Business View - March 2015 87
He conceded that Goodwill is the main player in the
soft-goods resale marketplace, though the business
models are different because items are donated to
Goodwill before top-end products are separated and
sold in its retail and boutique outlets. Thus, he’s focus-
ing on different targets.
“We saw that there was an opportunity out there to
appeal to a wider range of customers,” he said. “Our
research shows that only 19 percent of the pop will
shop resale in any given year. You can look at it as be-
ing a small market, or a relatively small market, but we
like to take a more positive outlook on it and look at it
as an opportunity to start cutting into the 81 percent
that doesn’t shop resale.
“We’ve tried to position ourselves in a way that a cus-
tomer coming into our store, either to sell us products
or to buy from our selection, would look at our opera-
tion and look at the way our stores look and say ‘Wow,
this doesn’t really feel like what I would consider to be
FRANCHISE
