Listening and learning: The Closet Swap benefits from people's advice

   Whatever success Heather Paddock’s new consignment store is having, and will have, can be largely attributed to two factors.

   First is her experience working in other consignment stores. Second, and perhaps more important, is the input she receives from others.

   “It takes an army to run a consignment store,” said Paddock, owner of The Closet Swap in Monticello, which opened May 27 across First Street from Hartig Drug.

   “And that’s where I like having the consignors and listening to their input. They’re part of the little army that runs this place. You have to have an awesome community, and be willing to listen to their ideas.”

   Those ideas, she said, can include “Clothes, brands, ideas for displays for the window, advertising ideas, ideas on where to donate items when we decide we’re not going to take them or they don’t sell. Or just the layout of the building.

   “You never know. There’s always something else that you never think of, and it’s always good to hear other opinions.”

   A variety of people have stopped in at The Closet Swap since it opened.

   “It’s been amazing,” Paddock shared. “Right now we have over 40 consignors. Some buy, and some just come in to check it out because they’ve heard about the place. So it’s been pretty busy.”

   Paddock said the idea of opening a consignment store dates back to when she attended college.

   “It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time,” he said. “In college, my senior project was on a consignment store.

   “I graduated in September of 2014. I went to college later in life (than most people).”

   She earned degrees in marketing and accounting, and later spent timeworking in other consignment stores, including the Penny Pincher and Gingham Dog in Monticello.

   “In college I learned about marketing, the finances, the accounting procedures,” she recalled. “But none of that is any good until you have the experience and actually know how to put it to use.”

   Paddock also drew inspiration from her daughter, Dori, who last year gave her a verbal nudge.

   “She said, ‘Mom, you just need to do this. You’ve been wanting to do this for years,” Paddock recalled.

   A store in the building closed in March, and Paddock began to pursue the idea of opening her store there.

   “It sat empty the whole month of April. I took possession May 1,” she said.

   It operates like many consignment stores. People bring items in, she decides whether she thinks they will sell, and if they do, the consignor gets half of the purchase price.

   “I have the items for 90 days, and for what doesn’t sell, I listen to the community and see where they suggest to donate things,” Paddock said.

   She follows her own “listen-to-the-community” advice in other ways, as well. An example was a collaboration with Bobby Krum, owner of Whiffle Tree Mercantile in Monticello.

   “I talked to Bobby, and I liked his hours,” Paddock said. “So mine are very similar to his.”

   The Closet Swap is open Sundays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

   Krum also advised Paddock on a computer system to use for record-keeping.

   “I thought, ‘This will be awesome,’ ” she said. “We can bounce ideas off each other, and help each other out. So once again, it’s the community helping the community.”

   The computer system keeps track of what sold and how much the consignor made on each item.

   “There is so much to this system,” Paddock said. “I’m still learning. It is so exciting.”

   The Closet Swap, a name Paddock said “just popped in my head,” offers women’s, children’s, men’s, and plus-sized clothing.

   “Plus sizes seem to be a very big seller, whether it’s men’s or women’s,” Paddock said. “It just seems like they’re hard to get. There’s not a surplus of them in the industry and in retail.”

   There are other items as well, such as shoes, purses, jewelry, barely-used makeup, and more.

   Paddock said she has tried to give the store a boutique-like look.

   “I am very picky, because of the small space I have,” she said. “And I’ve tried to keep it like a boutique style, so it doesn’t feel so much like a thrift store. They feel like  they’re really getting a good treasure.”

   For now, Paddock operates out of the front half of her space, but hopes to acquire more racks to expand into the back half as well. Her husband Mike and son Peyton are working on building two fitting rooms in the back, and when that’s done, the expansion will begin, she said.

   Dori, meanwhile, now works with her mother in the store. Asked what she likes about that, Dori said, “I get to spend time with her.”