What About Out of Season Goods
A thoughtful seasonal save program can dramatically increase sales.
They come in all the time, winter coats in August, shorts in February, Christmas, and Halloween Décor all year. They all have value, but that value varies widely from month to month.
Many winter coats that are worth fifty cents as salvage in the summer can sell for ten dollars or more in November. Unfortunately, some are worth their salvage value no matter when they are donated.
Every item in a retail store is an asset, no matter the flavor. Big box, specialty, or thrift, it’s the same. For-profit or not-for-profit, has a responsibility to get good value out of inventory assets. Even a winter coat or Halloween costume.
Saving out of season goods in order to meet customer demand in-season honors the donor, better serves the retail customer, and generates more profit.
I have personally seen huge sales increases as a direct result of saving out of season goods for their season.
In the coat example, if selling in August gets fifty cents but in November it brings five or ten dollars why not save it? Who wouldn’t buy a stock that would increase by ten times or more in six months?
It isn’t quite that simple as there are added costs to sorting, storing, and transporting goods that are packed away for months. Even if those costs cut that profit margin in half it’s still a huge win. It’s actually a lot less than half.
What to do?
Stores that process most if not all of their donations can easily train processors to save quality out-of-season goods. They are already trained in accept/reject criteria. The tricky part is often where to put seasonal saves in already tight processing spaces. It’s definitely a logistics issue that has to be worked through.
OK, it boils down to space. Where to put stuff you have to save for months. Most thrift operating backrooms are tight, to say the least. That said I have never been in a back room that didn’t have at least a little wasted space. Stuff that had been piled in a corner and forgotten. Space that could be used better. Sometimes it’s about figuring out how to use vertical space.
One possibility is leasing extra storage space. There is definitely a cost/benefit to consider. Most of the time the investment pays off. When physically possible it’s the right thing to do.
If POS is involved when to tag is a consideration. If systems support it I advocate for tagging them going into storage. That way when goods are flying off the shelf it’s just a matter of getting things to the floor quickly. Pre tagging reduces disruption to everyday ongoing operations. Not every system supports that.
Pre-tagging Halloween, in particular, makes a huge difference in a store’s overall operation in those last few weeks of October. So much Halloween is selling that diverting everyday processing to that one department can disrupt the entire rest of the store. The result can be just trading everyday dollars for Halloween dollars. If one department is pre-tagged I suggest Halloween.
Halloween and Christmas are two very big opportunities everywhere.
A thoughtful seasonal save program can increase sales as well as revenue per donation.
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