Just wondered if anyone had ever ran a consignment store with clothing and various items that allows the clients to actually set up their own booths. Then just charge a booth fee and let them be in charge of pricing their own items. This way it wouldn't be so time consuming. I could charge just a booth fee or booth fee & percentage of what is sold. The percentage wouldn't be as high as a regular consignment store though because the client is doing most of the work. Let me know what you think!!

Thanks.

This is alot more work then you may think. The idea running a consingment shop is very difficult. Creating a warm and comfortable shopping enviroment is key.

Most retail establishments see at a triple keystone and some times 4. You are selling your floor space. Take your rent and multiply it 4 times. Then you need to build a floor plan for your store.

Measure your store's floor lay out and use every available space that can be used for selling. You would want to have a comfortable walking path so give allowance to your patrons. Remember the hadicap, you will run into trouble if someone has problems with that situation. Start with as many large spaces you can. Like sizes that are 3x6 or 3x7. Work out the space to your benefit as the store owner. If you have a location and drawing it out is hard use plan white masking tape and tape out eachbooth.

When you are all done take those booths available and divide them by this formula, rent, electricity, employee wages, and miscellaneous expense give your self $300 multiply this by 3 and then divide by your spaces you have available. Please note if you do not have employees figure out how much you need to collect from your business to survive off it.

Your wall space is next and it is crutial that you do not add this as income but like a savings account. You can sell art off your walls. All the space that is above 6ft from your booths against your walls can be used as selling space.

Store windows space can be sold for advertising.

Website space can also be sold to your vendors to help promote sells and advertising of their websites.

Push your space to the maxium profit it can make. Alot of these kinds of businesses do not last just do to poor management and the lack of appreciation for what is sold in the store.

The key with this type of business is that you do not allow the merchandise to sell itself that you are promoting it just the same way anyother retailer would. Learn everything about your vendors product as if you owned the company itself. My best buying experiences have been with sales people that know their merchandise. This will also make patrons love your store and feel as if they have walked into someplace special.

When choosing material to sell be very discriminating. Do not over merchandise on some things. You will have quilts galore. Make sure you spend time with each vendor before excepting them into your shop. Learn them well.

Looking for a established road rep in the North West, Mid west, and southern states. All suggestions and referals are appreciated. This is a signature line that wholesales from $45 to $150.

My wife has a booth in a store that does just that. In fact, there's 3 or 4 of them in my town. Most people sell antiques.

The way they all work here is you pay rent per the footage of your space. I'm sure they broke it down by square foot and then charged a certain rate per SF. If you can cut it up enough, you can definately make some money. Her overhead is not that bad and she requires people that have booths to donate days once a month. Then she pays some of the booth owners to run the shop the other days. Also, she rents out the front window to the booth owners on a rotating basis to those who want it for an additional $200-$300 for the month.

if you can get a percentage of the sales more power to you. I bet you could if there werent any other stores like it. There happens to be a bunch with the same model around my area.