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

[amidaiwish]

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!!

There used to be a shop like that in Teddington, which sold childrens clothes, toys, equipment, etc. They would display clothes, etc for a set period of time and give the seller a percentage if they sold. Otherwise you had to collect them or they went to charity. It was popular but closed due to a big rent increase. Remember that you will also be competing against NCT sales as well as ebay

x post!

thanks everyone, i am more than happy to hear negative comments too... better now than this time next year when it's going wrong!

what are the hampton mum sales? I hadn't heard of that.

i wouldn't want to do something similar to Mum & Me in Teddington as that was a bit of a junk shop tbh. My idea is evolving into a baby shop with an area for nearly new.... as well as new (but not designer new as there is already a v expensive children's clothes shop in Teddington).

yes you know their rent went from £16k a year to £50k!!

not surprisingly it is now an estate agents...

I use two shops like this -- one in quite an affluent area of London and the other in a run-down inner-city area. Both work on the principle you are describing, though the inner-city one don't discuss pricing, they just take the items and you come by a few months later to pick up the cash for items that have sold, so the process is not very transparent.

I sell my higher-grade stuff on ebay (eg. mini-boden) and only take to the second-hand shop things that aren't worth while putting on ebay individually (books, toys and clothes like H&M that don't fetch high prices on ebay).

You need to consider storage as well -- both the shops I use have big storage problems as people bring things out of season which you can't sell for 6 months. Alternatively you could inspect all items before accepting, and only take stuff in the appropriate season. The Hackney shop also sells baby equipment, much of which is bulky, eg. cots, travel cots, buggies, kids bikes.

I think it can be a viable idea, but you need to finesse it accurately for the area that you're in. Have you considered training to sell start-rite shoes as well? That will always get punters in, if there isn't another outlet locally, and makes it look more upmarket.

Maybe you should trawl round similar shops in different areas? The ones I know are Merry go Round in Clarence Road in Hackney, and Little Angel (or something) in Highgate.

hth

amidaiwish... 'a thousand items a month to cover costs'
Is that before you pay yourself anything?
Thank goodness you're doing your research so thoroughly - I bet there are people who dive into this sort of venture and get their fingers burned.

but if you're selling new things and nearly new things - pepople might not be interested in the new things -

I think you're right that the 2nd hand thing isn't an issue in upmarket areas. I remember when my boys were at primary school - all the mums who came to school in Mercedes/Ferraris/whatever other posh make you can think of were happy to use the 2nd hand uniform shop, school trousers from Tescos and shoes from Clarks. It was the hard up ones who felt the need to have brand new uniform, trousers flouting the uniform code from some 'designer' label and horrible trainers. (Either Nike Air or those horrid Nike 90s that 8 year old boys are so keen on!)

Yes - the wealthy middle classes are very happy to 'recycle' clothing!

yes fortyplus i agree. the richer my friends are the more likely they are to be buying second hand. they just don't see it is an issue - for clothes anyway.

and yes, that is before i pay myself anything. £6000 a month turnover is break even for a small shop in Teddington! so probably more than a thousand items a month in fact.

now, from what hana said - is it a good idea to have an area of nearly new clothes in what is essentially a "new" baby goods shop.

You're right fortyplus; we're comfortably off (not a boast, just a fact). I'd have no hesitation whatsoever buying 2nd hand clothes, either from a charity shop or a dedicated 2nd hand children's shop. Ds3 has gone to nursery this morning wearing a barely worn charity shop shirt which looks really good and cost me 50p.

ds1 (at one of the UK's most expensive schools) is wearing a second hand blazer - he seems to have grown every time we turn round and look at him ! It's just very wasteful to buy everything new esp for teens and toddlers who grow so fast.

Oh and at dd's school - I'm going to go all Xenia and tell you it has a lake ! - you should see the scrum at the second hand uniform sales.

Amidawish, is there anything else you could do to get people through the door without paying too much for more staff (eg hairdressing would need a good stylist); the shoe fitting is one example ? A loyalty scheme maybe - eg on your 4th purchase your child gets to choose a small toy; you could buy a wholesale box of cheap toys on ebay maybe.

It just seems that the margins aren't very generous even if you sell new as well as old clothes.

there is a Johnson's shoe shop almost next door to the shop i'm considering, plus a "one more step" (can't quite remember) more upmarket shoe shop very close by too so no opening for shoe fitting.

the more i look into it, the more i think the nearly new bit is an "add on" which will drive traffic to the shop (and from the sounds of it won't alter the target market - those that buy baby goods etc new also are happy to buy second hand, it's not a £ or class thing)

hairdressing - there really isn't the space either. i would want the shop to be quite "community" driven with a big noticeboard area and things like that. Otherwise we'll just end up in John Lewis land.

oh I'd get shoes from you, some of the women at Johnson's are so grumpy and rude!

why, thank you.
i would try not to be grumpy or rude!

I use a shop like this.

They only accept used clothes that are in season - IYKWIM - and they accept clothes that still have labels attached all year round - which will help with any storage issues.

The one that I use is open really wierd hours (its opposite a primary school and opens around their droppping off/picking up times) and I sometimes wonder if its more of a hobby for the woman involved that a prophitable job! There's no way it could finance her car for example!

Could you consider a baby friendly coffee shop/meeting place or is the premesis too small?

Good Luck

the premises i'm looking at is too small...
my original idea was a baby/toddler cafe - there are a couple of good ones in Clapham. maybe i'll go back to that plan! problem is for that you need a lot of staff and a really big space.

I hate Johnsons too - the last few times I've been in there they've measured my DDs feet and then said 'we've only got these in her size', no choice at all, they only ever seem to have one pair of shoes in her size!

But considering Teddington also has a One Small Step, and are so close to Richmond and Kingston I'd be worried that a third children's shoe shop (or shoe area in a shop) wouldn't do that well. Also, as has already been mentioned, there is already a high-end children's clothes shop in Teddington. Personally, I am very happy to buy decent second hand clothes so if you think you can make enough £ doing it, then I'd stick with that.

Or, open an indoor soft play area with cafe, imho that's what Teddington really needs, although I expect the rents are prohibitively high.

don't you think teddington needs a baby shop which sells:

pregnancy range (maternity wear)
newborn gifts
baby wear
grobags
buggysnuggles
frozen organic baby food

or is it just too close to Kingston?
it seems every other shopping centre has one but not Teddington, despite a lot of babies.

i do agree with the indoor soft play/cafe. it would have to be way out of the town centre to get enough space. The rents are high but also the rates are 50% of the rents again.

We have a second hand children's shop locally. They display for a month. If it sells, you get 40%, if it doesn't you get it back. I only used them to sell once as I wasn't impressed by only getting 40% - I now only sell at NCT sales. Our local shop sells equipment and toys too and seems to make most of its money from those. They frequently have signs in the window saying they're not taking clothes at the moment but they're always asking for toys.

I agree on maternity wear. Regarding baby gifts, remember that there are already a lot of 'gifty' shops in Teddington, quite a few of which sell baby gifts. I'm particularly thinking of the one almost opposite tesco near the Shooting Star Hospice shop and the two small-ish toy/gift shops just past where Mum and Me used to be. There is also the toy shop just down from Tescos which sells some baby things.

I think what you are proposing does sound like a lovely shop but I think you'd have to do a lot of research into whether you'd make enough money to cover the costs. TBH if I want a baby gift at the moment then i go to one of those or to Kingston.

I do like your idea of frozen baby food, but a lot of the supermarkets now do upmarket ranges or organic prepared food so again I'm not sure whether you'd sell enough.

I hope I'm not putting too much of a 'downer' on this, just giving my honest opinions - opening some sort of baby/todler enterprise in Teddington has een on my mind as well but I'm put off by the exorbitant rents and rates.

Baby/toddler cafe selling quality 2nd hand stuff with soft play area! That would suit everyone - they'd be queuing out of the door!

thanks - i am really keen to get the downside before i plough my cash in!

Pinocchio has closed down by the way (the purple gift shop).

do you want to open a soft play area together? seriously...

I love the idea of a 2nd hand shop with cafe/playarea. There is a church cafe in Perth with an area sectioned off with a little fence so that the lo can play. It is great because you can sit in peace and have a coffee.

The 2nd hand shop I go to has some new clothes, she buys odd lots so does not always have all sizes. The clothes are cheaper than in normal stores though, so it is worth it.

I think the important thing is to be really picky with what you accept so you are not paying for storage space which basically costs you money for no return.

I'd love to open a soft play area with cafe, selling homemade cakes and meals for toddlers, mums, dads and babies.

Fortyplus' idea of having a second hand sale area (or even a new area) is a really good one. It would bring people into the cafe/play and people that came to eat/play might also browse while they are there

Amida, now I'm wondering if I already know you...?!

We could meet up for a coffee and a chat about it if you like?

really? yes let's meet up! give me a clue..