Katrina Alert:
How resale shops can help Katrina’s victims
Owners and managers of consignment, resale, and thrift stores know better than any other type of businesspeople that there is so much wealth in our country that can be shared. Let's each and every one of us do a little. That little, multiplied by the 15,000 to 20,000 resale stores in the country, can do a lot!
If you know of a neighboring resaler who does not frequent www.tgtbt.com , print out this page and take it over to them. All of us pulling together can help both our fellow resalers whose businesses are in ruins in the affected area, but all the people displaced and hurting from the disaster.
How-to’s
to Help
for Resale Shops, Consignment Shops and Thrift Stores
1- Line up storage space for material goods. Most shops don’t have a lot, I know: but perhaps friends, relatives, and customers could donate the use of a spare closet. Ask storage facilities as well: they may have unleased units available to lend. If there’s an empty storefront near you, talk to the landlord about borrowing it. If a commercial facility does help, be sure to let your community know that another business is pitching in to help.
2- Decide which goods in your shop will be most useful. There’s
two categories of clothing, household items, and children’s gear that
will help:
* Grubstake:
Once our fellow resalers can get their lives back to normal, they will
need opening stock. Remember, not only has their stock been ruined, but
their market’s supply of recyclables has as well. Imagine reopening a
shop without merchandise coming in: what will they need? Most of these
grubstake items will be warm-weather clothing, since the area affected by
Katrina is warm year-round. If your shop is in a more temperate climate,
put aside those end-of-summer goods that have not sold to send, as needed,
to shops getting back into operation. Remember: once people can move back
home, they will need goods, and where better to make a budget go as far as
possible than in our peers’ resale shops? Watch www.tgtbt.com for
requests and addresses of resalers getting back on their feet in their
communities.
* Local
help: Your community may well have temporary or permanent
refugees from the devastated areas arriving without a change of clothing,
yet alone the colder-weather garments they will need. If you can, put
aside what is appropriate attire for your locale. Larger or fragile
household goods might be difficult to ship; put these aside for local use.
3- Pack items away by gender, size, and category. That will make it easier to find and distribute what you have. Pack them neatly: you’ll want them to arrive where they will do the best in a manner that shows dignity and love. Select only the best goods. Those who have lost everything deserve a hand up, not a cast-off. For your "grubstake" items, remember that you will be paying for shipping these items when the time comes, so make it worth the postage!
4- Imagine if each shopper in your store contributed just a handful of change to Katrina. It can be done! Set up your "Round UP for Relief" collection jars and signage. Simply asking each shopper if she’d like to "round up for Katrina relief" will collect enough to make a meaningful contribution. As the charities stress: "No amount is too small", and rounding up a purchase to the next full dollar is, after all, pocket change. If your customer is making a purchase by check or charge, take the resulting donation, in cash, from your sales drawer and plop it, right then and there, into the jar. Such an obvious donation will motivate your buyer, and perhaps even browsers, into an additional small contribution. If you can afford to do so, let people know that your business will be contributing an additional sum to the total collected from the public.
5- Consider donating a percentage of sales for a given time period to a charity. This will let shoppers know that you are behind the effort all the way. Keep your collection jar out even with this event: every penny, literally, counts.
5- Choose the charity to which this cash will be donated carefully. Investigate to make sure the money will be spent in ways you are comfortable with.
6- Be careful. Don’t tempt fate by leaving your collection jar where it could be stolen. Low lifes think nothing of where or what the money’s for: they just take it. Donate early. The money is needed constantly, not just a month or a season from now.
7- Contact local charities as well for the items that are suitable for your area. Let them know what you have. Many churches have free-clothing-and-household goods pantries, and these charities will be approached by those seeking shelter near you. Don’t just dump-&-run, though: donate your time to organize, store, and sort for these groups. (After all, who knows better how to tell at a glance what size those jeans are than you, the resale professional!) Such pantries may well have other needs: extra hangers and racks, sorting tables, staff to keep the pantry open.
8- If you can, "adopt" a refugee family, the same way you do in the holiday season. Let your consignors and customers know what’s needed: "Size 5 boy, size 12 girl, mother’s a 14, dad’s a 34" waist". With or without an actual family to specify, you can start consignment accounts that will accept salable items in your shop, with a specific charity to receive the proceeds. You may even find several charities willing to help you spread the word with this, such as churches, parents’ associations, even other businesses.
9- Does your community have charities which issue clothing and equipment vouchers? Let them know that you will honor and indeed welcome the voucher recipients. Yes, there’s a little bit of paperwork and you may have to wait a month for a reimbursement check, but it’s worth it, to allow the needy to shop in dignity and comfort with you. If you can afford to do so, give these folks more than their money’s worth. A discount or a small useful and attractive gift will help them get settled in faster and more comfortably. When my shop dealt with these vouchers for returning-to-work women, we received (by simply asking!) a variety of cosmetics from a national company, which we packaged into little gift bags. A local shoe chain donated hosiery as well, which we distributed as voucher-shoppers came in.
10- Send press releases to your local media: newspapers, magazines, radio and TV stations. Prepare in-store signage that tells your clientele how they can help. Thank people! So many people don’t put themselves out to help because the need seems so overwhelming. Make sure it’s easy, personal, and local, and you will enable your customers, consignors, and suppliers to feel like yes, indeed, they can make a difference.
How to write your press release
What Resalers across the continent are doing right now
Keep watch here at www.tgtbt.com
. As needs assessments can be made,
you'll find a list of resale peers who will need your help with their
grubstake. Thank you for your help with this.
Kate Holmes
author, Too
Good to be Threw, The Complete Operations Manual for Resale &
Consignment Shops
author, The Picker Who Perished, A Too Good to be
Threw Consignment Shop Mystery
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