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Archive for the ‘Shopkeeping talk’ Category

Another View on Resale

Posted in Shopkeeping talk on March 14, 2008| 4 Comments »

Ya know, you don’t have to sell used stuff as-is.

You don’t have to be “just” a consignment or thrift or resale shop. You can be (or inspire!) an innovator! There’s all sorts of wonderful ways to reUse. (Maybe I should add that to HowToConsign’s motto of ReSell RePlace ReJoice!)resellfull.gif

Some crafters doing clever things:

Sweet Pepita on Etsy takes parental band t’s and more and makes them into garments for the coming generation. Another Etsy member, Hyena, does a variety of things with…a variety of things.

Those Hefty bags full of no-thank-you’s that clutter up your back room? Get out (more…)

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Are you giving away the store?

Posted in economics of resale, Shopkeeping talk on March 13, 2008| 4 Comments »

I was alarmed at the enthusiasm with which my peers at TGtbT.com, Too Good to be Threw| Products for the Professional Resaler, greeted the idea of using February 29 as an opportunity to offer a 29% discount. Many shops offered that on everything in the store… without, methinks, stopping to consider whether their profit margin is even 29% to start with (most consignment and resale shops are not at that margin, believe me!)

Is it wise to give away the store…even if you “can afford the markdown one day in 4 years”, as one shopkeeper said?

I’m here to say that no, it’s not. We all know that marking down works…very well, to train shoppers to expect markdowns, regardless of how reasonable your prices are. Here’s what Saks does: It’s called spend$ome get$ome, it’s a one-day and several-times-a-year promo and (more…)

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A novel approach to gaining suppliers

Posted in Shopkeeping talk, tagged , on March 2, 2008| 4 Comments »

cheating350.jpgThis snapshot of a shop’s sign (I’d credit the shop, if I could figure out who/what/where) is interesting. But for us resalers,

the sign and its approach to gaining suppliers is even more interesting.

How does, do you think, a sense of humor go over with potential clients of your shop? Will you attract more than you will turn off?

Certainly the headline of this sign, or of this message turned into an ad, an email, a blog post… will get folks reading, assuming your pool of potential customers is mostly (more…)

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Done your STRETCHING Today?

Posted in Shopkeeping talk on February 29, 2008|

ImageChef Custom Images

Since it’s Leap Day and all…and you get an extra day to do something you really WANT to do…I hope you do some STRETCHING today.

Anyone who’s ever exercised understands about stretching. It’s that feels-so-good-it-hurts segment of your routine, where you can FEEL (more…)

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What we can learn from Starbucks

Posted in Shopkeeping talk on February 27, 2008|

The brand is just about EVERYWHERE… good or bad. I mean, for heaven’s sake, when I want to impress upon my resale, consignment, and thrift shopkeepers how they are probably tossing away more money than it would cost to be a Sponsored link at HowToConsign.com, I use the example of “costs less than your daily Starbucks.”

(We’ll ignore the fact that I personally, having received a Starbucks gift card as a thank-you for working on a charitable committee. still haven’t found the time or impetus to USE it, over a year later…)

And we will put aside my dislike of the cloning of America (and the world!) with look-alike, corporate-run, who-gives-a-**-about YOU businesses, to learn (more…)

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