November Update– Long and Winding Road

Hello,

It’s the season of giving thanks, and I for one am so thankful to be a small business owner. However, being a small business owner in the last eighteen months has brought on some huge challenges for our business. When I look back at where we have come and what we have had to deal with, it gives me great joy to be still in business and sales trending up. I wanted to share with our community a glimpse of what we have had to overcome so you have a better understanding of decisions I have made.
We had to deal with being closed for six weeks, shut down, no sales. We furloughed all employees except me. It was surreal.
I helped create an e-commerce site and turned our energy to posting pictures of our items for people to buy online.
When we could open, we opened slowly with reduced days, hours, and consignment hours. Many employees were offered their jobs back, but some declined, some we had to let go as we staffed our stores with fewer people.
We stopped drop & runs only at the clothing stores (still accept at Furnishings) and made it only stay & wait because of labor expense. All small businesses had to find ways to do more with less people.
We made our markdowns automatic to improve efficiency.
We were able to get staffed to a level we could open the furniture store up seven days a week last November finally! We then extended our hours longer to what they were pre-Covid. It was only until September of this year we felt staffed sufficiently to open both clothing stores on Mondays. That was a huge step to getting back to normal. However, due to staff shortages we have had to still maintain our condensed consignment intake of Tuesday-Saturdays 11-4.
These are just a few of the highlights of the craziness of the year to help you understand decisions I have made.
I am grateful to have made it to the other side of this and am hopeful that our lives and the business will continue to get back to normal.
I am grateful for a vaccine and kids getting back in school!
I am grateful for every single one of my employees. Remember to be patient and kind, as most of our consignors and customers already are, you know they work very hard and now more than ever since we are still trying to recover and do more with less.
I am grateful for our community that always supports resale and entrusts us to consign their items. It never fails when I am in a store, I see and meet people that make me smile because they love our stores. It sure does lift me up.
I am grateful for the various local charities we can support through our donations of furnishings & clothing and being a sponsor to various non-profits in the community.
I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving, filled with love, laughter & great food!
With a grateful heart,

Lee Ann


Other Reminders:
Both clothing stores the week of Thanksgiving are having a graduated percentage sale every day!
We are closing at 5pm on Wednesday, 11/24.
All stores will be closed on Thanksgiving.
Boutique & Menswear is having a Holiday Sip & Shop event on Wednesday, Dec. 1st from 7pm-9pm.
All stores are open 7 days a week!
All stores accept consignment Tuesday-Saturday 11am-4pm.
Furniture store is accepting holiday items through November 30th.
We need your furniture; it is selling fast! Please email us a picture of bigger pieces to finderskeepersfurnishings@gmail.com for approval.
Please be sure and follow us on Instagram at fkconsign & fkfurnishings and Facebook! Like and share our posts, we will be forever grateful.