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Posts Tagged ‘accepting’

Drowning in incoming merchandise yet? Life-saving tips from Auntie Kate

Posted in Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , on August 11, 2010| 6 Comments »

Drowning in incoming consignments? TGtbT.com helps you cope.

Drowning in incoming consignments?

If your resale, thrift or consignment shop is not yet flooded with fall incoming, you soon will be.

How will you cope? It’s easy to get frazzled and forget that your intake process must be as client-centric as your selling processes are. If you’re drowning, it’s tempting to grasp onto anything that looks like it’ll keep you afloat without regard to long-term consequences. For example, some shopkeepers wish they could tape a sign on the door NO MORE ’til I get done with what I got!…but fortunately, they realize that turning away suppliers is bad for business in the long, and the short, run.

I can’t add hours to your day (which is probably what you wish for), but there are some (relatively) simple ways to not drown in a sea of incoming.

Here’s how NOT to cope:

Don't let a sea of incoming take a chunk out of your business.

Don't let a sea of incoming take a chunk out of your business.

Don’t cope by, if you (more…)

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What consignment shops can do with those illegal drop-side cribs.

Posted in Shopkeeping talk, Used Stuff in the News, tagged , on May 22, 2010| 2 Comments »

Now that Inez Tenenbaum, chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, has declared that apparently (more…)

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College Kids Moving Out? Teach ’em to consign!

Posted in Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , , on May 20, 2010| 3 Comments »

moving out of the dorm: consign-a-lot!If your market area includes kids who live in dorms, student housing, or rentals, and if they’re leaving town, how can you consign or buy outright or receive as donations the stuff they don’t consider worth moving or storing?

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Whether it is called Chuck it for Charity (works whether your shop is an NFP thrift or if your consignment shop maintains charity accounts) or Move-out Recycling or Make a Clean Green Break, it’s a great way to

  • get merchandise (you’d be amazed at what college kids don’t want),
  • help the school itself (you can set up a charity account for whatever cause the school has going),
  • teach that generation the values of recycling,
  • introduce them to your shop,
  • save the college Dumpster costs,
  • and avoid filling up the landfill.

What could be more WIN-WIN?

Photo courtesy of Drew Saunders on Flickr

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Does your consignment shop support the counterfeit trade? Your resale shop rip off copyright holders?

Posted in economics of resale, Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , on May 2, 2010| 5 Comments »

Uneasy when a consignor comes in with a pillowcase full of  Prada and Louis Vuitton bags? Real designer or “designer-inspired”?

Unsure if you should take that seller’s Coach? Real or “replica”?

That Gucci generate some anxiety? Genuine or gyp?

Counterfeit goods, from Guccis to Nikes to Rolexes, continue to pour into our country from China.

This Auntie Kate the Blog post helps you spot a fake.

Rant: (I’ve never understood why people think that others will be impressed by the handbag they’re carrying…especially if it’s a fake. One seller of counterfeit goods says: “They want it to look like they spent a lot of money on it. Like, it’s an image thing”. What, you want to project an image of disregarding the rights of the artists and manufacturers? Like it’s cool to say “Hey, I rip off people I don’t even know”? Like you’d trust this person to not rip YOU off?)

What do you do about this issue in your shop?

It’s hard to pass up all designer bags when the real ones can make your shop money. And when “everyone else” is doing it and you’re losing business to them.

How do you cope?

Do you rely on your personal knowledge? Hold your breath and hope you’re not going to be found out? Require the original receipt? Mark them all “FAKE” on your price tag, thinking that will suffice?

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Deja Vuesday: Are your consignment rules messing with YOUR head?

Posted in Deja Vuesday, Shopkeeping talk, tagged , , on March 23, 2010|

Bandaid puppetsHere’s a past resale/ consignment post which bears repeating.

Are you sabotaging your business in obvious and subtle ways?

Read how I found yet another reason not to numerically limit incoming goods when I was forced to follow a rule that makes no sense. Besides the reasons we already can see. ‘Cause it messed with my head.

A pinprick here, a pinprick there and pretty soon your business is bleeding real bad.

The photo’s from http://www.momsmarbles.com/ which is a pretty cute site.

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