Kris Vermilye hasn’t shopped in a mall in years.

“I’ve been a consignment shopper for six years,” she said.

Now, she's a consignment shop owner. Vermilye today opened a new shop called Shabby Chic Consignments after acquiring inventory from the shuttered Chelsea consignment shop called Centsible Fashions.

The new store specializes in women's apparel, accessories, shoes and jewelry. In addition, the store offers furniture and home decorations. Products include the artwork of artist Nicole Cure and the jeans purses from Coppernickel Handbags made by Lisa McMullen.

The store is nestled between Chelsea Eastside Convenience Store and Edward Jones Investments in Oak Tree Plaza on Old US-12 in Chelsea.

“It’s great to have a new business owner with such enthusiasm who is willing to take a risk in this economy,” said Bob Pierce, executive director of the Chelsea Area Chamber of Commerce.

Vermilye said consignment stores typically perform well in a tough economy. She's stocked the store with about 1,000 items for sale, and she’s looking for more items from consignors, who will pay a $20 yearly fee to sell their items at the store. The selection includes dresses, active wear, casual clothes, business attire, jeans, purses, shoes, boots, sweaters, coats, hats and scarves.

The consignors receive 40 percent, and the store keeps 60 percent from each sale. Items will stay for 60 days and if they aren’t sold, they will either go back to the seller or the seller has the option of having them donated. One exception is furniture sales, which will be split 50-50.

For now, Vermilye will be the only employee of the store, which will be open 12-5:30 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Saturday. For now, she says, it will be closed on Sunday.

The 1,200-square-foot space has convenient parking, and about 10,000 cars a day travel past the store on a daily basis.

“I really want to be a small business owner in Chelsea,” the Lyndon Township resident said. “I can’t wait to see my logo on the back of (kid's) soccer shirts.”

She said although she loves shopping in Vogels and Fosters and The Village Shoppe, both downtown retail stores, “I think this is needed and I know I don’t want to drive to Jackson or Ann Arbor to shop.”

In fact, not only is the clothing pre-owned or previously used, she’s reused and repurposed vintage doors for the changing rooms inside the store.

“Consignment shopping is addictive,” she said. “I hope people in Chelsea are ready to do some clothing shopping.”

Lisa Allmendinger is a regional reporter for AnnArbor.com. She can be reached at lisaallmendinger@annarbor.com. For more Chelsea stories, visit our Chelsea page.