Saturday 9 April 2011

Not So Fast

 

Businesses are expanding, empty space is being leased, and more and more customers are coming through the doors.

Sounds like a boom, right?

Er, not so fast.

As the Chicago Tribune reports in "Resale Shops Remake Empty Retail Spaces as Consumers Reshape Buying Habits," the expansion in question involves an industry that generally does best when times are hard.

Resale and consignment shops, emboldened by the Great Recession, are expanding as Americans cling to their bargain-hunting ways.

No longer relegated to back alleys, these secondhand stores are moving into prime locations, taking over spaces once occupied by mainstream retailers Linens 'N Things and Circuit City, now bankrupt, and teen clothier Abercrombie & Fitch.

And they're going national. Bellevue, Wash.-based thrift-store chain Savers Inc. is taking on its biggest expansion in decades, spurred in large part by the cheap retail real estate left behind by big-box stores wiped out in the recession. Its first Chicago-area store opens next week.

The movement mirrors the aftermath of the 1990s recession when discount shopping at the likes of Target and T.J. Maxx came into vogue. Only this time, instead of pairing a Gap T-shirt with an Armani suit, the most recent financial crisis has made it fashionable to combine the likes of a new J. Crew sweater with a "gently used" Tory Burch skirt.

Thanks to Craigslist and Amazon, people are just as comfortable selling goods these days as buying them, said Ken Nisch, chairman of JGA Inc., a retail design firm in Southfield, Mich. And that is good news for secondhand stores that need a steady supply of used merchandise.

"Customers are becoming merchants and merchants are becoming customers," Nisch said. "Retailers need to figure out how to create consumer liquidity, and this is a way to do it — taking things out of your closet that have value."

While the thrift industry is difficult to track, estimates are that the number of independent consignment and resale stores has risen to 1,200 in 2010, from about 800 five years ago, according to the National Association of Resale Professionals. Consignment stores pay suppliers 40 percent to 50 percent of the sale price after a product has sold. Resale shops buy goods up front, but they pay less than consignment stores to make up for the risk of an item not selling.

These secondhand stores are not only expanding, but they are taking on the characteristics of traditional retail.

In Geneva, designer resale shop Anew looks just like the full-priced, independent boutique it replaced two years ago, down to the Tuscan-style natural stone walls, styled mannequins and spacious dressing rooms.

Business has been brisk enough that Anew expanded into the space next door in February, opening a bridal consignment shop. Some of the gowns have been worn. Others come from cancelled weddings or brides who didn't lose the weight they intended.

"It's safe to say, life as we knew it is definitely gone," said Jan Rooney, owner of Anew, who opened the store in 2009 after losing her job as an insurance broker. "I don't know if any of us will ever feel that kind of security again."

Click here to read the rest.


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