The Importance of Good Thrift Store Impressions

Customers shop where they feel good and welcome, thrift, antique, consignment, or traditional retail. It's all the same.

Target likes to call its customers guests. That’s a great way to look at everyone that walks in the door. Target is arguably neater, cleaner, and easier to shop than its major competitors.

The sidewalk, entrance area, even windows, and glass set the tone that influences the first opinions of your customers and potential customers.

Give this a try:

Next time you arrive at your store, instead of pondering all the things you have to do, stop, and reset yourself. Walk-in with first-time customer eyes. From the parking lot on ask yourself: What will the customer see? Are you happy with your answer? If so great, have a good reflection of what you are going for. If not, why and what are you going to do about it? Keep that mindset as you walk your store for the first time that day.

Thrift stores and antique shops sometimes have a reputation for being messy, unorganized, and even dirty. In some places that are deserved. Sadly, those few stores foster that bad rap for everyone.

It has long been my opinion that thrift stores and their antique store cousins can be clean and neat with well-presented merchandise. The ones that do so well and consistently are nicer places to work, sell more goods at higher average prices. In short, they make more money. I have done it myself and helped others many times.

Customers start forming opinions as they walk in the front door.

I happened to stop into one of the well-known thrift brands on a recent trip in Florida. I just needed a backpack. I usually see stores by this brand that are good to amazing. This time my first bad impressions were confirmed throughout the store. Everything was bad. Dirty windows and floors, seemingly no standards in what was put on the floor to sell, no help on the floor, no organization. There was even a reseller stocking shelves hoping they would bring more out.

So I walked in the backroom to see what’s up, because, well, why not. Worst of all was this lonely, demoralized, and overwhelmed employee. He deserved a raise just for showing up that day. He was supposed to take in donations, sort, and price things to the sales floor. The back room was a bigger mess than the sales floor. Not surprisingly the store wasn’t busy on a Saturday.

I didn’t even want to touch anything so I went across the street to Target for my backpack. There is no chance I’ll ever visit that particular store again.

Then I was in a thrift store in Oregon that was cleaner and better merchandised than many department stores. They even colorize their wicker! You could eat off the floors in the back room. It turned out that the store does over five million dollars a year in sales in an average size store. They win because they don’t think like a thrift store.

Setting an inviting, clean tone encourages customers to stay and spend. They will likely do more of both in stores with high standards throughout.

3 things to consider:

Clean, few things make a store look more inviting than clean. In a grocery store or thrift store, clean means something. Windows, doors, floor fixtures, checkout areas.

Well merchandised end caps and features. Themed, current, and full end caps do a lot to help second impressions.

Seasonally correct. When it’s Christmas do Christmas and so on. Make it easy for customers to find what they are looking for.

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