The back-to-school season is less than a month away and for some it’s time to shop. Beyond pencils, paper, notebooks, and folders, there’s always the need for new clothes. Department store flyers might boast bargain prices, but with the economy as tight as it is with rising food costs and higher gas prices, those “bargain” prices for many still don’t cut it.
Luckily, the Groton area offers a bevy of consignment stores, where dollars and cents can be converted into a couple of new outfits.
Marie Tompkins of Groton City, the owner of Twice Is Nice in Mystic, said the back-to-school season is her busiest time of year. Open for 28 years, the children’s-clothing consignment shop was passed down to Tompkins four years ago by Ellis and Pamela Hartman. As a special education teacher for 15 years and a mother of five girls, Tompkins says she’s done her share of back-to-school shopping.
“The kids go back to school, and parents start to realize how much of their clothes don’t fit anymore,” she explained. “They make money by consigning their clothes and they also start buying things, too. It’s a nice return, a give and take.”
It’s the best part about consigning. At Twice Is Nice, many mothers stop in with different sized bags of baby and children’s clothes that their children have outgrown, in an effort to receive a monetary return or a credit to use toward future purchases.
Marilyn Kernozek of Gales Ferry, a 22-year employee of Twice Is Nice, inspects the clothes closely when the store receives new items. She said shoppers generally know the shop is pretty picky about what products they take.
“We’re looking for the quality,” Tompkins explained, “and [customers] know when they shop here, they’re going to get good quality clothes at a very great price.”
After garments are inspected and prepared for sale, Kernozek organizes the clothes in the back room and Tompkins enters all the stock information into a computer—she also backs up her inventory on paper.
“I then go through every item, make a ticket for every one, and then we tag them,” Tompkins said.
When selecting what should be put on the sales floor first, Tompkins said they prioritize by when the item was submitted. Consigned items are usually on the floor within a week, but she knows as the back-to-school season continues, the back room will soon be packed wall to wall.
Aside from garments, Twice Is Nice sells other miscellaneous items, such as stuffed animals, baby monitors, cribs, and toys.
“I get people that travel an hour away and they come here if only just a few times a year,” Tompkins said. “They buy just stacks of clothes…We have people that mail their items here and consign them.”
Lately she’s seen an increase in the items customers purchase. Tompkins said she continues to stay competitive with the surrounding outlet malls so customers feel as though they can find great quality at the best price at her store.
“Getting your kids clothes is a necessity,” she said. “Some will actually buy [clothes] for their neighbors or family members.”
It’s the Chi She Shop that caters to adult women. Owner Tamara Gibbs says her store offers everything a woman wants, from chocolates to Prada. She’s owned the consignment shop for four and a half years and recently moved into a bigger store in Mystic from a smaller operation in Noank.
“This is a consignment store for the average woman that wants to come in for nice-looking clothes, maybe for work or something else, for a good price,” Gibbs said.
She said the store is a hit for women between 30 and 60 years old, who have children, have children in college, pay extra for cars and insurance for their children, and put themselves last when it comes to shopping.
“The last clothing they’re going to buy is for themselves, and there’s not much [money] left,” Gibbs said. “They come here and they can find something that costs $5 and find something that costs $500. So it suits a large group of people.”
Gibbs knew she wanted to own a business, but her desire to have a consignment shop came from her own consigning experience.
“I took my own clothes to a consignment store and they looked down on me and said, ‘No, we can’t take any of your stuff,’” Gibbs said. She knew the clothes she had weren’t top-notch designer clothes but that they were still quality items in great condition.
“That made me wonder, where do people take really nice quality, not always designer clothes?” Gibbs noted.
Now with more than 700 consigners and a growing business, Gibbs enjoys providing everyday clothing, appealing jewelry, and other miscellaneous items that women can purchase at a third of the retail price.
“It’s making bills and ends meet…and feeling good about yourself,” Gibbs said, laughing. “You don’t have to spend food money and you can go out.”
The Stonington Community Center Thrift Shop in Stonington, a part of the Stonington Community Center, is a bit different than consignment shops. The store obtains donations, sells them, and funnels the proceeds back into the community.
Manager Cindy Berg worked at the shop for about 13 years and described the store as a place where great prices and sometimes treasures can be found. Offering items from clothes and books to bowls and antiques, the store was filling with shopping customers on a recent Thursday morning within the first hour of opening.
“All the proceeds benefit the senior citizens programs [at the community center] across the street…and for the youngsters across the street—the money goes towards the preschool programs,” Berg said.
COMO Director Jim Truscio noted that he worked at the thrift store for a day to gain a better sense of what the store offers.
“I only did it once,” he said, smiling, “and it’s a very busy place. It does generate quite a bit of money for the overall community center...It’s an opportunity for people to make a donation to the community center to help support us, recycle their items—only usable items as you can see—and help the people from the public that are coming in that really need the opportunity to buy something for a dollar.”
“There are a lot of needy people around,” Berg added.
“We’re seeing even an increase in the thrift shop sales,” Truscio continued. “It’s an increase in donated items [from] people who feel it’s important to make those donations.”
He said aside from people shopping there out of necessity, others shop there to support its outreach efforts.
Truscio noted, “We have a very supportive community. Stonington is very generous.”