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Posted on Mon, Apr 16, 2012 : 5:57 a.m.

The Other Women consignment store opens in Chelsea

By Laura Blodgett

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Kim Watkins, co-owner of The Other Women, shows off some items in her consignment shop in Chelsea.

Laura Blodgett | For AnnArbor.com

A new consignment store called The Other Women has opened on Main Street in downtown Chelsea.

Located at 121 S. Main St. above Chelsea Market, the store carries gently used and new clothing, purses, jewelry, shoes, small home items and artwork from local artists.

Owners and good friends Laura Rivard and Kim Watkins, both waitresses at Metzger’s German Restaurant in Ann Arbor, have always wanted to open a business together.

Watkins’ cousin owns a successful consignment store in Brighton called Trading Closets. With the cousin serving as mentor, the friends decided to open a similar business.

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The shop was named The Other Women to denote women trading things with one another, in addition to its slightly "sexy" sound.

Laura Blodgett | For AnnArbor.com

“I used to go to Salvation Army before resale was popular and get these granny-style dresses for $3,” said Rivard, who also works as a relief postal carrier in Belleville. “My whole life I used to do that, and I love it.”

The Other Women—named to denote women trading things with one another as well as its slightly “sexy” sound, according to Rivard— settled on Chelsea since Watkins was living there and enjoyed the community.

In addition to women’s clothing and accessories, they also have some men’s and children’s clothing as well as a few designer items such as a Coach purse and wallet, BKE jeans and an Armani dress. They carry some newer items, too, such as brand-new women’s jeans and cords from Talbots that went out of business in Brighton.

“It really depends on what comes along,” said Rivard. “Anything that can get up the 23 steps to the business, we’ll take as long as it’s in good condition.”

Although they do have some higher-end items, they want to appeal to a large market and will take anything up-to-date in good condition — even vintage clothing.

“We’d like anybody to be able to come in and buy something,” said Rivard. “That’s our goal.”

How the store works is people bring in their freshly laundered items for sale, Rivard and Watkins check them over to make sure the items can be used and are in good condition, and the items are placed on the floor for immediate sale. Sales are split between the consignor and store 50/50, except for artists who get 70 percent of a sale.

Items are kept for 60 days. If it doesn’t sell in that time, consignors can pick it up or donate it to Faith in Action or Goodwill.

Pricing is typically a quarter of what an item sells for retail. Though the price range varies, most items are priced in the $4 to $20 range.

The friends have created one wall in the store called a “women’s wall” on which anyone is invited to post a picture of a woman in their life who has influenced them. So far, Rivard’s mom and her friend Lynn’s sister grace the wall.

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Prices vary at the shop, although most items are priced between $4 and $20.

Laura Blodgett | For AnnArbor.com

Although Chelsea has another consignment store called Shabby Chic Consignments, Rivard does not consider it competition but rather believes they can benefit from each other.

“(The Shabby Chic owner) came to our grand opening, and she is very friendly. We want to help each other out. If we don’t have something, she could have it. Consignment is all that way; you have different things all the time.”

Rivard and Watkins will work at the store themselves as well as have a few friends pitching in here and there. They do not plan to hire employees at this time.

In addition to being an easy business to launch with low overheard and inventory costs, Rivard says consignment makes sense in other ways as well.

“With everything in landfills, it’s great to do consignment. Consignment helps out the consignor a bit and helps out the community. You can buy things cheaper than it would normally cost. With the economy the way it is, it makes sense.”

The Other Women is open Monday through Thursday from 10-6 pm; Friday and Saturday from 10-8 pm and Sunday 12-4 pm.

Comments

MgoBlueMomma

Mon, Apr 16, 2012 : 7:54 p.m.

Above Polly's? So its upstair in the grocery store?

dotdash

Mon, Apr 16, 2012 : 5:19 p.m.

It makes an odd kind of sense. Adultery ("the other woman" theme) is like picking men up on consignment. But only, I guess, if you assume the original wives willingly put their husbands up for consignment. Is this some sort of clever social commentary on fidelity?

dotdash

Mon, Apr 16, 2012 : 6:20 p.m.

The owner of the store was the one who brought up the whole issue. The article said, and I quote, "named to denote women trading things with one another as well as its slightly "sexy" sound". EyeHeartA2 also noted the "sugar daddy" aspect. So you see it wasn't me with my mind in the gutter, but an intended (and well communicated) double entrendre. I actually thought it was kind of clever and said so. Which leaves me asking myself whom you are going off on and why, BettyBoop? (a moniker with its own ... flavor, shall we say?)

bettyboop

Mon, Apr 16, 2012 : 6:05 p.m.

If you looked at the name it states "The Other Women not Woman consignments". If you had your head out of the gutter and thought of who shops consignments it is women not men bringing in their belongings. What does a consignment shop do, they take womens belonging and sell to other women.....You realy need to take a step back and think about what you state before you come forth with a nonsence comment that could potentially hurt a awesome business that 2 ladies have worked very hard to open! Like we teach our children from the time they can understand commen sence, if you have nothing nice to say do not say it at all!

EyeHeartA2

Mon, Apr 16, 2012 : 4:27 p.m.

I was under the impression that any "other woman" worth her, humm....shall we say - salt, had a sugar daddy and didn't require a second hand store. I guess the crappy economy impacts everything in some way.

Renee

Mon, Apr 16, 2012 : 10:50 a.m.

Good luck to them! I hope to visit next time I'm in the area.