Starting a second hand vintage store

Hey all,

I'm exploring the idea of starting my own second-hand vintage clothing store. The city where I'd like to start it has a population of 250k people with over 70.000 students and vibrant culture & touristic scene. There's about 15 second hand clothing stores active. Most of them barely sell any brands or streetwear they don't have any high-end/luxury and a lot of them have a regular interior design. I'd like to do both men eand women.

We'd like to create an experience for our customers with a very cool interior, a wall of "high-end eye-catchers (think vintage Chanel, rare items, etc.." and a larger part of more affordable pieces. I am not a fashion expert but am now starting talks with different fashion bloggers/ to help set up with the inventory, track best wholesale etc...

I'm here on this forum to get advice from you guys, do you think this is a good idea? Are vintage clothing stores profitable (I've been the numbers of my competitors but they do not impress me 100% We're also toying with the idea of also creating a bar within the store where people can buy drinks.

Just any advice is welcome, anyone has any experience with running a second hand vintage clothing store? What to do? What not to do? How to choose wisely what type of fashion and categories.

What to look out for? Where do most stores fail? What are very common mistakes?

btw: I already own a succesful business so it's not that I am totally depending on this income stream however I don't like losing money and this is a very early stage. please don't shoot me

Muchos. gracias

5 years ago

rachylou

Veteran

I worked in consignment many years ago. I think this is probably a bad time to open a vintage clothing store. The high end consignment shop in my neighborhood just closed, which makes for three higher end consignment stores closed in the past 5-7 years. What’s doing ok is the high end pre-owned handbag store. These btw were all located in the two wealthy areas of my town. The second hand shops near the university are still alive, but definitely not high end.

Stagiaire Fash

RL, would that handbag store be doing well in a different part of town? Sounds to me like the bigger take-away from your observation is the importance of matching location to what’s being sold.

I’m not a big second-hand shopper, have only been in a couple stores. One of them always has great stuff in the window, so I finally got there during opening hours to look for a summer dress. I didn’t have anything really specific in mind, other than classic & slightly flirty. The dresses rack was maybe a yard wide, loosely packed. The amazingly patterned men’s ls shirts often featured in their window came from a rack the same width, very tightly packed. They had other things, but I didn’t really look much. Maybe if I was sipping from a non-disposable cup (and maybe standing at a high top), I might’ve spent more time wandering among those other offerings. What I’m trying to say is that another reason to stick around, besides the clothing, might be a good idea if your inventory is small.

The handbag shop is in the same area as two of the three shops - ie wealthy and away from the university. I do think location and merchandise match is important, but I also think the market for clothing/shoes is poor and high-end second hand clothing worse in the covid era. And that the margins are thin. The one in my neighborhood only lasted a couple of months before the space went up for lease. No new clothing boutique has gone out of business - but I have to emphasise they’ve all been around perhaps 30 years and really really REALLY know their audience. I mean, as in I bought a mask by email at the beginning of the shutdown and the owner’s daughter WALKED it over to my house. There are also some other interesting dynamics... high profile, high society people take their ball gowns to very specific places, to specific charity shops here. It’s not a huge market for buying and selling serious high end like that and everyone goes where the chances will be better for buying and selling. I think that’s another reason why the shops failed. And there are big online players too for more ordinary designer things.

... a Burberry trench is an easier sell than an Anna Sui dress...

... and there’s ‘affluent’ and then there’s you know, NYC, London and Kim Kardashian land...

RL, familiarity with shopkeepers is always nice! The owner of the Indian restaurant around the corner told me recently to knock on the kitchen door if I want something & they aren’t open; at other places we go to regularly, when I haven’t had cash (can’t break myself of the assumption that the card takes care of it all!) they have either told me to bring it next time or just swept the coins into the drawer without counting. Bringing it back around to the topic, even though a new business can’t afford to waive off prices, personal service always helps. I’ve seen second-hand shoppers in the forum mention that the shopkeeper of the store they go to alerts them of new items they might like.

Agreed!

Anonymous

Obviously you've done all your homework, but I'd start on-line first. I know of several women who have done this to astounding success. Wait for the physical location until you've built up a core customer base and sussed out the need for it.

LAR101

Active Member

Do you have a clear idea how you will find and then select clothes to sell.
How are you resolving vintage and wholesale?
Vintage seems like one of a kind and wholesale seems like bulk.

I think these types of ventures succeed when you are very very clear about the concept.

Selling thrift but then spending money on a higher end interior, also seems to be at odds.

I want to spotlight the earlier suggestions to know this market: clientele (both buyers & sellers), location etc.

Foot traffic and in store shopping, in my area, is down during the pandemic but more so among susceptible people who are not college aged and IMHO who are likely to be your target buyers.

Thrift and vintage seems like a niche market, with slim margins, that seems to require a love and deep knowledge and time commitment for the clothes and the clientele. Is this you?

Looks like the poster wasn't really that interested.

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