Specialty Stores Are Good

Everyone, and I mean everyone, wants to buy closeouts from the big guys: Saks, Neiman, Barney's, and so on. But they don't have a lot of merchandise to liquidate and when they do, they have lots of people that want it. More importantly, they have the ability to dictate terms and sell a huge amount of merchandise on a take all basis.

And everybody contacts me asking how to buy from these stores. Most don't know what they are in for. They think a Saks closeout load is going to mirror a Saks store assortment. No, it's going to mirror a Saks clearance rack that has been picked through just a tad bit.

But that's beside the point.

There are tens of thousands of smaller specialty boutiques all over the place that buy the very same merchandise these big stores do. And they might need to get rid of some things too.

Some of you should be calling them up. I don't know why you don't. There is this one jobber that places classified ads in a very high profile trade publication that basically says they buy boutique store stock. They get a range of contemporary, bridge and designer brands. And they get nearly ALL of their stock through the relationships they develop with *small stores* that regularly sell them overstock.

It's fascinating.

While all of you are trying to hit up the big stores, you re overlooking the smaller boutiques that have stuff to sell. And by boutique, I don't mean Gucci or Prada owned stores, I mean independent boutiques.

You could do the same thing, place an ad, send your business card around (assuming you have a real business like I talked about before), network, get the word out.

Matter of fact, I know one woman that specializes in children's clothing that was getting a lot of her off price merchandise that way. Some retailers were so eager to get rid of the stuff that they even sold it to her ON CONSIGNMENT. They didn't have the room for it anymore, they needed the money.

You're missing out on so many opportunities when you don't think outside of the box.