals. We work with a lot of Goodwill stores and the color coding method is working good for them based on the feedback. I always love to hear new stories. When I get some from customers I will be sure to share.
We work with many resale stores and we have a couple different items that work well for these stores. 1. Shoe size stickers. When reselling shoes, customers can get frustrated without finding the correct size. What the stores do is apply a shoe size sticker on the inside of the shoe and remove it when purchased. 2. We have 18 different color coding dots (1/2 stickers). A color dot is applied to the tags and a sign is placed at the front of the store showing what the discounts are for the various colors. For 1,000 color dots, it is only $3.59. We get a lot of good feedback from these resale stores about how well it has been working.
Thank you Ryan, for pointing out that size stickers work well with shoes.
But I maintain my stance that, in the time it takes for an employee to put a sticker on a price tag, it would be much more beneficial to actually TELL the shopper how much something is, via an actual written markdown.
The old saw “it loses something in translation” certainly applies when we have to rely upon our customers to remember to reference a sign re “what color is this sticker? Where’s the sign? So how much is 20% off this price?” throughout what we HOPED would be an enjoyable browsing session in our shops!