Shop move proves to be beneficial

Looking for more space and more parking, owner Kari Guntle decided to move her consignment shop, Closet Update, two and a half years ago to the north side of Portland from its original location downtown.
It was a beneficial move as she has now had more than 1,000 consignors in her four years of business. Selling the items in her store and collecting 50 percent of the purchase price, it’s a system that seeks to benefit not only customers and consignors but also the community.
“You’ve got to think, for every dollar our consignor is able to have, we are able to have too. So we are putting back money into the community that they might not necessarily have had,” said Guntle. “We are also providing a service for people that couldn’t regularly afford nice things to get nice things. And I think that’s a big circle. The better the community feels about itself, the better it’s going to be.”
And it’s a service for everyone. The store carries women and men’s clothing and accessories, furniture, home décor, books and more, and every item that is put on the floor is put through an inspection of its quality.
“It was hard at the beginning to get people to understand the concept of consignment because there had been consignment stores before, but they weren’t picky,” said Guntle. “We check for stains, spots, rips. It usually gets looked over three or four times before it goes out.”
Only accepting current seasonal styles in good condition, Guntle wants the racks of clothing in her store to appeal to all demographics of shoppers. And to keep the store’s merchandise in constant circulation, items are only displayed for 90 days before giving the consignor the choice to either take back the item or donate it.
“If you were a middle-aged woman, you could bring your daughter and your mother, and you would all three find something,” said Guntle.
The store uses social media, handling accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, to post photos of items, list its upcoming or current sales or bring in new consignors. The goal is to keep customers updated, as “there’s always something on sale.”
Guntle’s regular prices are based on the research she does online.
“We’re on teh internet all the time looking up prices,” said Guntle. “But we keep it a pretty base average price, and we try to keep it inexpensive. We’re in Jay County. We’re not in Indy or Chicago. We just really want people to have nice things.”[[In-content Ad]]