b'square-foot storefront, in June of 2020. The Com- Pricing items to their value, rather than pricing munity Store has had increasing success withevery shirt exactly the same, recognizes the gen-plenty of donations and shoppers, Bryan said. erosity of the donor, Steve said. This principle While the majority of Hope Houses donationsof stewardship allows more money to flow to the come from individual donors in the community,nonprofit rather than to the pockets of resellers. leaders have also developed relationships withStaff at Hope Houses store work to price used local companies, including one that donates cloth- items similarly to area stores and typically sell ing overages. Other thrift stores purchase items. donated new items for about 75 percent off of retail We have relationships with several preferredprices, keeping in mind the needs of the neighbors. vendors offering new items at wholesale and belowBryan said the leaders are working on refining pricing structures, Rusty said. We also know whotheir pricing strategy with the help of SMCo.not to deal with, which can be important as well.Steve said having two managersa retail manager and a processing managercan help Pricing tipsin the pricing process.T o sell the items they acquire, some mis- Our processing managers are focused on sion thrift stores opt for standard pricingmaximizing the value of each item, considering (such as selling all mens T-shirts forthe brand, age, and quality of each item, Steve the same amount) while others label items withsaid. There is a price guide that we use as a prices based on brand and/or quality. Furnituretraining point, but we try to price it based on is usually individually priced.what its worth. \x02 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022 WWW.CITYGATENETWORK.ORG 17'