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…

It started innocently enough. You agreed to hang out with me, for a price. Like every relationship, we found a balance. We spent almost every day together for five-ish years, you did your part I did mine. Looking back it was nothing more than a relationship of convenience. Eventually, our…

Thrift donors and their stuff are a thrift operation’s lifeblood. It doesn’t matter if it’s a well-loved band tee shirt, toys, hand tools, whatever. It’s our job to find a second life for as many items as we can while funding a cause. Often a thrift operation is solving a…

I grew up in a conservative Baptist church. So conservative the Southern Baptists were practically considered Satanists. That was well before they proved they might be with recent revelations. At a minimum, it verged on being a cult. Now that I think of it, sexual shenanigans were going on there…

The winners and losers in shorts make no sense at all. I recently day-tripped to Downtown Chicago and shot a bunch of random short videos with my iPhone 7. Yes, 7. In case you don’t know the video quality of a 7 is nothing compared to what is out there…

That may be what is on the side of their trucks, but it’s a secondary business. They are doing everything they can to turn the customer into a commodity. Much like Facebook does so well. Here is the deal: I ordered a super cool new iPhone from Verizon to ship to my house. It’s…

Everyone in the consumer products supply chain is using inflation as an excuse to charge more, a lot more. It’s creating a self-perpetuating loop of price increases that are killing us at the cash register. The store-made bakery goods pictured above were, until recently, $5. For the exact. Same. Thing…

This isn’t a recycling article. It’s a turns and profit article. In some ways it’s the same calculation traditional retail makes, just with different time lines and scale. Every item on a sales floor is using space, time and money. Any successful retailer gets a return on those investments. Too…