Hit resale shops for discounted high end goods

Friday, August 29, 2014

Check out resale shops for high end products at a discount

If your looking for high end products, check out a resale shop before you head to major retailers.

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Even though temperatures are teetering on 100 degrees, retailers are getting ready for the fall season.

Before you hit major retail stores, consider resale, especially if you're looking for high end labels.

With 14,000 square feet of space, the folks at Memorial Assistance Ministries needed to find a way to get the best of the best designer brands in a more confined location in their resale shop.

"This is our restocking room for the boutique, on this side you will find purses, this will be our fall and winter," said MAM Resale Shop's Cindy Husband. "We put it all together in one room where they can find the Prada, the Tory Burch, the MK they are looking for."

The idea has taken off, and now there are two rooms full of boutique items. Things like Manolo Blahnik pumps and designer jeans such as Rock and Republic for $30 are all found in the store. There are also vintage Louis Vuitton hand bags and designer labels with the tags still on.

"Resale in 2013 was a $13 billion industry and 4 billion of that was clothing and accessories," Husband said.

The MAM Resale Shop is so busy that two fashion students are currently on staff combing through the entire inventory looking for the most sought after labels.

"Then we have a volunteer that has taken on the boutique as her little project. She comes in, she looks up everything, prices it, and gets it ready and displays it out on the store," Husband said.

There are plenty of bargains to be found, but keep in mind that volunteers are looking up the best prices to mark the items.

"We look at the retail price, then eBay, and then the secondary market, then we mark it under," Husband said.

The items are priced to sell, but there are even better deals to be had on their clearance racks.

"This is a very nice purse. At the mall it would be $200 or more but here it's $99 with 40 percent off, this would be a good steal," said shopper Tracy Jaquess.

All the proceeds from the resale store go back to MAM to help families in need.