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Mitzi Bess doesn't just run a store specializing in the secondhand – the owner of Bel-Holly Trends applies recycling to her business practices, too.
Witness the tidy stack of memo sheets next to the register: It's scrap office paper torn into quarters. That's an example of a small step Bess has taken to keep expenses down at her consignment shop, in a 109-year-old building on Main Street in Mount Holly.
Bess opened the boutique in November 2006 and sells clothing, jewelry, housewares, small pieces of furniture and children's and vintage items. She says she's glad she had time to build a customer base before the recession hit.
Though the economic downturn has prompted more interest in consignment shopping and brought in new faces, Bess said, loyal customers keep her going. About four out of 10 new customers buy something, she estimates, and she gets the sense they're really doing their homework and checking out multiple stores.
Shops that sell new items are also providing competition by occasionally discounting clothes so deeply that shoppers have less incentive to buy used, she said.
Sales are up slightly for the year, but the number of people dropping off stuff to sell has soared roughly 40 percent – so much, Bess said, that in early June she had to stop accepting new items for the first time ever. She'll resume at Labor Day, when she'll shift toward fall and winter items.
Bess has trimmed spending since last fall to help cover her fixed costs, taxes and upkeep. In December, she got rid of her barely used fax line, and she also reduced her phone plan. To save on fees, she downsized from two city trash bins to one. She also plans on getting rid of her credit card terminal, which she pays to rent and use for payment processing, when its contract expires in October. Since last fall, she said, most of her sales have been in cash.
Because Bess doesn't have enough money to advertise, she depends on word of mouth. She also strives for personalized service, providing suggestions on alternate uses for products and alerting certain customers when, say, someone the same size and body shape drops off clothes.
She hopes all of that will help carry the shop forward, so she can continue to help one-of-a-kind items reach good homes. “I love what I do,” she said. “I love meeting the people. I love helping them find new things.… It just takes the right person to come in here.”
