THRIFTING VS. RETAIL VS. Resale

We have all been a culprit of it. No one could every say they weren't. That faithful day at the mall where you fell in love with that one thing. That purse, Pair of shoes, Watch, Top, whatever it may be and you did the unthinkable. YOU PAID FULL PRICE! Over my years with Plato's Closet I have come to not only appreciate the whole concept but to be savvy about the way I spend my money.

"I need it, I love it, I'm Buying it!"

Designers are kind of like fortune tellers. They know whats hot before its ever made. We on the other hand don't have that luxury. Take for instance you have a party coming up where you know there will be people you want to impress. First thing any good girl does is go on the hunt for the perfect outfit. I don't know about you guys but I have bills! I can't justify spending what I spend on my car payment on one outfit, for one night! So what do you do? You have gone to the mall and you have found it, that one outfit! This outfit you feel will make you feel like a million bucks (even if your pockets are just housing lint at this point). You have convinced yourself that "I need it, I love it, I'm buying it!" This is where you should stop and think. Is this one outfit really worth spending $100, $200, $300 on? Chances are its not. If your like a lot of our general public the idea of buying something "used" is either a foreign concept or something that makes your stomach a little queasy. I get it. I was a skeptic too. The idea of wearing a strangers clothes is a little strange at first. But, What would be the difference in borrowing an outfit from a friend or buying something used. Either way. You wash it. (I hope) Don't spend hundreds of dollars on an outfit. Don't ever think of paying retail. Let someone else do that. You will only reap the benefits of being a savvy shopper.

Thrifting VS. Retail. VS. Resale

What could this section possibly mean? Well, Have you ever been to a thrift shop? What did you notice? Smells, The look, The organization. Well, I love thrifting but one thing I never find appealing is the smell. Its usually a musty, unwashed and unappealing smell. Usually, Thrift shops are very plain. No colors on the walls no fun pictures and have very little organization making it hard to find anything. Most thrift shops cater to a certain market. (High end women's clothes, Furniture, Professional wear) So a lot of times when teens or young adults go thrifting they are hard pressed to find current styles. One thing that I ,along with probably most people who enjoy thrift shopping,enjoy is the array of the choices you get that you wouldn't normally be able to 1.) afford or 2.)find in everyday retail stores.

Retail stores on the other hand are typically very organized, have a distinct place to put everything, and any store you go to will have the exact same items, to the tune that if you were looking for an item in a different size another store near by just might have it. The reasons malls are so successful is because they are able to put about 100 stores in one walk-able area with many brands, styles and labels. What they limit is individuality. As the new generation comes into play they aren't blinded by the brand. They love fashion as a whole, not just because it has its logo plastered across the front. They want color and patterns miss matched to create an artful outfit that no other teen in their school is never bound to come in wearing.

We as a teen friendly Re-sale store are a cool mix of thrift shops and Retail stores. HOW IS THIS? For starters we take in all of our clothing and accessories from our customers. There are very rare occurrences where you will find the same shirt just in a different size on our floor. Plato's Closet's as a whole have a very strict market on what they are looking for. We do our homework and although we can never be as quick with the new styles as the designers we certainly don't fall short when it comes to being fashion forward. Everyday we are careful to be sure we are finding the best of the best items to bring into our store.

Become a little more fashion savvy. Instead of having 1 pair of $100 boots, have 5 pairs of the same brand boot for $100. It may not be as easy as walking into a retail store and grabbing the color and size you want in a shirt, it may be a little bit of a hunt. The hunt is always worth it in the end. When you leave our store with 3 outfits for the price of 1 in a retail store how could you ever complain about that.

"Look your Best;Sell the Rest!"

Re-sale and all it's Glory!

Hi everyone!

My name is Jessica, I am the Manager of the Plato's Closet Naples, Florida location. We have been in business for about 4 years now. Within that 4 years we have been able to build a very solid customer base. Most of our customers have heard of us through word of mouth. Lately, We have been found online a lot more and we have T.V. and radio commercials circulating too. Something that we still get even after all the years we have been in business is "are you consignment?" NO, we are RESALE! :) 

SAME DIFFERENCE, RIGHT? NOT EXACTLY.

Consignment works like this. You bring your stuff into a shop. If they like it they will take it and call you when it sells. You will receive a small percentage of what they end up selling it for. Plato's Closet on the other hand doesn't make you wait to get paid. Bring in your teen friendly clothing or accessories and we pay you cash on the spot for anything we are able to make an offer on. Keep in mind we are fashion forward. We are always looking for the hottest brands so stuff that has sold within the last year to year and a half. We sell everything in our store for about a third of what it sells for in its original retail price. So, we are able to offer our customers about forty percent of that-CASH! 

"THIS SAME ITEM IS ON YOUR FLOOR IN MUCH WORSE CONDITION THAN MINE."

Now, some of you reading may go, "I've been to a Plato's Closet before, They barely bought any of my stuff!" Well, unlike a consignment store we are accountable for everything we take in. We are putting money out before we see anything from it. Its an immediate gamble for us. When we go through your items a lot of times we see stuff that we know our customers will not bother to purchase. Whether it be stains under the armpits, small splatter stains from a spaghetti night, a seam tear, broken zipper, or missing shoe laces on a pair of sneakers. We really try to look at all aspects of the items we see. "Yeah, well you have this exact same item on the floor in much worse condition." It happens. We are human. Sometimes things slip through that shouldn't. We are just always trying to do better, Have better and Be a better store.  

"HOW DO I KNOW YOU KNOW WHAT YOUR DOING?"

This is a great question. All of our buyers have gone through a LONG certification process to be able to even look at your clothes. We don't stop there though! Our girls have to do homework often. They are required to go to the mall on scavenger hunts to find out whats hot in all the popular mall stores. We have many useful tools that the girls can use while they are at the counter to refer back to. We have seasonal break downs on what is going to be the hottest trends in that season. WE DO OUR HOMEWORK! On top of our girls being thoroughly trained our computer system does all the pricing for us. We put in the brand, style and condition of each item and just like that we have our price.

Our store is always looking for the best of the best items. We love our customers and enjoy what we are doing every day! When you have the time go through your closet. Follow the rule that if you haven't worn it in 6 months, Your probably don't need it anymore! Besides, Recycling is HOT right now! Let your old clothes be someone else's new and while your here check out our awesome selection of clothing and accessories to update your wardrobe! We look forward to meeting you!