Keeping Thrift Store Inventory Fresh

Turning merchandise is an important key in any retail operation.

Thrift customers are loyal shoppers. Many stop at their favorite stores several times a week. Those shoppers are looking for something fresh and different. One of the greatest sins a thrift merchant can commit is to let inventory become stale.

Something I noticed at a store I took over a few years ago was a lack of frequent shoppers. Early on I happened to bump into a reseller I knew, I asked him why he wasn’t coming by. He said “It’s always the same old stuff”. At that location it was true. That store was putting more effort into rearranging goods already on the floor than putting fresh merchandise out. It wasn’t even good merchandising, just rearranging things.

It wasn’t long after we purged stale goods and got a steady stream of fresh product on the floor that resellers and frequent shoppers came back. Sales went way up.

A core tenant of a vibrant thrift store is regularly purging the sales floor of goods that have had plenty of opportunities to sell. How long something should be on the sales floor varies depending on the type of merchandise, available space, season of the year, available fresh inventory, and store traffic.

A store full of stuff that has been shopped and passed over time and time again will quickly turn into a de-facto storage facility. If you are in the business of selling stuff your focus is on moving not storing it.

Successful thrift stores tend to have a loyal base that stops in often.

Regulars have a category or two that they are particularly interested in and check-in detail on every visit. They tend to calibrate their visits to their idea of how regularly they feel the sales floor is replenished. I knew a shoe guy, yes guy, that came in every day when he saw a lot of fresh shoes coming to the floor regularly. When we had a slow patch of donations and didn’t have as much to put out he suddenly came in less often. Some people seem to have a sixth sense about these things.

My suggestion is to have and stick to a rotation. New stuff going to the floor is great, old stuff coming off the floor is just as important.

Turning, not storing goods is key to the thrift business.

A final thought…

If you want customers to come back more often give them lots of reasons to. Fresh ones.

Thrift is business, we succeed when we treat it that way.

Thanks for reading!

I’m a thrift and retail business expert located near Chicago, helping small businesses grow and succeed. You can find me onLinkedIn, Medium, and my thrift reseller blog The Thrifter.

You might also be interested in myThrift Merchandising ebook on Amazon. It’s about how to merchandise thrift stores more like traditional stores. It’s free with a Kindle Unlimited membership.

Tim Gebauer