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  • Lori Pattison

Key Benefits of Adding an In-Store Radio System to Your Thrift Store
Key Benefits of Adding an In-Store Radio System to Your Thrift Store 1200 628 Lori Pattison

Key Benefits of Adding an In-Store Radio System to Your Thrift Store

By James Conley, National Store Support Manager  

Sets the mood for your store

By selecting the correct music for your store, you can create an inviting environment for your customers and give them a more enjoyable experience while shopping. You can add different genres of music playing at various times of day to appeal to your customer base.

Promote Sales/Color Rotations

You can inform your customers of current sales, upcoming sales, current color rotations, St. Vincent de Paul Society’s community programs, all through ads, promotions, etc., that can be created to play in between songs. This will help guide your customers throughout the store.

Increase Shopping Time

Studies have shown music, and promotions increase your customers’ shopping time, which adds to your average ticket price. By nature, customers wait for the next ad, the next promotion, to make sure they are getting the best deals.

Build Our Brand

What better way to promote all the programs St. Vincent de Paul has to offer than through ads that you can customize to play on your radio system. What is your local St Vincent de Paul doing? What events do you have coming up? Are you hiring? What benefits are there to working for St. Vincent de Paul? These are all ways to build the brand of St. Vincent de Paul.

Employee Morale

“Take care of your employees and they will take care of the business.”  Music is always a great way to boost employee morale. Have fun with it!!  Create some competition to allow employees to pick a favorite station if they win, etc.

Commercial Free

The best part of My In Store Radio is that it is commercial free! No unwanted ads! Only the ads you want your customers to hear!!!!

Music plays a significant role in our society, not only in retail, but in overall health. It helps to relieve stress and anxiety and create a feeling of well-being for our employees, volunteers, and our customers. It also can trigger feelings of pleasure and well-being, which in a retail setting increases total spending!

If you would like more information, you are welcome to contact My In Store Radio at (646) 968-0339.

We encourage you to check out other SVdP National Partners here: (https://members.ssvpusa.org/fundraising-development/national-partners/)

If you have questions or have a topic for a future Stores Corner article, please email our Director of Stores Support-Jeff Beamguard at jbeamguard@svdpusa.org.

 

  • Lori Pattison

Budgeting, Forecasting, & Measuring Your Way to Profitability
Budgeting, Forecasting, & Measuring Your Way to Profitability 1200 628 Lori Pattison

By Paul Ihlenfeldt, Director of Operations – North Central Region

At our National Assembly in August, we presented material on how to use data to measure productivity. I thought it would be appropriate to provide a detailed recap of the presentation and highlight several key strategies.

The non-profit thrift environment can be extremely unpredictable. You’re not always sure how much you are going to receive in donations and cannot always predict how or when it is going to sell. But we can reference trends and use those trends to plan and budget for improvement. If we do not establish a goal for improvement, we will not achieve improvement. We will only repeat what we have done and eventually lose what we have gained.

Our thrift stores not only provide low-cost products for our friends in need, but they also provide a significant amount of funding for our various programs that provide the support our Neighbors in Need (NIN) depend on. We have a huge responsibility to ensure our stores are consistently profitable and can continue to support the St Vincent de Paul mission in serving others.

The following is a high-level road map of key areas of focus to assist you in achieving success in your planning.

First, you will need to implement the color tag rotation and use a POS pricing system that can capture the data. The POS systems most commonly used are Thriftworks and Secure Retail. They both can provide sufficient data to be used in analyzing the key components of your business.

Second, if you have not already, you need to create a profit & loss statement for your stores. The financials should be broken out by store and totaled and summed together to understand the health of the organization’s profit/support centers. Profit & Loss (P&L) tells a story, and we should be reviewing that “story” monthly. The fundamental equation for the P&L is:

Revenue – Cost = Net Operating Revenue

Work with your accounting firm or your own in-house financial leadership to create this business tool if you are not already using it.

Budget Sales:

What do you want to achieve? Look at trends and what contributed to those trends and start with determining the revenue budget. Are there external factors? Road construction, weather, pandemic, lack of good applicants to fill open positions? Or are there internal factors? Inefficiencies in production, not enough produced causing high sell-through, employees taking vacations, not enough donations? If you correct these issues, how much more revenue will you generate? Put a plan in place to fix the correctable and budget the benefit.

Budget Expenses:

Start with payroll, which is your largest expense. Your store wages should be approximately 40% of its revenue. When including administrative payroll, your organization’s payroll should be approximately 50% of the revenue. Now, based on the revenue budget, you can determine the number of full-time equivalents or FTE’s you can employ. Always ask yourself, is the added payroll adding value and will the revenue cover the expense?

Review the Key Areas of Support:

I recommend looking at 5 key areas of production.

  1. Donations
  2. Warehouse/Logistics/Recycling
  3. Pricing
  4. Utility/Sales Floor Support
  5. Cashiers

Your revenue budget will drive what you need to support these areas of production. Pricing is the key position, and this is where we specifically refer to the metrics (financials) to understand the number of pricers needed to support our sales plan.

  • You can only budget more revenue if you have enough donations. Track the daily number of donors dropping off donations. The number of gaylords/containers you fill and the number the pricers empty. Remember those donations are free and are valuable in support of our mission.
  • Depending on the amount of donations and kind of donations, are you able to transport and store those items efficiently and effectively.
  • Determine the units needed to get you to your sales plan. We use this formula to forecast our production units:
    • Units=1.43(X*Y)
    • X=Units sold last year
    • Y=1. (your budgeted percent increase as a decimal)
      • Example: for a 7% increase would be 1.07
    • 43 coefficient X your forecasted units allows you to achieve 70% sell thru.
  • Determine the number of hours to allocate to pricing.
    • Hours=X/Y
      • X=Units to be priced to meet goal
      • Y=Hourly production target for pricer.
    • How many utility teammates do you need to run the carts to fill the floor? Determine the number of carts that can be put out per hour and set those goals with your team.
    • Based on the sales plan, do you have enough registers and cashiers to effectively move customers through the registers? Determine a maximum number of customers in line to call for assistance.

In conclusion, effective budgeting, forecasting, and measurement are essential for navigating the unpredictable landscape of the non-profit thrift environment. By setting clear improvement goals and utilizing data-driven strategies, we can transform challenges into opportunities for growth.

The practices outlined—such as implementing a robust POS system, developing detailed profit and loss statements, and strategically budgeting for both revenue and expenses—are vital in ensuring the sustainability of our thrift stores.

Your stores not only provide affordable goods to those in need but also generate crucial funding for our programs that support the community.

As we focus on key areas like donations, logistics, pricing, and customer service, we empower our teams to operate more efficiently and effectively.

Ultimately, our commitment to continuous improvement and careful financial management will allow us to uphold the St. Vincent de Paul mission, ensuring that we can serve NIN for years to come. Let us take these insights forward, implementing actionable plans that lead to sustained profitability and greater impact in our communities.

If you have questions or have a topic for a future Stores Corner article, please email our Director of Stores Support-Jeff Beamguard at jbeamguard@svdpusa.org.

  • Lori Pattison

Smart Shopping: The Benefits of Online Supply Shopping for Thrift Stores
Smart Shopping: The Benefits of Online Supply Shopping for Thrift Stores 1200 628 Lori Pattison

By Viktoriya Kotyash, Store Manager – West Region – Diocese of Sacramento

Many stores still rely on petty cash rather than business credit or debit cards for purchasing supplies. They designate employees or volunteers to visit local store chains to buy general supplies. This can be beneficial to support local stores that support your store’s mission.  When this isn’t the case, stores can greatly benefit from having products delivered rather than making these purchases in person. Here are a few reasons why you should consider it:

Safety Benefits:

  1. Reduced Liability: Employees and volunteers face lower risk of theft and accidents while traveling, especially in unfamiliar or dangerous areas and bad weather.
  2. Lower Risk of Injury: Heavy lifting, navigating crowded stores, or dealing with bulky items can lead to injuries. Online ordering allows items to be delivered directly, minimizing the need for physically handling them until they arrive.

Other Benefits:

  1. Time Efficiency: Staff and volunteers can focus on the store’s mission and operations rather than spending time shopping for supplies. This efficiency can lead to better allocation of human resources.
  2. Cost Savings: Online shopping often provides access to competitive prices, tax exemptions for non-profits, discounts, and bulk purchasing options, which can help stretch the store’s budget further.
  3. Wider Selection: Online platforms usually offer a broader range of products, including specialized items that may not be available locally. This can be particularly useful for finding specific types of equipment or supplies.
  4. Streamlined Inventory Management: Online ordering systems often offer features like automatic reordering, tracking of past purchases, and inventory management tools.
  5. Convenience: Online ordering allows for easy comparison of products, prices, and reviews, enabling more informed purchasing decisions without the need to physically visit multiple stores.

Retailers to consider: 

  1. Amazon Business: (National Partner)

-Offers bulk purchasing options and discounts on a wide range of products.

– Free shipping on eligible items with a Business Prime account and quick delivery at times as soon as the same or next day.

– Access to business-only pricing and analytics tools to track spending and optimize purchases.

–The Amazon Tax Exception Program (ATEP)

Best For: General supplies, office equipment, cleaning products, and miscellaneous items.

  1. Sam’s Club or Costco:

– Access to bulk purchasing, which is ideal for stocking up on essentials at a lower cost.

– Savings on shipping with business memberships.

Best For: Bulk items, office equipment and supplies, and janitorial supplies.

  1. Uline:

– Offers a wide variety of essential items like shelving, storage bins, and packing materials.

– Fast shipping and dedicated customer service for businesses.

Best For: Production equipment, shelving, storage solutions, and cleaning supplies.

  1. Store Supply Warehouse (National Partner)

– Specializing in store fixtures, displays, and retail supplies.

– Known for their wide selection, competitive prices, and customer service tailored to the needs of small businesses, including thrift stores.

-Special pricing and branded items for SVdP.

Best For: Mannequins, clothing racks, shelving units, hangers, and other items necessary for retail stores.

  1. Magnalite Catholic – SVdP (National Partner)

– Offering St. Vincent de Paul branded merchandise.

Best For: Prayer cards, medals, banners, and branded clothing or linen.

  1. Grainger:

– Extensive inventory of industrial supplies, tools, and safety equipment.

– Offers fast shipping and bulk purchasing options.

– Specialized products that are often difficult to find elsewhere.

Best For: Maintenance supplies, safety equipment, and industrial tools.

  1. Home Depot or Lowe’s:

– Large selection of tools, hardware, and building materials.

– Discount programs and credit lines available for businesses.

– Online ordering with in-store pickup options.

Best For: Tools, hardware, building supplies, and fixtures.

  1. Nonprofit-Specific Suppliers: TechSoup (technology and software) and Good360 (surplus goods).

– These suppliers cater specifically to nonprofits, offering deep discounts on software, hardware, office supplies, and more.

– TechSoup provides software and technology at a fraction of the retail price.

– Good360 offers access to donated goods from major corporations.

Best For: Technology, office supplies, and donated goods.

By leveraging these retailers, stores can maximize their budgets, streamline operations, and access a wide variety of equipment and supplies.

If retailers are interested in learning how to become a National Partner, encourage them to reach out to Director of Stores Support Jeff Beamguard.

__________________________________________________________________________

These best practices and processes are available through the revised National Store Committee website, https://thriftstores.ssvpusa.org.

National Store Committee members are available in each of your regions as mentors and guides to assist you. https://thriftstores.ssvpusa.org/about-us.

If you have a topic that you would like addressed in a future Stores Corner article, please e-mail our Director of Stores Support Jeff Beamguard at jbeamguard@svdpusa.org.

 

 

  • Pam Hudson

Your Store Operation – A Daily Living, Working Journey in Faith
Your Store Operation – A Daily Living, Working Journey in Faith 1200 628 Pam Hudson

By Rick Bologna, Austin Diocesan Council Stores Director – South Central Region

Is your store whizzing along and doing well or struggling to survive? Either scenario, your store operation is a daily living prayer, a journey in faith!

From Vincentian volunteers, hired staff, donors, vendors, Council/Conference leadership and customers alike, each individual and day, is a gift from God.

It is all from the perspective of how you choose to view your operation. Is your operation strictly a business venture or do you find the Lord in your day-to-day operations?

In the grand scheme of your operations, there are normal mundane, operational tasks which we deal with daily. Amongst these normal day-to-day happenings, are the opportunities where we can meet the Lord.

Valued professional relationships amongst store staff, volunteers, Vincentians, and customers, are built within your organization through mindful and conscientious collaboration daily.

In life, athletics, business, and the arts, when remarkable things occur, some people may speak about luck. There is a poignant definition of luck; “when opportunity meets preparedness.”

Let us focus on the bigger picture. What is true success?

The true success we find in the ordinary of each day is in the preparedness. Each day your team is focused on taking care of the needs of that day in your store operation.

The daily mundane things do not always go perfectly; picking up donations in the truck and unloading them in the extreme heat or cold; taking in donations in various types of weather; sorting and organizing products in the warehouse; moving products throughout your campus to create space for additional arriving products; cleaning, testing, hanging, and pricing of product; the stocking of shelves and racks throughout the store; greeting customers; checking customers out at the register; building our SVdP culture through kindness; and seeking to recognize the face of Christ in every person we encounter; troubleshooting issues with computers and registers; grabbing carts from the parking lot and returning them to the store. These daily actions, your works, are the ordinary of each day. It is in these daily works where the preparedness of success is being built.

It is through the consistent ordinaries of each day that we succeed in the Lord’s work. Sure, there are times when we may not feel up to par, taking on the responsibilities for a day. Somehow, some way, we find the strength to power through. The good Lord gives us the strength to continue His works because He knows how many people are touched through our efforts and our store mission.

Your SVdP store allows people to shop and stretch their dollars for their needs. Each day’s sales are an important result, but we can choose to win every day in the Lord’s presence through the consistency and preparedness within the ordinary of each day.

It is in the ordinary where we find the extraordinary! How do we find that extraordinary? We find the extraordinary by keeping our hearts, mind, and eyes open and focused on the Lord’s presence in our lives.

A daily, living, working journey in faith!

~~~~~~

National Stores Website Resources

Proper SVdP Store Operations are critical for monetary success to advance your overall Vincentian mission of your Council or Conference.

Our stores are missions that need to be run with good business practices. These best practices and processes are available through the revised National Store Committee website, https://thriftstores.ssvpusa.org.

National Store Committee members are available in each of your regions as mentors and guides to assist you. https://thriftstores.ssvpusa.org/about-us.

~~~~~~

 

  • Pam Hudson

Resources to Open/Expand a Thrift Store
Resources to Open/Expand a Thrift Store 1200 628 Pam Hudson

Finding resources to open a new thrift store or expand/invigorate an existing operation can be easier than you think. Why do it alone?

A great way to save time, avoid undue risk, obtain expert advice and guidance is to access the SVdP National Thrift Stores website (https://thriftstores.ssvpusa.org/) where you will find a wealth of information from thrift store veterans who are glad to share their knowledge and experience with fellow Vincentians.

It takes more to open a successful thrift store than enthusiasm, hope, and a prayer. As the cliché goes, the devil is in the details.

A successful operation requires a great deal of pre-planning and investigating as well as examining sources that have the content needed. The website provides many of these answers.

The home page features expandable topical sections that include Opening Your Store; Training/Development; Resources; Merchandising; Marketing/E-Commerce, as well as a Contact Us link. Each topic has a dropdown menu that includes detailed operational examples and illustrations that can be downloaded and tweaked for your specific needs.

In addition, Production Training Videos are viewable and downloadable to assist in staff training under the Resources topic.

Video Topics include How to Take Donations; Sorting and Hanging Clothing Station; Accessories, Shoes and Linen; Houseware Pricing; Clothing Pricing; & Furniture.

Using these videos for staff training refreshes and reinforces the expectations for paid employees and volunteers. They are great tools available to your management team.

The Stores website includes detailed examples and workable charts for operational procedures, store layouts, interior and exterior signage requirements, and a variety of other resources available, just to mention a few.

The Members of the Thrift Store Committee offer direct contact options. You can find your region’s store committee member by selecting About Us in the upper right corner of the webpage above. You can also schedule a visit to a National Model Training Store for assistance. Both options provide guidance and expertise of what a successful thrift store does and how it presents our Mission and Goals.

You can contact Jeff Beamguard, Director of Stores Support at the National Office. Jeff’s email is jbeamguard@svdpusa.org or call (720) 775-5376.

——-

We hope you are planning to attend the National Assembly in August in Phoenix, AZ.

The National Stores Committee has planned a GREAT program for you.

On Wednesday, August 14, 2024, the program will include presentations from Dr. Ken Snyder with the SVdP Phoenix Dental Clinic, an update on the 2nd National Store, a Store/Conference testimonial, learn about Recycling Dilemmas, and what is happening at SVdP in Eugene, OR.

Following our daylong program, there will be two opportunities to visit the National Store in Avondale, AZ. Transportation will be provided, but reservations are required due to space limitations.

Workshops are planned for Thursday afternoon. Topics include merchandising and store layouts, making a simple budget, how to increase customer count, how to measure productivity, Point of Sale (POS) and training new employees.

We encourage you to talk to your store managers and leadership about attending the National Assembly. It is a wonderful opportunity to network with and meet others around the country to share best practices.

—-

If you have questions or have a topic for a future Stores Corner article, please email our Director of Stores Support-Jeff Beamguard at jbeamguard@svdpusa.org.

 

  • Pam Hudson

Stores Corner: Donation Partnerships
Stores Corner: Donation Partnerships 1200 628 Pam Hudson

Stores Corner: Donation Partnerships

By Mike McClanahan, Mountain Region: Diocesan Council of Phoenix

Every so often, we review donations coming into our thrift stores. We compare quantity and quality month by month, versus the previous year’s data. After a recent review, we noticed that we were trending in a negative way on thrift store donations, especially in furniture. Numbers were down versus last year’s collections. What’s causing this trend? Is it the economy, inflation and people hanging onto their furniture and clothing longer because of the economy?

How can we improve our current trend?

Then I remembered a former mentor from my corporate retail days, who had great wisdom. One of his favorite sayings was, “think like a customer.” I thought about it and decided to go to the nearest furniture store with some business cards. I talked to the store manager and I was surprised to learn what their customers ask all the time, “Will you take my old furniture once you deliver my new furnishings?” Of course, this furniture store doesn’t and therefore the customer has to either take their stuff to the dump or donate it.  I asked the store manager if I could place St. Vincent de Paul business cards by the register in a little stand-up frame with our pickup flyer with information for their customers. The store manager approved and was thrilled to be able to give to his customers an option for their old furniture.

With that win in our pocket, I proceeded to have my team of store managers go to various furniture and appliance stores to see if we could display our pickup information and business cards at their store. My team was pleasantly surprised to see every business embrace this concept and let us display our flyer and cards.

Our furniture donations have turned around in a positive way with this strategy.

Creating a win-win situation is always a great thing. We found a way to improve a negative trend and resolve an issue.

Our mission to support St Vincent de Paul will never end; sometimes it just needs a little innovation.

——-

We hope you are planning to attend the National Assembly in August in Phoenix, AZ.

The National Stores Committee has planned a GREAT program for you.

On Wednesday, August 14, 2024, the program will include presentations from Dr. Ken Snyder with the SVdP Phoenix Dental Clinic, an update on the 2nd National Store, a Store/Conference testimonial, learn about Recycling Dilemmas, and what’s happening at SVdP in Eugene, OR.

Following our daylong program, there will be two opportunities to visit the National Store in Avondale, AZ.  Transportation will be provided, but reservations are required due to space limitations.

Workshops are planned for Thursday afternoon.  Topics include merchandising and store layouts, making a simple budget, how to increase customer count, how to measure productivity, Point of Sale (POS) and training new employees.

We encourage you to talk to your store managers and leadership about attending the National Assembly.  It is a wonderful opportunity to network with and meet others around the country to share best practices.

If you have questions or have a topic for a future Stores Corner article, please email our Director of Stores Support-Jeff Beamguard at jbeamguard@svdpusa.org.

—-

  • Pam Hudson

Donation Partnerships
Donation Partnerships 1200 628 Pam Hudson

Every so often, we review donations coming into our thrift stores. We compare quantity and quality month by month, versus the previous year’s data. After a recent review, we noticed that we were trending in a negative way on thrift store donations, especially in furniture. Numbers were down versus last year’s collections. What’s causing this trend? Is it the economy, inflation and people hanging onto their furniture and clothing longer because of the economy?

How can we improve our current trend?

Then I remembered a former mentor from my corporate retail days, who had great wisdom. One of his favorite sayings was, “think like a customer.” I thought about it and decided to go to the nearest furniture store with some business cards. I talked to the store manager and I was surprised to learn what their customers ask all the time, “Will you take my old furniture once you deliver my new furnishings?” Of course, this furniture store doesn’t and therefore the customer has to either take their stuff to the dump or donate it.  I asked the store manager if I could place St. Vincent de Paul business cards by the register in a little stand-up frame with our pickup flyer with information for their customers. The store manager approved and was thrilled to be able to give to his customers an option for their old furniture.

With that win in our pocket, I proceeded to have my team of store managers go to various furniture and appliance stores to see if we could display our pickup information and business cards at their store. My team was pleasantly surprised to see every business embrace this concept and let us display our flyer and cards.

Our furniture donations have turned around in a positive way with this strategy.

Creating a win-win situation is always a great thing. We found a way to improve a negative trend and resolve an issue.

Our mission to support St Vincent de Paul will never end; sometimes it just needs a little innovation.

——-

We hope you are planning to attend the National Assembly in August in Phoenix, AZ.

The National Stores Committee is actively planning for a great program for you.

In addition to our daylong program on Wednesday, we will have opportunities to visit a store and have workshops planned for Thursday.  Topics may include small and large store issues like merchandising, budgeting, POS, advertising, training, store layouts, budgeting, staffing, volunteers, productivity, vehicle tracking, E-Comm, loyalty cards and voucher processing, vehicle tracking.

We encourage you to talk to your store managers and leadership about attending the National Assembly.  It is a wonderful opportunity to network with and meet others around the country to share best practices.

—-

If you have questions or have a topic for a future Stores Corner article, please email our Director of Stores Support-Jeff Beamguard at jbeamguard@svdpusa.org.

  • Jill Pioter

Thrift Store Staffing Models & Engagement
Thrift Store Staffing Models & Engagement 1200 628 Jill Pioter

By John Thelen, Mideast Region – Diocese of Lansing

Throughout the country, there are three SVdP Thrift Store Staffing Models. Stores are either staffed by paid employees, staffed by volunteers, or some combination of the two. Whichever staffing model is used, a key factor in a store’s success is staff engagement. If staff/volunteers are not invested in the work of our great mission, the store will not reach its full potential.

It is important for staff/volunteers to be aware of our mission. Why do we do what we do? Let us be honest, sorting socks and underwear is not a very glamorous job. However, when you know why you are doing what you are doing, it makes the most tedious jobs tolerable.

What might help keep your staff/volunteers engaged? Make sure they are aware of your store’s mission. What do you do with your store proceeds after expenses are paid? In addition to providing employment/volunteer opportunities, do you help our Neighbors in Need with clothing, furniture, and household items? Does your store have a food pantry or assist Neighbors with rent, utilities, prescriptions, car repairs, etc.? Make sure everyone is aware of the types of assistance your store provides.

Another way to increase engagement is regularly (monthly) sharing pertinent statistics that staff/volunteers might find interesting, including the total number of donations received, total number of requests for assistance, and gross sales for the month. Maybe list the statistics you would like to share by month, showing every month of the fiscal year for comparison purposes.

Celebrate your successes. You can always find a reason to provide some type of treat to your staff/volunteers.  If you hit a high month in donations or sales, put a sign in the break room and pick up Klondike Bars and tell staff/volunteers to help themselves from the freezer. Be sure to have enough to cover all shifts for a particular week. Maybe grill hot dogs/brats and provide chips when the weather is conducive to grilling. Most people like pizza — let staff know you will be providing pizza to say ‘Thank You’ for all they do to support our mission. Maybe have an annual Christmas Dinner after work and invite staff/volunteers and guests. Share a brief program letting everyone know the impact they are making to help our Neighbors in Need.

If your staffing model does not currently include volunteers, think about reaching out to your parish members to make them aware of volunteer opportunities. Personally invite parishioners to a group gathering at your store to let them know the types of volunteer activities you have available. If you are not sure who to ask, start the process by going through your parish pictorial directory. This will help recognize people that you think might be interested in supporting our SVdP mission. Another volunteer recruitment option is a short bulletin notice in neighboring parish bulletins. You might consider sending it to other denominations to collaborate with the churches in your community.

Volunteers are great advocates to tell our story in the community. If your volunteers feel engaged, they will tell/invite others to become involved. When they are engaged, they feel more committed to showing up for their shift(s). Make sure your volunteer shifts are manageable lengths of time and encourage your volunteers to take a break partway through their shift to converse and build relationships with other volunteers. Once they get to know one another, they look forward to coming in.

Provide snacks in the break room. Maybe offer individual bags of snacks, chips, crackers, fruit snacks, peanuts, pop, coffee & water.

If you have a large number of active/regular volunteers, make sure the volunteers know what they are scheduled to do when they arrive. Either post a schedule or have someone assigned to let them know what you would like them to do for their shift. To know who will be there on a particular day, create a schedule for the day/shift, so you are aware of your workforce for each shift. If volunteers know they will not be able to come on a particular shift, have a monthly wall calendar where they can note if they will not be coming for a particular shift.

Volunteers & staff can be great advocates to tell your story in the community.

Hopefully you or another SVdP Council/Conference/Store member will be attending the Mid-Year Meeting in St. Louis, MO in March. Please consider attending the Stores Meeting on Wednesday.  An agenda is included in this article. New this year will be a Stores Committee table in the Vendor area on Wednesday and Thursday. Please stop by to meet and talk with some of the Store Committee members.

If you have a topic that you would like addressed in a future Stores Corner article, please e-mail Jeff Beamguard, Director of Stores Support.

  • Jill Pioter

Pricing Strategies for SVdP Thrift Stores, Part 3
Pricing Strategies for SVdP Thrift Stores, Part 3 1500 1125 Jill Pioter

A Discussion by Dave Barringer
National Chief Executive Officer

PART THREE
Knowing What Actually Works
(catch up on Part One and Part Two)

How Do We Know What Works?

Which pricing strategies and tools work best for your store? Here is what you must do to get to this answer.

  1. Know the store’s mission. Some thrift stores are designed to make the most money possible and then use the profits to fund other SVDP programs that have no funding on their own. Other stores are designed with a specific charitable intent to give away a lot of goods, but they still need to make some profit to pay the bills and stay in business. Both are fine, but you can’t do both at the same time! Your Board of Directors and leadership need to know clearly how stores fit into the overall SVDP program. Pricing strategy follows.
  2. Know our customers. In part due to the above, everything from your store location to pricing needs to be based on your anticipated customers. If you are giving away so much, maybe your store is in a poor area of the city and prices need to be lower. Usually, however, our best customers are middle-income shoppers who have many choices where to spend their retail dollars. The store therefore needs to be where these shoppers live and shop other retailers, and prices can be set higher and still be affordable. A common, historical, view of thrift stores is that these are stores where poor people shop. Most current thrift stores are designed for middle-income people both to donate and shop, with profits going to assist the poor.
  3. Test, test, test! The beauty of pricing is that you can change it. Consider a new pricing strategy in just one of our multiple stores, or in just one department if you have only one store. Check staff and customer observations and reactions. Certainly, check the differences in sales and profits. You will likely need at least one month, maybe several for some ideas, to see if a new program is working effectively.
  4. Pro testing tip: Test only one thing at a time. For example, don’t run a new advertising campaign at the same time as new price points. Which one brought more people to the store? Which one created more sales? It can be hard to tell. The more you isolate any factor, the easier it is to measure. By the way, advertising brings people to the store, while pricing, customer service and enough goods on the shelves create more sales. Advertising often gets too much credit for sales, when it should only be measured for store traffic. But that’s another article…
  5. Use the POS! A Point of Sale (POS) system is a tremendous resource in evaluating pricing strategies. Using categories, price points, units sold vs. processed etc., gives you a great deal of useful information that can help you evaluate pricing change effectiveness over time and department/category. Sometimes what feels like success, such as increased store activity, is disproven by cold, hard facts when it comes to profitability.

Conclusion

Effective thrift store pricing can be designed to create shopper excitement, drive additional sales, and maintain needed profits. It must be designed with the end in mind – your goals for the store program amidst the rest of the Society’s goals. Pricing must be considered in the context of the neighborhood economy, the competition, and the availability of continuous product flow. Finally, pricing strategy and execution can be, and must be evaluated to ensure that “you get what others are paying for” in funds for the Society’s mission and activities. In the end, we are not retailers. We are used goods collectors and resellers working to advance our mission. Effective pricing leaves no potential dollars on the table that we could be using to serve people in need. Please do not be afraid to raise prices. After all, your costs probably have risen, and you need to cover these costs just as any other retailer. However, please do be somewhat afraid to lower your prices. The first cents taken off are always your profit!

If you have a topic that you would like addressed in a future Stores Corner article, please e-mail Jeff Beamguard, National Director of Stores Support.

  • Jill Pioter

Stores Corner: Redeeming Vouchers Can Be an Emotional Journey
Stores Corner: Redeeming Vouchers Can Be an Emotional Journey 1200 628 Jill Pioter

By Mike McClanahan, Council of Phoenix, AZ

Redeeming vouchers at SVdP stores is an important way that stores support Vincentians in their vocation of helping those in need, and every Council has different ways of doing this. Here’s one way they do it in Phoenix.

“Bringing Hope Home” helps homeless families that get a new place to live with furnishings. Donors sponsor these families, and those funds are used to purchase an SVdP care cards. The care cards are then given to the families, and they shop the Phoenix stores to buy what they need and want. The transportation team will then pick up the items selected by the families and deliver those to their homes.

Please see this flyer for more on the “Bringing Hope Home” program in Phoenix, AZ.

Please contact your local National Store’s Committee representative for examples of successful centralized processing retail operations. More detailed information and tours can be arranged.

Connect with a Region Rep to learn more about what they are doing in your area – list of committee members can be found under the Resources drop down at https://www.svdpusa-thriftstore.org/.

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