EVERYTHING

FOR YOUR FAMILY

• Babies/Maternity
• Camps
• Education
• Enrichment/Sports
• Family Services
• Healthcare
• Just For Moms
• Party Planning
• Places to Go
• Preschool/Kindergarten
• Retail

Published: May, 2009

LISA WALCKER • YOLI MERKLIN • SARA GILLESPIE
(Pictured left to right)
RIVERSIDE (Lisa and Yoli) • LOMA LINDA (Sara)

Number and ages of children:
Lisa has three children, ages 2, 5 and 8.
Sara also has three children, ages 2, 5 and 7.
Yoli is mother of four children ages 3, 5, 6 and 8.

Business: Savvy Chic Kids Consignment

Product or service:
Savvy Chic Kids Consignment (SCKC) is a twice-yearly sale, held in the spring and the fall, when families can shop for new and gently used items at prices drastically below retail.

What did it take to get your business launched?
We are three budget-conscience mothers who know how to make our dollars stretch. We purchased most of our big-ticket items on eBay and Craigslist at discounted prices, and obtained our clothing racks from stores that had gone out of business under the current strain of the economy. Because we were able to purchase so much of our start-up supplies second-hand, as well as develop our own Web site without the having to pay someone else, we were able to keep our start-up expenses under $3,000.

Tell us about your first sale or contract.
Our first sale took place in October of 2008 with 50 consigners and approximately 6,000 items for sale. Our second sale took place in March 2009 and doubled in size, with 100 consigners and more than 12,000 items available for sale, causing us to have to find a new, larger location.

What is the size of your business?
Our March 2009 sale was open for 3 ½ days or approximately 27 hours. We had over 635 transactions, averaging one transaction every 4 ½ minutes, with an average of 10 items sold per transaction. The average sales per consignor was $314.00 with our top consignor selling over $1,500 worth of merchandise.