Reduce, Reuse, Resale
By BETSY DEMITROPOULOS
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| Jan Rooney stands near the displays of consignment goods in Anew, her resale shop in Geneva. (Phot by Marcelle Bright) |
Many people consider resale shops and sales a fun way to recycle.
Amy Santoro, owner of Jobella Resale, Vintage, and Consignment, is one of them.
The benefits of shopping resale aren’t limited to getting a great bargain. Shopping at resale and thrift shops helps to reduce waste, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions across the United States, according to the National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops (NARTS).
The public’s increasing awareness of these benefits is one of the many reasons for the growing popularity of resale shops. And because of this awareness, the resale market is flourishing thanks to value-conscious consumers and the increased number of people who are going green.
Santoro has always been eco-conscious, mindful and practical in her spending, shopping at resale shops, thrift stores and garage sales her entire life.
“It’s nice to see this trend catching on with other people,” she says.
Rather than add to the waste stream, more and more people across the country are choosing to be good stewards of their environment, and consigning, selling or donating their unneeded and unwanted items.
Santoro says shopping at resale shops benefits the environment because, “You are reusing materials that are already in the universe. Especially with vintage clothing and jewelry, you don’t know how many times they’ve been used.”
Her new shop, Jobella, named by combining her son and daughter’s name, is located in downtown Geneva. It sells vintage jewelry and gently used and vintage clothing, among other items. Santoro describes business at her shop as “phenomenal.”
The U.S. resale industry has experienced a growth of approximately 5 percent a year for the past three years, NARTS says. There are more than 25,000 resale, consignment and thrift shops in the country today.
Shirley Stopka, owner of Good Cents Children in Geneva, attributes increased business at her resale shop to more people going green and realizing the benefit and cost savings of reuse than to the down economy. Good Cents sells resale children’s clothing, toys and books, as well as new merchandise, and has been located in the Tri-Cities area for 19 years.
Resale’s enormous benefit to the environment was one of the many reasons that led Jan Rooney to establish her own consignment shop in Geneva in April of this year.
Rooney is an avid supporter of recycling and passionately incorporates it into her business, which is called Anew. Her shop sells CooperSong handbags, whose handles are made of recycled bicycle inner tubes. The fabrics are new, but bolt-end material from fabric stores. Some bags are even accented with recycled baseballs.
“These handbags are very popular at my store,” Rooney says, holding a CooperSong handbag. “You can still see writing on the inner tube.”
Anew also sells jewelry made by a local artisan who incorporates recycled vintage jewelry into each piece. Even many of the furnishings in Anew’s store are “recycled.” Rooney says many items in her store were purchased from flea markets.
Another way Rooney is planning to implement reuse into her resale shop is by establishing a program where patrons are rewarded for reusing old shopping bags. Rooney intends to either give a discount for shoppers who use their own shopping bags or give them a thank you in the form of a $1 bill.
“Who couldn’t use an extra dollar to spend on whatever they choose?” Rooney asks.
Mary Wallin, co-owner of My Girlfriend’s Closet in Geneva, says shopping at a resale shop is not only beneficial to the environment, but it’s also pleasing to a person’s pocketbook.
For example, a new designer handbag might retail for $600 at a department store, but at My Girlfriend’s Closet, a similar handbag, although gently used, might sell for around $150. Wallin says consignors often bring in items with the price tag still attached.
“They say, ‘I never got around to using this,’” she says.
Rooney sees the same trend at her shop. She keeps band-new Coach handbags enclosed in a glass case, tags still attached.
Stopka says brand-name jeans for girls, such as Justice, retail for about $30 new, but customers can purchase a great-looking pair at Good Cents Children for around $8.
If an item doesn’t sell, most consignors choose to keep the items out of the wastestream by allowing shop owners to donate them. Anew donates clothes and accessories not sold at the store to Lazarus House in St. Charles and to other organizations. Unsold items at My Girlfriend’s Closet find a home at the local Salvation Army and Goodwill. Good Cents Children donates items to Two Rivers Head Start on a weekly basis. Santoro also donates to not-for-profits for the underpriveleged.
Rooney says resale shops are for people who want one-of-a-kind items, but also like to be responsible in their spending.
She says shoppers “love the find …love the hunt.”
Dawn Vaughn, of DeKalb, shopped at Anew for the first time in September. “It’s fun to shop resale,” she says, touching at a piece of vintage jewelry. “There’s always something unique that catches your eye.”
Q: What is the difference between resale, thrift and consignment shops?
A: While all shops that sell gently used consumer goods are “resale” shops, the National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops makes the distinctions as follows:
A resale shop is the phrase most often used for stores that buy their merchandise outright from individual owners. A consignment or thrift shop can also be called a resale shop, but only a store that actually consigns their inventory can be called a consignment store, and only a store run by a not-for-profit organization is considered a thrift store.
A thrift shop is run by a not-for-profit organization to raise money to fund their charitable causes. These range from the large Salvation Army and Goodwill chains to individual school, church or hospital thrift shops. Not-for-profits can obtain goods through donations or they could operate on a consignment basis — some do both.
A consignment shop accepts merchandise on a consignment basis, paying the owners of the merchandise a percentage when and if the items are sold. The majority of such shops pay the owners from 40 percent to 60 percent of the selling price, and have a policy of displaying goods for anywhere from 30 to 90 days or more, although there is a wide range of policies across the country. Some consignment shops also purchase a variety of items outright from individual owners and/or wholesalers.
Source: National Association of Resale & Thrift Stores, www.narts.org
What to know before bringing items into a resale shop to sell
• Learn how resale shops operate. Shop owners and managers can give you a good idea of the items they have the most demand for and what type and age of merchandise they accept.
• Know how the shop will handle your items, including the pricing, display and payment.
• Seasonal items, when is the best time to bring them into the shop?
• Clean and fresh merchandise will get you the best return.
• Unsold items. Resale shop owners will not accept items they won’t be able to sell for you. Simply ask if they can refer you to another shop or recommend a charity that may accept your items as a donation.
Source: National Association of Resale and Thrift Stores, www.narts.org
