The Coloradoan: The stigma of thrift, consignment and resale stores are a thing of the past, and vintage has given new meaning to thrift.
Saving some green, whether it’s dollar bills or the environment, the second-hand industry is thriving, benefiting from people looking to make a few extra bucks by selling their used stuff or buying items at a reduced price.
For Paula Sacks, business at her resale store reflects the economy and right now, people are in need of extra cash to make ends meet. “I find more people looking for extra ways to earn money,” said the owner of Harmony Kids, 925 E. Harmony Road, which resells children’s clothes, books, toys and baby equipment.
Resale is one of the fastest growing retail segments, experiencing roughly 5 percent growth each year, according to the National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops.
Even big name stores are noticing the impact. Goodwill opened a new Fort Collins store in August, capitalizing on the growing retail market on the south end of town.
“Knowledge of thrift is getting out. It’s OK to shop thrift,” said Ric Berninzoni, vice president of retail operations for Goodwill. The company recently launched a new advertising campaign with the slogan “It’s not your grandmother’s thrift store.”
“(Resale) is an excellent market considering it’s so green,” said Laura Green, owner of Repeat Boutique. After 21 years in the industry, she’s surprised the second-hand market isn’t larger. “It’s a booming business that has been fairly unrecognized in the last five, six, seven, eight, years. I don’t know why it wasn’t enormously apparent before.”
Secondhand stores make vintage cool in tough times [The Coloradoan]
Thrift Shops
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Great article. Thrift and resell stores are a terrific way to sell green and provide a mom an effective way to save money. I volunteered for a time in Atlanta for a pet adoption group. We solicited donations of clothes, furniture and even vehicles. For a while we had a thriving store. Unfortunately, we got ripped off by employees and even some volunteers, enough so that we had trouble paying the bills and eventually had to rely on financial gifts to provide for our service.
I am thinking of creating a similar organization here in Ft Collins and use the small thrift shop model but I am worried the same thing would occur.
Would love to hear from someone with experience who could outline how you can control thievery with the intake of donations and the resale of goods.
PingPongMom,
I read your post and wanted to applaud your effort to help with animal adoption. I love my dog and find it sad that so many are abandoned by uncaring owners. I also understand your dilemma regarding honesty with employees. The basic rule is to make it very hard to steal otherwise you can turn a basically honest person into a full time thief. A thrift store operation because of unrecorded incoming inventory could lose 20 to 40% of revenues as a result of a motivated fox and it’s cronies in the hen house.
Here are some areas to watch out for.
If you’re running a large operation you should be compartmentalized and transparent. When management and staff are too close collusion can follow. Watch out because long time work acquaintances can become partners in crime. All items sold should be recorded and all customers given receipts. Cash registers and money procedures should be effectively taught and policed. Cash register duties should be assigned to specific clerks. They should be shopped periodically and watched for repeat customers. Cash drawers should be reconciled on all shift transitions. Even if you’re a small enterprise the till is an area to watch. Sometimes customers are in a hurry and don’t need a receipt. Have all voids and credits co-signed by another worker. Watch the tape for trends. Also watch out for donors who say “keep the $10 dollar change for your charity”. Hopefully the drawer is over that night with a note attached.
Use a source separate from the thrift store to receive phone calls for donations. You should have just one donation telephone number and advertise regularly. Institutional advertising can be inexpensive. Incoming donation offers should be logged and itemized. Records should include name, address and phone number. Donors should be asked what types of items are being donated. These records will come in handy when you compare them to the daily incoming truck manifest. Sure you’re going to get lots of clothing and clutter but you’ll also get higher end items like jewelry, appliances, furniture, electronics and heavy equipment. All these later items especially the nicer or more in demand stuff can be easily fenced out through a network of family and friends. Heck, they could have their own warehouse to sell at convenience. With unregulated pick ups or a corrupted dock worker at either level you can have trouble. If you get vehicle donations make sure gasoline isn’t siphoned off. Donated vehicles often have full tanks and with the price of gas a full tank represents between $50-$100 dollars. That is a potential target.
You should make it obvious to all employees and volunteers that your operation is tightly monitored and regulated.
You should have an operation manager oversee the stores and trucks. Administration should oversee all and control records. Truck drivers should be required to check list all the stops and items received or not received. The store personal or central warehouse should check in truck unloads against initial pick up manifests. These records should be forwarded to administration daily and cross referenced/analyzed against inbound telephone records.
This next tip is very important. All receipts should be issued in a numbered series and given for all donations! They should be accounted for and treated as currency. Don’t get your receipts from office depot either. Have your receipts printed and use a design, watermark or other technique to make counterfeiting difficult. On a random or even regular basis “no go” donors or stops that are missing the high end items logged by phone personnel should be called. At that time you can also get a gauge of employees behavior while in the field.
Administration should make hiring decisions otherwise store level management could hire “favorites” that could foster or further exacerbate an environment that can be conducive to loss. When an employee is concentrating on stealing the store is often neglected or inefficiently run. Management should be focused on day to day store operation and success as well as adherence to policies and record keeping.
If you already have a shop and have suspicions, don’t just fire everyone. Explain that administration has instructed that in order to work smarter and increase efficiency, changes in the way you do business will be implemented. Do this and then adhere and enforce the new method. If you do have a thief in your operation they’ll move on over the loss of income. Another thing to consider is that sometimes one person may have all the connections, service contacts and sources in their back pocket. Keeping it that way as a form or protection. Them thinking that knowledge makes them too invaluable to fire. They’re somewhat right too. Without records of the less than regular contacts and services, losing this type of employee can be disruptive. Also remember that people scorned can be vindictive and sometimes hurtful. Better to implement the changes and then watch what happens. Diehards will continue to try to steal while others will just fade away. Still others can become model employees.
Of course, you may not even have a thief; it could just be an operation that needs fine tuning. Losing a job can be devastating, make sure you don’t accuse or take action on somebody unless you’re 100% positive. Better to provide a smartly run shop with a happy and well rewarded work force.
Those are the basics as I see them. Good luck to you. I hope you make a terrific go of it.
OMG i love thrift stores and it is sooo good to see someone shares my passion for them not only from a buyer but from a seller POV!
thanks so much for posting this article
I wanted to thank you for listing this article.
I grew up around rummage sales,watching my half brother do flea market while i was younger
I know of thrift store while i was growing up that allowed the low income families who couldn’t afford retail prices to come & were allowed to take what they could use. In return they brought back things and exchanged for bigger sizes etc.
I want to be able to help someone who is in need. I would be glad to have someone volunteer services in my store in exchange for items they could use for their families.
I understand Business’s need to make money for overhead they could also remember what their child hood was like. We should help each other when we can.
Hiring good staff is needed. but if you treat your staff with respect. They will treat you with respect as well.