Local Business Spotlight:
Preloved Payson, A Perpetual Hometown Market
by Paul Johnson
After a lunch date with my wife at Fat Jack's Pizza a couple weeks ago, we dropped by Preloved next door, since I was curious about the new shop. We entered into a small, cheerfully lit shop. Young moms chatted together in the aisles, while busy toddlers played in an area sectioned off by a low wall. Vertically stacked cubbies filled the aisles (the official Preloved term is "booths"); mostly clothing, although after searching, I found a some with decorations and other assortments.
I recalled hearing something about Saturdays being different, so I dropped in a few days later with my kids on our way back from camping with the Santaquin Boy Scouts, after taking them to Fossil Shack across the street. Fortunately, we didn't get any weird looks as we browsed through the store with the scent of campfire still on our clothes. There had been some apparent turnover. Still mostly used clothing, but after a little hunting, we walked out with a treasure: the complete Harry Potter book series, and for cheaper than I could get it used on Amazon (I rapid-checked on my phone in the aisle).
Seeing that it wasn't all clothing piqued my interest, so I reached out to one of the owners, Payton. I shared my initial impression: "Consignment-based indoor yard sale?" That's the general Preloved chain business model, she said, but her plans for the franchise go beyond that: Too many of the local mom-and-pop stores that adorn Payson don't stay in business long. As a longtime Payson resident, she has wanted to promote the local business community, so besides the thrift-store aspect, she planned to make her store a hub for small businesses in the area. Preloved would be an outlet for home bakers, lotion makers and soap makers, DIY wreath crafters, and anyone who did not yet have their own brick-and-morter shop or website yet. Businesses with an established local presence would also be invited to reserve space to test-drive current and new products on Preloved's customers.
So, you're a year-round hometown market?, I asked. Exactly! she confirmed.
I asked about what the process was to reserve a booth. She explained that vendors just reserve a booth on the website for a week at a time. They drop off a booth's worth of items (the website clarifies that you get 4 shelves and a dowel to hang up about 70 items) on Saturday and pick up whatever is left at the end of the following week. The store then takes a 40% cut on each item sold. While the user sets their own price per item, opting into progressive discounting is highly encouraged. The general expectation is that vendors would set the booth go to 25% off on Tuesday and somewhere from 50-90% off in the lead up to Friday.
While it takes $30 to rent a booth for the week, the store makes it essentially risk free by refunding that fee if the booth doesn't sell, provided that they follow the store's instructions to set up on time, take down on time, and agree to discount by at least 50% for at least the last two days. I was impressed, as I could see that would make it really easy for businesses to test-drive a new product on Preloved's variety of customers before deciding to fill their own shop's shelves with it.
With regard to the yard-sale model, Preloved's selling point was the chance to make a profit off of getting rid of their stuff, Payton explained. Control over pricing remained with the individual vendors, while Preloved provides booth space, foot traffic, staffing, and tools for sales. The vendors could log into the store website anytime during the week to see how much their booth has earned so far. Many of their customers have a routine where they come in Saturday for early treasure-hunting, then again on Tuesday or Wednesday to catch the first discount wave, and yet again on Friday to get things at fire-sale prices... because no one wants their clutter back.
I asked what made her want to go into business for herself. As a registered nurse on 12-hour shifts and a mother of seven (recently, eight), it was always more work than it was worth to declutter by selling on Facebook Marketplace and Ebay. Her sister, Taylor, told her about Preloved, which had originated in Utah Valley, patterned after Scandinavia's upscale thrifting culture. Taylor rented a booth at the Spanish Fork store for Payton, and by the end of the week, they had earned $200 and decided to keep doing this. Sometimes, a friend would pick up both of their piles of items when they were too busy to come in themselves. Eventually, they had earned over $3000, so they decided to take their grandma on a girls' trip to Disneyland. ("It was fun to spoil her, since she has always spoiled us.") She said they have taken family trips since then on earnings from decluttering. One day she was driving downtown past where Dalton's used to be, and it struck her that this would be a great spot for the sisters to open their own Preloved together. So they did.
Payton shared the mindset change that the Preloved lifestyle has given her and others: At your closet, in the kitchen, or elsewhere at home, just ask "What do I not naturally grab?" Relatedly, having multiple kids meant that she repeatedly went in and out of pregnancy / post-partum, so thrift-selling and thrift-buying was an easy way to cycle through clothing sizes. And since "kids can stain a $6 shirt just as well as a $40 shirt, it's fun to be able to dress them nicely on a budget," too. Elaborating further, "You start to think about the things you bring into your house more intentionally: will I use it, or will it likely gather dust?" As a result, she said, you become less likely to continually bring home nicknacks that will probably just become clutter.
"Your store is mainly targeted toward women, right?" Yes... but she has also seen business from men looking to sell their stuff, whether board games (the most popular booth in the store that particular week), books, or even sports gear and jerseys. One of her favorite moments was watching an older man bring his adult daughter and tell her he would just wait for her to be done. Then, he started browsing and "brought home more than she did!" The store has a kid playplace so moms and dads can browse with less distraction. Occasional kid-focused events like storytime are also in the works. Payton said they will also have event space to rent out when they finish remodeling another part of the building. They hope to offer that space for receptions and graduation parties as an inexpensive counterpoint to Payson's current high-end-only event spaces.
Tips from Payton, for anyone thinking of selling at Preloved:
- Your items don't have to be a specific brand or the newest style to sell well; it's just about looking nice.
- She has seen people try to bring items with dog hair still on them -- "consider washing your clothes first."
- Price to sell your items, not based on their sentimental value to you.
- No electronics, since the store doesn't provide testing, to avoid buyers ending up with items that don't work.
- Estate sales? Yes, and you'll want to book a few booths instead for what doesn't sell at the estate.
- And finally, just remember that cycling out stuff you don't want means pocket change to rotate things into your closet and home that you actually DO want.
To return to what I think is the neatest aspect, Preloved as indoor hometown market: Payton has been gradually reaching out to bakeries, home businesses, and local shops to promote their products and even find ways to collaborate. Besides the booths, they offer a little counter space and wall pegs for "Try before you SELL" product test-driving. For Mother's Day, they hosted a local flower vendor with a create-your-own-bouquet event and also invited Roots Coffee to participate. Since they own some of the empty space adjacent to the store, they are thinking of hosting larger groups of sellers on Saturdays, with more diversity than Preloved's average offerings. So for monthly Santaquin Hometown Market fans, consider Preloved as an outlet for all the in-between weeks and non-summer months for showing off your wares to the community.
Coming up in The Payson Chronicle:The Knob Snob — Turning Doorknobs Of Time Into Timeless Works Of Art
