Consignment Stores Offer Big Brands

RINKER BUCK

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Now here's a cure for that teenage fashionista of yours who feels bitten by the recession.

At Uptown Consignment in South Windsor — a renovated former CVS store which owner Barbara Capenera believes is the largest single consignment store in the country — that pinched fashion plate of yours can earn an instant $10 for her Seven jeans, or $30 for her Citizen's Humanity or True Religions.

Uptown's "Cash For Your Jeans" promotion, advertised on WKSS-FM and on the front cover of the Rare Reminder shopper, is just one of the sophisticated marketing practices that has made consignment stores some of the busiest retail locations in recession-era suburban Hartford.

"We're solving two problems at once with this promotion," Capenera said. "We need to get kids into the store while they're young to discover that reselling their clothes is the hip thing, the green thing and something that can earn them instant cash. And by keeping a steady stream of kids coming through the store to trade in their clothes, we're constantly restocking the hot brands our customers want."

Growth like that has made the thrift and consignment segment one of the few bright spots in retailing and is attracting new players to the Connecticut market. Savers, a 220-store chain that resells clothing and housewares purchased from nonprofit organizations, is opening its first store in Connecticut, next door to the Wal-Mart on Buckland Hills Drive in Manchester.