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Being social: does it make you into a Content Thief?

June 21, 2013 by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

Great article on the difference between content curation vs. content scraping on this Vertical Response blog entry.

It's possible to be a content thief in your slippers.Content Curation is something most of us do everyday when we Continue Reading »

Posted in Shopkeeping talk | 6 Comments »

International Resale Week is 2 weekends long!

June 20, 2013 by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

International Resale Week, especially designed to call attention to consignment, resale and thrift shops, is July 13-21 this year: That’s TWO weekends this time around: TWICE the opportunity to do something great to turn the J month of July into a great excuse for shopping! Resale makes my heart RACE!

Here’s just one idea that’s easy to pull together and should merit some media attention with a nudge or two from participating shops:

I’ve seen shops who gave out “shopping passes”… little passports with a shop per page. If they had at least X shops stamp that they visited over a time period, they left their passport at the last shop… then all were put in a drawing for GCs.

Here’s some ideas I urged resale shopkeepers to start thinking about in August for… International Resale Day 2010. And what I did to celebrate International Resale Day in 2011 (we’re now past 10,000 comments!)

I hereby give any of you permission, whether or not you have chosen to add your shop to the HTC Resale Directory, to use this graphic for any of your shop promotions, at any time of year, but of course, the line in red, HowToConsign.com must remain. You may NOT remove that line and use my graphic, or I will personally see to it that the Resale Gods frown upon your meager, measly soul. I do need to know where you’ve used it, though, so let me know via email.

Posted in Shopkeeping talk | Tagged |

Back to School Super Saturday: Will your consignment or resale be there?

June 19, 2013 by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

Back to School is an important selling period in consignment and resale shopsAre you ready for another “national shopping holiday”? According to the New York Times,

Teen Vogue magazine, published by the Condé Nast division of Advance Publications, sought last year to make back-to-school even bigger with an elaborate promotion Continue Reading »

Posted in economics of resale, Shopkeeping talk | Tagged , , | 1 Comment »

Slow time in your non-profit thrift? Keeping volunteers happy…

June 18, 2013 by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

If you run a thrift store, and your volunteers complain that there’s nothing to do today….

Or if you have folks who’d like to help your shop succeed, but don’t wish to have a sales-floor assignment…

Or if you know there are some folks who’d help, but they’re not up to standing on their feet for hours…

Here’s a treasure-trove of cute ideas for turning bits and pieces into adorable, salable, and word-of-mouth worthy goods! Click each photo to read about it.

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Source: beadandcord.com via Kate on Pinterest

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If you’d like to see more simple crafts that can turn donations into boutique-worthy merchandise, let me know in the comments below.

Posted in Not-for-Profit Resale, Shopkeeping talk | Tagged , | 7 Comments »

Grab the car keys, Thelma! We’re investing in a consignment road trip!

June 17, 2013 by Auntie Kate of Too Good to be Threw

Visiting other resalers is a wise investment of timeRecently, I read this Facebook comment. A consignment shop owner was replying to another who was flying cross-country to visit the area and wanted to know “if there are any good shops to visit” in the Portland/Salem Oregon area.

I own … in Salem. We are going on our 3rd year. There is a bunch in Portland but I never checked them out yet. I heard … is good. Most of the high end ones are in Portland.

This statement was such a puzzlement to me… that a shopkeeper open 3 years had not familiarized herself with nearby businesses in the same industry, that I had to Google it.

The two locations are less than 50 miles apart. Where I come from, that’s a nice day trip. Now, I’ve never been to Oregon, so maybe Interstate 5 is an oxen trail, but somehow I doubt it.

Given that the NARTS Conference Bus Tours, where hundreds of shopkeepers pay $50 or so for the chance to visit 6-8 shops in one day and to see how others operate, decorate, and relate, is argumentatively the highlight of Conference for many shopkeepers, what’s going on here?

Why hasn’t a career resaler found the time, in 3 years, to see what  other “high end” shops are doing? Isn’t visiting other resalers part of improving a shopkeeper’s education?

I’ve even written a little booklet called Visiting Other Resalers A little field notebook to help you examine other shops with an eye to making yours better. Download it; print out copies to stick in your glove compartment. Learn every time you visit another shop!

because it is so important to see what other folks are doing. You can get the booklet for less than the price of a grilled cheese on the Lunch with Kate mini-Products page.

Then Thelma and Louise can “go shopping” for new ideas and fresh approaches to their shared concerns.

Posted in 5- Minute Fixes, Shopkeeping talk | 12 Comments »

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