Street: So what sets Greene Street apart from other consignment or thrift stores? Jennifer Allard: We have a green focus, which I think makes us really unique. We try to encourage the idea of recycling, through clothing and accessories. Something like 68 pounds of clothes per year go into landfills. We’re trying to help the environment by helping people resell those clothes instead of throwing them out. We try to give a more boutique- y feel. And our consigners make a decent commission.
Street: How does the consignment process work? JA: You can come anytime that’s convenient for you, and we look through while you wait. Takes about five or ten minutes. If we get to a minimum of ten seasonal items, we’ll start a contract that’s 60 days, and the consigner will make 40% commission on anything that sells. If we don’t make it to ten items for some reason, we ask that they maybe try bringing shoes or jewelry. People don’t realize the scope of things that we can take!
Street: What if the items don’t sell by the end of the 60 days? JA: The consigner has the option to pick up any items that don’t sell. If they don’t come and get them, they become store property. We do eventually donate to the Salvation Army when there are things we’ve had for a while and can’t use anymore.
Street: What’s the typical price range? JA: It depends. We try not to go too low, because we want our consigners to make a profit as well. So we try to aim for $10 and above. Our preference would be over $20, but you can find things for $12 or $15.
Street: That’s a steal! JA: Yeah, absolutely! We do sell designer pieces too, and they can get a little more pricey, but it’s still a fraction on what you would spend on it new.
Street: But you have some new items, too, right? JA: We like to supplement our consigned items with purchased goods, because not everyone wants to buy something that someone owned before. Most of it is consigned. I’d say eighty percent, at least.
Street: What do you look for when people bring in clothes? JA: We look for the condition of the item to be really impeccable. We don’t want it to seem like someone’s old stuff. We do look at the labels, because there are certain brands that we tend to steer clear of, like Old Navy, Forever 21...unless it’s really super cute. But they start out so inexpensive, it doesn’t make sense for us to try to resell it. We also look for things that aren’t too dated, so we try to stick within a 1-3 year range for the age of our clothing. We don’t offer vintage, unfortunately. I wish we did!
Street: Any items you avoid? JA: Pants. We did a March Mad- ness pants sale, any clearance pant was a dollar, because we literally have tons of pants. And, honestly, they really don’t move. It’s a shame. I think people just don’t like trying them on.
Street: What sells the best? JA: We do amazingly with women’s blouses and dresses. Dresses fly off the racks, especially when formals and things come up. Always looking for that little black dress! And for men’s, we do the best with the button down shirts.
Street: Do you sell suits for the pre–professional side of every Penn student? JA: People bring suits, but we’re selective because they don’t move as well. Sets are really hard to push, just because people aren’t shaped all the same. But we do take them.
Street: What are the weirdest items people try to bring in? JA: Some of the fun is when people consign purses...what’s in the purse? Mostly it’s money, sometimes tissues or toothpicks and stuff. I found baseball tickets in one. We get some crazy vintage stuff, like crazy eighties sweaters sometimes or ugly Christmas sweaters. People do bring in bras and underwear and things, and we’re just like, “Thank you, no.” Pajamas, slippers, robes...
Street: What’s the Greene Street Animal Rescue? JA: The owner’s sister started it a few years back. She rescues whelping mothers and puppies, mostly pit bulls, who are usually slated to be put down. She res- cues them from high kill shelters and rehabilitates them. She's also started taking some pup- pies, to raise more money for the shelter.
Street: And what’s the connection with the store? JA: Every year we kind of go back and forth about taking furs, because we don’t believe in killing animals for clothing. But, at the same time, they al- ready exist in the world. When we take a fur coat, 50% of the profits from that coat will go to the Animal Rescue, and the consigner still gets their 40% commission. So the store only makes a little bit off of them. We also have events at a lot of our stores, where she’ll bring some puppies in to try to raise some money, get some adoptions happening.
Street: Has the Penn location done any? JA: I don’t believe so, but we do have a little Greene Street Animal Rescue display. So we sell tote bags, t–shirts, people can make donations...little cinch bags if you just need a little backpack. 100% of the proceeds go to the Greene Street Animal Rescue.
Street: Do you ever have big sales? JA: Kind of sporadically. But we’re trying to do, about quarterly, a box sale. Basically, we’ll open up the entire basement in Manayunk to the public, and we have boxes and boxes all filled with different styles of things. You pay $20, you get a bag, and you stuff everything you can into that bag. It’s like treasure hunting. We have one coming up in April.
Street: And you have online shopping now? JA: The online store! People can order a bag online, ship it to us, we go through it, and we’ll consign their items in our web store. So technically, that’s our eleventh store. It’s been doing really well. We just, literally last Wednesday, launched our web- site, so we’re really excited about it. We’ve been getting consign- ments and orders from all over the country.
