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Archive for the ‘Not-for-Profit Resale’ Category

Make your windows look like spring!

Posted in economics of resale, My Favorite Things, Not-for-Profit Resale, Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , , , , , on March 1, 2015|

Is it dreary around your neck of the woods? Would a little spring color help enliven your consignment or resale shop windows and swing shops? Here’s some Pinspiration from the TGtbT boards:

Bright colors from the ceiling down look great over furniture displays or dress form outfits. Remember doing these in grade school?

Ice cream cones: what could be yummier in a kidswear window? Surprisingly easy to make for your shop!

Another “remember when?” craft from your prepubescent years. These lanterns look especially wonderful used in tight groupings of 3 or 5.

Need more resale-specific window dressing ideas? You got ’em in Window Displays Especially for Resale Shops

Windows that WOW don’t happen by accident. Learn the hidden secrets of resale eye candy that nobody tells you and how to make awesome displays of your one-of-a-kind merchandise as you Display. Sell. Repeat your way to awesome profits. This 48-page PDQ shows you how to choose, create, and sell everything with affordable, time-effective ways to DIY your own “Windows Worth a Thousand Words.”

Read about

      * what windows can do for your bottom line
      * how to learn (for free!) from the professionals
      * tools and concepts about window displays
      * ready-made themes for every week of the year
      * our famous 77 Suggestions for Super Windows
      * plus Display Ideas from A to Z

Includes a 10-point checklist for staffers to follow, FAQs, and ideas from shopkeepers like you! Make your business stand out from the crowd with windows that WOW! Order your own PDF of The Big Book of Window Displays now.

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Resalers Say the Darnedest Things!

Posted in economics of resale, Kudos: Ideas to inspire!, Not-for-Profit Resale, Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , , on December 1, 2014|

I love getting mail, don’t you? Even e-mail… when it’s from my consignment, thrift, and resale peers!

You can learn so much from the notices, newsletters, and info your counterparts send out. You really should, if you don’t already, add your name to others’ e-mailing lists and pay attention to what they tell their clientele.

Here’s a terrific example of an ideathat came to me via e-mail:

PRESELL your bags online for your next Bag Sale!

Pre-sell the bags for your consignment shop bag sale... online!

A non-profit, Career Wardrobe in Philadelphia, is doing just that. Their loyal followers can pre-purchase a bag for their sale for $20 online.

What a great way to get your customers to commit to coming to your sale (and maybe, even, inspire those who can’t come into making what amounts to a $20 donation)!

The shop doesn’t have a different price for online or at the door but I, personally, would… even just a $5 savings buying online versus at the door would motivate a lot of shoppers…

… and mentioning that “presold bag holders” get in the express entry line the day of the sale would REALLY motivate, don’t you think?

Clear it Out & Clean Up: Bag Sales, Dollar Racks & BOGO Deals from TGtbT.com

Click to add to your Resale Business Library

 

 

For your treasury of “Clear It Out & Clean Up” ideas, get your copy of
 Bag Sale$, Dollar Rack$ & BOGO Deal$ 
from the Too Good to be Threw Products for the Professional Resaler Shop today!

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Banding together: The Thrift Stores of Volusia County

Posted in Kudos: Ideas to inspire!, Not-for-Profit Resale, Shopkeeping talk, Used Stuff in the News, tagged , , , on July 14, 2014| 2 Comments »

A thrift and resale alliance has some good ideas for youOne woman has started a “thrift store alliance”… which looks like it could be attracting consignment and resale shops as well… in a Florida county.

Watch the news reel.

Gather some ideas that you may want to try in your marketplace from their Facebook Page which has over 14,000 followers.

Does your area have an alliance of shops? If so, tell us in the comments what your group does and how it helps your shop and the resale industry!

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Dealing with incoming: Preparation H to the rescue!

Posted in Mailbox: 1-on-1 Advice, Not-for-Profit Resale, Shopkeeping talk, tagged on May 30, 2014| 9 Comments »

A NFP thrift-store shopkeeper writes: Consignment and thrift shop incoming

Needing some advice on processing donations. Our hospital thrift shop has a lovely, good-sized, well-lit store. BUT … the area to process donations is very small and piles up quickly with, on late Saturdays, yard sale castoffs and sometimes very heavy items. We’re all volunteers, nearly all women, and nearly all in our 60s to 90s!!! How do you manage your piles, in other words?????

Let’s go with the piles metaphor: Applying some Preparation H should do the trick!

First off: Have your H ready-to-go. Depending on how you manage your price tags, HANDY could help move salable goods from piles to perfection. Pre-prepared tags, stored next to where your piles accumulate, could cut tagging and decision-making down to seconds. Whether you store pre-printed price tickets in manila envelopes push-pinned to a corkboard, or have shoeboxes full of $5, $7, $10 tags, just having them to choose from means that bundle of jeans can be dealt with immediately… before they get buried beneath another pile of incoming.

Another H to hep move mounds to desirable merchandise: Think HYGIENIC.. as in cleaning things up so they are sales floor-ready. While I am not always a fan of pre-dampened cleaning wipes, these may be called for in a pile situation: Wiping down those florist vases with glass-cleaner wipes, or wooden goods with a polish wipe, could quickly diminish the incoming catastrophe. On Monday, these lick-and-a-promise goods can be more carefully groomed on the ales floor as volunteers chat, straighten, and cashier.

Then there’s the HORROR aspect of Preparation H: Things that should never have been donated to your cause to start with. You know what I’m talking about: the soiled undergarments, broken figurines, singleton dinner plates. Be relentless in trashing these… don’t be tempted to put these items aside  “to deal with later.” As anyone in the resale industry knows, later never comes. Spend your, and your volunteers’, time on what will raise funds, not sap energy. Sure, maybe that dinner plate will sell for a dime, but is it worth the work and floor space?

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Lights, camera (please Santa)… and consignment/ resale ACTION!

Posted in Not-for-Profit Resale, Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , , , on December 4, 2013|

Video's the way to go: Ask SantaMaybe you should ask Santa for a video camera for Christmas, if you want to make your consignment, resale, or thrift shop

shine online.

Then all you have to do is find an eleven-year-old elf to help you edit and publish!

Some resources that will have you ready to produce videos for your business:

Vertical Response’s suggestions

No video camera? You can still (there’s a pun there) make a video!

How video is important not just online, but in your store

And some examples you can learn from, from our industry peers:

Furniture Consignment

A video for a shop contest and a fun “10 tips” video

A collection of ideas Auntie Kate posted about videos

And even a nice, polite way to tell donors how to donate to a NFP thrift shop

Santa the Photog illustration from here.

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