With the youth of yesterday and today getting older and spending more time and money in today's economy, more retail shops in the future will need to change their format to cater to consumer needs of tomorrow. In doing this, it is prevalent that more hip urban shops, and vintage clothing stores will open in the days to come. It is no secret that the mark up in a vintage clothing store is different than that of most typical retail shops, some feel that the margin of profit on the merchandise is well worth the time and effort spent acquiring it. This is because it is common for most retail shops to get anywhere from an 80% -150% mark up on items purchased from a wholesaler, where it is not un-common for a vintage shop to get anywhere from a 200%, up to even 500% on sellable items. The profit margin is quite a bit better than that of a typical retail shop, not including the expenses in the time and effort used to find the merchandise. Perhaps this is what draws individuals to this industry in the first place. The cliental for a vintage clothing store doesn't generally mind the mark up, because they know that it is virtually impossible to go anywhere with such a selection of particular items that they are searching for. It is then up to the Shop itself to add a hip environment that will draw their cliental to them. Most successful vintage clothing stores offer a unique environment with a distinct personality that remind customers of when shopping use to be a great experience. As our culture becomes even more shopping obsessed, vintage clothing stores are helping to inject culture back into commerce. Because of this most vintage clothing stores can be found in cultural walking plazas that draw a daily cliental to tattoo shops art galleries or other interesting surrounding shops. With existing vintage stores in the market and more to come in the future, ways for buyers to obtain merchandise will have to evolve as well. The ideal situation for these stores would be to keep the same mark up, reduce the cost of storage, and save time on finding the merchandise that will fill the racks. One way to do this is to give the opportunity for shop buyers to purchase items in a similar format to that of a typical retail shop.

Photos: Counter Culture | Deep Ellum, dallas

www.ccvintage.com