Ideal Thrift Store?

[Anna5231980]

My non-profit organization is strongly considering opening a thrift store to support our organization.  I don't want to open just any everyday thrift store.  You are all thrift store experts so, if you could make your ideal thrift store what would you include?  Any creative ideas?

[Thrift Shop Romantic]

Clean and quirky, where the merchandise moves and is replenished regularly. Where things aren't just tossed in piles but priced exorbitantly (I've seen this happen more in so-called antique stores, and it always seems so disrespectful to the "stuff.")

And an understanding that sure, you can charge more for older or more collectible items, but not as much as, say, Ebay. Making a profit is great, but making it reasonable is important, too. That will help you retain business.

[oceangurl]

I totally agree TSR, totally! Well put!

[Good Buddy]

I totally agree TSR, totally! Well put!

And! Organize, organize, organize! By type of clothing and size at least. I don't even look at men's clothes unless they're by type of clothing and size. Why should I do all the work?! I will ALWAYS look through the men's clothes if they're organized by at least those two break downs. You can go further and break the clothes down by color also. But not only by color. And price normal things a decent price.
One actual client of ours has asked me time and time again how to improve his sales. I told him one way was to organize the clothing better. He just puts the "Men's Shirts" together, not by size or style or anything. His store is beautiful and huge! He has the room and the staff. And he is also asking me if I know of a bulk buyer to purchase all his overstock of clothing. If you organize well the clothing and sell it quickly, you won't have an overstock of clothing.
A Bibles for Missions Thrift Center in Longwood closed for the exact above reason. They were again huge, not beautiful though. They were VERY unorganized. They had dozens of 40 ft. long clothing rack they only organized by Men's pants shirts and jackets, They broke the Women's down to the same but included skirts and dresses. My and Cookie never bought clothes there and you always saw piles of donated clothing in bags in the front of the store and in the back.

I was going to buy two older Scorpions cassette tapes, Love at First Sting" and "Animal Magnetism". But for $2 each, nah. Most thrift shops charge around .50 to $1 for cassettes. They're a new store near us and they are going to learn the hard way that if many people pass up an item because of a higher price, they won't be getting the return customers and they'll have no money for their charity rather than less of the income at all. This not very well thought out strategy has put many store I know of out of business.
SOAR thrift closed for that exact reason. They were pricing 12 inch records for $3.99! I told Cookie I gave them 6 months. They lasted 7. So I was wrong.

There's my little rant.
Good night.

[Krisathome]

Clean
Organized and Well Displayed(a big pet peeve of mine)
Friendly and knowlegable staff
Good prices...you don't want to be known as the "expensive" thrift store
~a side note-when we know a donation is worth something as in an antique or collectible, I do some research online to see the average price.  Then I price it at 1/3 of that price.

[Mattie]

In addition to all the great suggestions that have already been made, how about this:  have an e-mail list that your customers can join, and send regular announcements of sales.  Then have sales!  Besides the regular color-tag discount rotation, have special sales for holidays, back to school, beginning of summer, etc.  Thrift Town in Sacramento does this and it is PACKED on sale days.

[Jay2TheRescue]

In addition to all the great suggestions that have already been made, how about this:  have an e-mail list that your customers can join, and send regular announcements of sales.   Then have sales!  Besides the regular color-tag discount rotation, have special sales for holidays, back to school, beginning of summer, etc.  Thrift Town in Sacramento does this and it is PACKED on sale days.

Yesterday's Rose in Fairfax does this and they are packed on sale days as well.

-Jay

[Big Daddy Audio]

All the suggestions are great.  Here are a few of my own:

1)  Have some flexibility on prices.  I'm not talking about somebody coming in and asking for a 50% break, but maybe be willing to knock 10-15% off the price.  On a $10 item, it's better to get $8.50 or $9.00 than nothing.  People will return if they know you a reasonable.

2)  Have consistent hours, and if they differ from regular business hours, be sure to make them well known and conspicuous.  Customers don't want to have to guess whether you will be open or not.  This means also having a responsible staff, so that you'll know the store is open when it's supposed to be.

3)  Have a friendly and (if possible) knowledgeable staff.  It'll also help with suggestion #1, above (you don't want to get taken for a ride by a savvy collector, but you don't want to be rude).

I guess that's it for the time being.

See you next time
bye for now.

[Anna5231980]

Thank you for all the suggestions and please keep them coming.  Anything you can think, even if its a crazy idea please let me know.  I like to think and plan differently than most, so any ideas are great.

Thanks