Imagine a line of people that begins at a store entrance and stretches as far as the eye can see. Each person carries a box or bag of possessions they no longer need, but that someone else might.
That was the sight that spurred Kathy Homola to launch
Keweenaw Consignment, located in the
Copper Country Mall in Houghton. The store offers a dizzying variety of items: name brand clothing, books, modern and vintage furniture, and kitschy 1950s era knick-knacks.
Homola's inspiration struck when she was visiting her daughter in Wyoming and the pair visited a Value Villa store.
"It's the funnest place to shop," Homola says. "People line up an hour before the store opens, and they take the first 100 people."
A nurse by trade, Homola found she couldn't make a comfortable living unless she worked night shifts, so she decided to change career paths.
Homola opened her store in April 2009 in the Portage Plaza in Houghton. Her belief that the financially struggling residents of the Copper Country would benefit from her business turned out to be dead on. People flocked to the store with clothing, furniture and other household items to sell in exchange for cash or store credit.
What sells fastest? The answer is surprising. "Clothing -- Western wear, cowboy boots. When I visit my daughter I buy cowboy boots and sell them here," she says. And less-expected items are popular, too. "You can't keep a globe, and bookends are always gone. I always think boy, if I had five or 10 more globes."
In a different take on the consignment store,
Karyn's Kids Closet in Kingsford offers consigned items exclusively for babies and children, including clothing, toys and furniture. The store is small, but bright and spacious, with racks full of clothing, including Gap, Polo, Hannah Anderson and Old Navy brands, and tables packed with gently used toys and tiny shoes.
Mark Novara, who owns the store along with his wife, Kristin, and Brian and Melissa Jones, his brother- and sister-in-law, says that, like Homola, he and Kristin were inspired to start their own business after visiting a similar store while out of town.
"We traveled a lot to Once Upon a Child in Green Bay, and we thought this was a good idea for the area, and we thought it would be good to get name brands here that we don't ordinarily see."
Their initial store inventory was as close as their own closets. The couple, both teachers, have two children, a 4-year-old son and a 4-month-old daughter.
"My (late) mother in law, who the store is named after, loved buying things for my kids, so we were well stocked."
Although they've been in business less than a month, Novara says the store is generating "tons of interest."
"We're getting
hits
on Facebook and doing local advertising. We're getting lots of word of mouth."
At a time when U.P. residents are struggling with record unemployment and higher living costs, being able to sell what they don't need to earn money for what they do is a bonus.
"Already we have close to 1,600 people consigning," Homola says. Moving the store to the Copper Country Mall last September was a huge boost, tripling the store's income for October.
"It's exciting to see what comes in," Homola adds. "Yesterday we had four truckloads of furniture."
And Karyn's Kids Closet has seen the same effect.
"People bring their stuff to us rather than having a rummage sale," Novara says. "We have a large inventory. We're already set for fall and winter. Our big thing is our prices are very reasonable," he adds.
Both Homola and Novara say the consignment business is about striking a good balance between making money and meeting the needs of their customers.
"You have to make money or it doesn't pay to do it," says Homola. "I thought right away you'd make really good money. I didn't get a paycheck for the first three months."
Homola's consigners earn money on a sliding scale of percentages based on the type of item they're selling.
"People need us to sell their things and they're winning by getting rid of things and still making money. And I'm winning. I have a job and 12 employees," she says.
"We're not trying to get rich," says Novara. "We're young parents ourselves, trying to make a little money and satisfy people with what we're giving for the price."
Launching a business, even a small one, is a time- and energy-intensive process, particularly for novices.
"You don't realize, you're on your feet eight to 10 hours a day. Sometimes I'm here until midnight," says Homola. She appreciates the fact that her husband, an electrician, helps take care of any needed repairs.
"Starting a small business is crazy," Novara says. "You have to have accountants, lawyers, insurance. It's a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. My brother is an accountant so he's been able to help us out tremendously."
But despite the demands of running a business, both owners also give back to their communities.
At Keweenaw Consignment, needy families can put their names on a list, and when the store's clothing inventory is cleared out to make room for new items the families are permitted to come in and take what they need. Karyn's Kids Closet will distribute unsold clothing to needy schoolchildren through area schools' social workers.
Deb Pascoe works at The Mining Journal in Marquette, Michigan as an editorial assistant and award-winning columnist. She also maintains a blog, sobersinglemom, which focuses on her life as a single mom, recovering alcoholic, and codependent pet owner.