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Original poster

Second hand children's clothes - thinking of opening a shop. Advice please!

64 replies

amidaiwish · 11/11/2007 17:57

I am thinking of opening a second hand children's clothes shop and wanting to pick all your brains before i commit to it.

The shop is in an affluent area of SW London with no other second hand children's clothes shop nearby. There is a successful adults one.

I have found what i think are the perfect premises but i need to work out the logistics / business plan to prove it can make money.

I would only take clothes from M&S, Gap, Boden, etc plus Designer. All would be clean, spotless, good as new condition.

If you were a seller, would you accept payment when your clothes sold. Would you accept a one month - they sell or take them away policy? Would you accept a set time for bringing clothes in etc... How does it work?

Thanks!!

OP posts:
whomovedmychocolate · 11/11/2007 18:00

If I was a seller I'd want at least 50% upfront. It's up to you to know whether it's worth buying them off me, I don't expect to have to guess the market.

I also wouldn't want them back so you'd have to buy them at a rate where you could discount them and just cover costs if you had to.

Also bear in mind that you will be competing with charity shops and also supermarkets and you need to price accordingly.

fortyplus · 11/11/2007 18:04

I give all mine to friends or charity shops. I have also received quite a bit of designer gear from other people so they obviously do the same. If there had been a second hand shop nearby I probably wouldn't have bothered with it. Sorry - I know that's not what you want to hear

littlerach · 11/11/2007 18:05

We ahve one in Bath and i believe that yuo take the clothes o them, they decide whether or not they will have them, then they display them for 6 weeks.
Anything sold in that time, you get 50%.
Anything not sold, the shop may put them back out, or you will be given the chance to have them back.
If you don't want them back, the shop will donate them to charity.

Original poster
amidaiwish · 11/11/2007 18:06

Thanks for your comments, but my understanding is that many of the second hand clothes shops do work like that.
I think it is more that you agree a price for the item to sell at, say £10, of which you will receive 50%.

Then when it has sold you get a call and collect your money. Or you get a call to say it hasn't sold after an agreed period.

That's how it works with the adult clothes shop near here and for selling curtains etc. I don't see the charity shops as the competition, the competition is really NCT sales for which there are massive queues around here!

But i don't know if that is acceptable, or not - so keep the comments coming!

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scienceteacher · 11/11/2007 18:06

I used to buy my DDs' clothes from a posh second hand shop. They were in reasonably perfect condition, for about 40% of the retail price. I could never get anything for my boys though (boys are hard on clothes!)

I never sold anything, but I think the arrangment was basically sale or return.

Original poster
amidaiwish · 11/11/2007 18:07

i want to hear the truth so thanks fortyplus!

littlerach - that does sound the same sort of thing. how busy is it? what do people think of it?

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scienceteacher · 11/11/2007 18:08

Here's the place I used to go. They have a good explanation about what they do and why:

www.stockexchange.org.uk/

Original poster
amidaiwish · 11/11/2007 18:08

scienceteacher - interesting about the boys comment. Actually nearly everyone i've spoken to so far are mums of girls...

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Original poster
amidaiwish · 11/11/2007 18:09

you star x

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fortyplus · 11/11/2007 18:11

True enough re: boys - I've got 2 and their clothes certainly aren't in a saleable condition by the time they've finished with them, these days!

gameboy · 11/11/2007 18:11

I suppose the only issue is that the 'admin' for selling a child's coat is the same as a ladies evening dress, but the final value may be many times more on the latter. I just wonder whether there would be enough 'volume' to make it pay?
I think there is a lot of passing on of clothes to friends and siblings.

Your other competitor is Ebay of course - HUGE amount of children's clothing sold there.

I also live in SE (Surrey) and I think people can be a little snobby about being seen to go into essentially 'secondhand' shops?

gameboy · 11/11/2007 18:11

Could you make it clothes and toys?

gameboy · 11/11/2007 18:13

Here's a link to a place near us - they sell some kids stuff, but not much:

Amazing Grace

Original poster
amidaiwish · 11/11/2007 18:19

yes that's true isn't it... much lower value.

I guess maybe then it is an area in a shop selling baby goods etc. which was my original plan before this took over!

i'm not sure the snobby thing is quite as much of an issue here (Teddington). it is actually seen as quite "green" and enables you to get different clothes rather than all the girls in this season's Boden or Gap. There used to be a shop a few miles away but it closed due to massive rent increase and the owner was pg. i will try to track her down!

yes of course, e-bay is massive competitor.

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Original poster
amidaiwish · 11/11/2007 19:37

bump

OP posts:
HairyIrene · 11/11/2007 19:47

i get fancy boys clothes from grandparents and would consider this, even the schlep to get where you are
ha ha

we have charles tyrwhit (sp?) osh kosh, fancy USA labels from relatives before, suits from jermyn st wtf
its dying down now thankfully
he is very fussy and so some are completely unworn..what a waste

i give it away to friends or charity

i would do the sale or return 6 weeks thing

but you face mighty competition from ebay charity shops

Anna8888 · 11/11/2007 20:05

There used to be a second hand children's clothes and equipment shop in the little, very affluent Kent town near my parents. It flourished for years with a policy of payment to seller only when the goods were sold.

The shop has however closed recently because of competition from Ebay.

berolina · 11/11/2007 20:08

The trendy/affluent areas of Berlin are full of extremely successful second-hand children's clothes (and toy) shops. It'd be a good place for a fact-finding tour.

bubblerock · 11/11/2007 20:22

I would say think about it very hard before you commit. Do a business plan and work out exactly how much you will need to sell to even cover the costs of premises, insurance, utilities, solicitors fees, advertising, shop fittings, business rates etc.. this is before you can even think about taking a wage.

I have seen a fair few second hand baby clothing/equipment shops close down as they just can't cover costs.

kindersurprise · 11/11/2007 20:37

There are loads of second hand shops in Germany. I go to one in my DH's hometown, it has decent quality clothes, she does not accept anything worn or tatty. I take my DCs clothes to sell, she checks them and sends me a fax with the expected prices. If there is any item that I do not agree with the pricing, she will put it aside for me to pick up later.

I go every couple of months to pick up the money (or rather, I choose other clothes for DCs and do not have to pay for them )

I have gotten quite friendly with the owner of the shop. She has told me that there is not loads of money to be made with 2nd hand shops but she can live off it.

I find it very important that the goods are well presented. I have gone into a shop and turned right around again if it was untidy and too full. Less is more.

Original poster
amidaiwish · 11/11/2007 23:21

thank you all so much, you've been really helpful.

now any mums in Twickenham/Teddington area of SW London... would you come to a baby shop selling second hand clothes as part of the offer? Do you know of any others in the area?

OP posts:
pipsqueak · 11/11/2007 23:29

we have one here and it works in the same way as littlerach describes -seems succesful but it is very near a primary school in a quite green eco friendly area where people are happy to pay the same for a nice second hand good qulality item as the tat from tesco/asda etc . shopowner decides which items she will accept based on her knowledge of what will sell and keeps 50% of selling price, - she decides how much to charge for teh tiem as well. i use the shop a lot and sell stuff and use the proceeds to but more stuff . good luck if you decide to go ahead. - oh -should ahve added she does toys too.

Original poster
amidaiwish · 12/11/2007 08:42

thanks pipsqueak...

i think i'll do a new maternity/baby goods shop which also has an area for "nearly new" children's clothes (up to say age 6) and some maternity wear.

i've been doing the sums and due to the low cost per item of children's wear, i'd have to sell a thousand items a month to cover costs so i think it's an add-on rather than a sole shop.

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countryhousehotel · 12/11/2007 08:49

I know a couple of shops one in London (north) and one in Wiltshire who do this, also I know a few in London that do adults clothes and none of them give money upfront, you get your share (mainly 50%) when the goods sell - all the shops I know have different policies on how long they will display. One of them I know has a policy on what to accept and when so for example last time i was there they had a sign saying that they weren't accepting any more summer items, all they wanted were coats, scarves, jumpers etc etc. One of the shops won't accept any supermarket clothes (my sister tried to take cherokee not realisng where it was from!). Also, the childrens shops do books, toys and equipment in addition to clothes. It's probably the only way to make it work financially.

hana · 12/11/2007 08:52

amidaiwish - I know the place you're talking about (in Teddington) that closed down. There also used to be one in St Margarets (called Yummy Tots, affiliated with Yummy MUmmy - both of which have closed down) I'm not so sure I'd go tbh - there are 2 children's charity shops close to me that have decent things at reasonable prices, and there is a brisk trade with the nct nearly new sales, and also the hampton mum sales. ( same location as the nearly new sales)
probably not what you want to hear)