Long time gone...
I have been busy with other business and this was the first time in a long while that I was able to get to the flea market and set up the old booth. I got some new stuff and some tried and true merchandise (watches - what else? :-) )
I was suprised at the results. I got watches and sunglasses (which sold well, of course) But I had mixed results on my new stuff. Ladies tops (shelf pulls, returns, etc.), baby clothes (same), and finally blue jeans (used).
I expected the baby clothes to move boldly, the jeans to move, and I wasn't sure about the women's clothing. First off... let me say, I got this new (so to speak) clothing from a place I found through a web search. The site: http://www.lowestpricedclothing.com was an interesting site... I was very hopeful and excited from reading the site and the customer testimonials. Unfortunately, first looks can be deceiving. First off, They only take money orders, checks,wired money, and oddly - American express ONLY. (why not all major credit cards?) This company is located in Brooklyn NY. I decided to do the 'check' option, realizing it takes a few days to clear... It ended up taking nearly 2 WEEKS to get my stuff!! I ordered 1 box of jeans (60, supposedly 'mixed mens/womens', various sizes), 1 box of shirts (120 - no indication of size, style, mens or womens), and 1 box of baby clothes (100, mixed)
Now comes the disappointing part... first off, I only received the shirts and baby clothes at first! Next, the boxes looked like they were packed by monkeys! They were literally FALLING APART! After numerous calls to both the company and fedex, the jeans arrived 1 day before I was due to go to market. Next off - the jeans were supposed to be '60 mixed', I ended up with 34, mostly WOMENS, mostly size 34 waist and under!! Again, the box was in atrocious shape... I called the company back and they said they must have been stolen in transit. Riiight. I said just send the replacements with my next order... well, after this weekend there may be no reorder.
I sold maybe 1/3 of the shirts (all women's styles btw), but get this... only 4 jeans and only 2 baby clothes. Yeah - 4 and 2 ! I would have expected baby clothes to sell like hotcakes at the flea market. Now, I only marked all my stuff up about 100%, so the baby clothes were $2 each, the jeans $5 each, and the shirts $3 each. (well, a little more than 100%, but nowhere NEAR what the 'testimonials' on their website implied.) I like to sell for less than my competitors, and I consider myself a good face to face salesman, but these products just did NOT move!
Well, let's just say - lesson learned! I'm gonna mark them down next week and see if that helps. I'm also not going to wait for another order... I'm going to get the rest of my jeans and then see if I can sell what I've got. Trial and error to see how to move these 'hot' items.
Anyone out there have experience with http://www.lowestpricedclothing.com feel free to post a comment, and let me know if you had luck with them. Thanks!
Chris M.
Owner - CCG Sales and the smallbizlinks blog
