Welcome to Soup Is Not A Finger Food’s first-ever RANT. Today, I will be fuming about my first foray into the world of children’s consignment shops, in particular, one that isn’t far from where I live. I won’t identify them, because that would be mean, but readers? – both of you – it’s your lucky day.
In January, I took several boxes of clean kid items in good condition to a shop near where I live. It was a lovely assortment of Disney-themed overalls, snowsuits, boots, coats, a like-new crib bumper, some books, a monitor, and a bunch of other stuff I thought was too nice to give away, yet I didn’t want to fuss with listing them for sale myself. The woman working there sniffed, poked around a bit, wrinkled her nose, squinted at me, and said, we’ll take a look and see what we can sell and you need to come back next week to pick up what we can’t. Or we can keep the items and donate them for you. Her vibe was all, I’m doing you such a favor by even looking at your stuff. I said, don’t do me any favors, lady I’ll be back Tuesday, and thanks for the offer but I am sure I can sell these lovely snowsuits successfully on my own, so I’ll just take them with me.
They kept six items. Out of 20.
Now, to be fair, I admit that they did give me their policies in writing, and from reading them I know they keep a share of the sale profit on each item, and they reduce the price after a month to keep that merchandise moving. I was also aware of a $5 “annual account fee,” which I guess pays the salary to their snooty clerks offsets their high overhead costs.
So, I had kind of forgotten about the snooty clerk and all of my stuff. But today, I was thinking about how I needed to buy gin and where in the heck was I going to scrape together some cash for that? And then I remembered: My consignment profits! Yesssss! Bombay Sapphire in my future! So, I phoned the shop to inquire.
Lady on phone: Yes ma’am, we sold all but two of your items, and the last two you should have picked up by the end of March, so they might still be here, they might not be, but you can come in and look.
Me: Wha…? As in two days ago? Okay, well, can I collect my account balance when I come?
Lady: Yes ma’am, let me see… your account balance is two seventy nine.
Me: As in, $2.79?
Lady: Yes, after the annual account fee and all.
Me: Well, you sold my Sound & Lights Monitor set, right? [Because I'm thinking, that bad boy was like thirty bucks new, so there should be a bit of profit there!]
Lady: Yes ma’am, for $4.97. We lowered the price after it didn’t sell the first month.
Me (exasperated): Sheesh, I shouldn’t have even bothered!
Lady: [blinking]
Me: OK, well, I’ll be in to see if you have my other stuff and collect my three bucks tomorrow.
Lady: [click]
Three dollars. Less than a gallon of gasoline. And in my vehicle? I’ll spend that much driving to and from the shop. Especially if I detour by the liquor store to buy gin. But with three bucks? I’ll be splurging on one of those adorable little airplane-sized bottles they sell at the checkout counter. I know, I know. Don’t drink spend it all in one place.
Filed under: consignment, gin, rant | Tagged: consignment, gin, rant, rip-off
Wait, how long have you been blogging?? And this is your FIRST rant??? Good grief. You need to let loose more, girl!
Love the categories: consignment, gin, rant. *snort*
What Maggie said. Geez, if I didn’t rant, I don’t think I’d have a blog. ;-)
See, you should have donated your stuff in the first place. It’s a message from God.
I like how one of your tags is “gin.” Heh.
Also, the JoS? Nasty, but looks awfully familiar.
Y’all, I’ve only been blogging for two short weeks. The rants’ll come, I promise. I already have two other ones percolating through my semi-automatic Blog-o-Filter. Neither of which have anything to do with Soup. Or Finger Food. But still. It’ll be worth it, I promise.