Growing Profit in Thrift With Kaizen — D.O.W.N.T.I.M.E. What do Kaizen and Lean have to do with thrift or second-hand stores? Thrift receives random stuff and has to turn that stuff into an organized retail store. Anyway, aren’t those manufacturing concepts? Kaizen and Lean aren’t just for factories anymore. In…

Part 1 of a series. What do Kaizen and Lean have to do with thrift? Thrift receives random stuff and has to turn that stuff into an organized retail store. Anyway, aren’t those manufacturing concepts? Kaizen and Lean aren’t just for factories any more. When a second-hand operation accepts goods…

How much is a quarter worth? Take your number of items sold last month and add twenty-five cents to your average price per item. One of my stores sells around 15,000 pieces a month. Multiply a quarter over a year and you get $45,000. In one store. What does $45,000…

Great art in thrift retail is pricing. Regularly getting it right the first time is high art. It’s always a balance, good value for the donation, and good value to the shopper. Sell it fast and cheap or slow and for the most possible. …

One Quiet Volunteer That Kept Showing Up Recently I locked the doors of a thrift store for the last time. Somehow that last click had a sound and feeling of finality. The details of why we lost our lease might be a post for another day. …

About every employee survey ever puts communication at or near the top. The big organizational meetings are nice, newsletters serve a purpose, videos can communicate. The majority of that communication is from the top down. Actual communication happens when it goes both ways. One of the simplest things is a…

Show up for the job, stay for the culture. There is only so much that an be learned about a business from the outside. Especially when it comes to smaller operations. It’s said the job candidates only show their highlight reel, the same is true of employers. I started a…

Customers Notice The last and potentially best interaction with a customer is at the checkout. They are giving you money for stuff. The most basic equation of business. Why not make sure it’s positive? Next time you check out at a store, look behind and around the register area. Only…