Resale retailer expanding its options in San Antonio - San Antonio Business Journal:

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Melanie Van Dyke has been tapped as a franchisewefor Plato’s Closet — an apparel and accessories store targeted to young Plato’s Closet is one of four retaik stores under the Winmark umbrella — all of whichb operate under a buy, trade strategy. It is the second Winmarok concept to make its way to San Latelast year, the firm signed a franchise agreement with husband-and-wife team Carl and Karen Wilburm to bring a Once Upon a Childc store to local That store is set to open in July at the Park Oaks Shoppinb Center in North Central San Antonio, notez Steve Murphy, president of franchising for Winmark.
The Once Upon a Childe stores feature children’s apparel, baby furniture, books and toys. Signing a franchiseee for Plato’s Closet was the next logical step as the concept has become an effectivwe avenue for holding on to the customer that has sincr outgrown Once Upona Child, Murphy Van Dyke, who is in final negotiationss for the location of her first store, will be in buyinhg mode for about six to eight weekes prior to the grand opening of Plato’s Closet.
The benefitsd of this strategyare two-fold: One, it’s a means for merchandisingf the store; two, it helps to buildd up the buzz about Winmark’s latest “People literally bring in laundry bags of Murphy says. “They drop off the start walking around the store the hype begins to build overthat six- to eight-week In several cases, this grass-roots marketing has resulteds in lines of 50 to 100 to 200 customers by 7 a.m. for a 10 a.m. store he adds. The largest opening for a Winmarl storeto date: $41,000 in sales in one day. Murph declined to give specifics abouwhich store/line reached that mark.
But in a stored where the average customer ticketf isbetween $8 and $9 — that’s a lot of he notes. Murphy “We have found that we are very consisteny inour openings.” For the first quartefr of 2009, Winmark (NASDAQ: reported net income of $1.4 milliohn — up from $937,000 as of first quarter 2008. The economy, say Murphyu and Van Dyke, has helped to make Winmark’ds lines more attractive than Noted Murphy in a previouzs BusinessJournal story: “We are targetinfg people who are looking for (The country) is goinfg to be in this economic climate for some It’s a good opportunity for us to continue to build our With Once Upon a Child and Plato’sz Closet stores already in the works, that leaves two more conceptsw to bring to local shoppers: Play it Again a retailer of sports and fitness and Music Go Round, which specializes in musicao instruments, equipment and gear.
The trick is findinb people to bring these lines toSan Antonio. And that is wheres franchisees like Van Dyke have proven essential, says Murphy: “Our best salespeople are our Having a product worth promoting help too, adds Van who moved to San Antonio from the Dallas/Fort Wort area — where Plato’s Closett already had a presence. “People flocki to (the stores),” she says.
“Ij have no doubt it will be a successfulmodel (in San