Hello!

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We’ve opened our second location and set up steady hours for both shops. We’re really excited about all the growth and changes since starting Gift and Thrift last October. If you’ve been with us since the beginning, thank you! If you’re new here, welcome!

We certainly learned a lot  and created a network of over 50 vendors through our Downtown Mesa shop since our inception last year. What we’ve noticed most in addition to sales, our vendors and creators receive additional benefits and resources from our shop - like networking with like minded creators, a marketing platform and business management etc. We took a hard look at the consignment model we had, the managing of merchandise and inventory. We also interviewed a few of you to find out what we could provide to bring value and growth to your business. 

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Our background is in marketing and small business management. As we developed relationships with each of you, we found ourselves offering a lot of different services, guidance and mentorship. As we continue to grow we want to make that a part of who we are and what we do.  We also noticed that a lot of our vendors and creators work very hard and attend a ton of markets throughout the year, requiring them to switch out merchandise regularly from the shop or having to come pick up merchandise for markets. We want to mention this because our new vendor/artist model will have less merchandise on hand in the shop.

People always ask us if we have an online store. With 50 vendors each having way more than 20/30 items in the shop at any given time, it was difficult to upload everything to an online store. If we reduce the number of items from each vendor/artist then that allows us to do more with each of the items, like having an online store and promoting the products and your brand to our followers.

 

10 items max in each shop at any given time. As soon as you have less than 10 items in the shop we will notify you that we need more merchandise. No need to reach out and check, we’ll be monitoring it very closely.We’ll update you at the end of each month what items need to be restocked.

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Custom display with your 10 items and a QR code to a custom landing page that we create with your social media links, online shop, or whatever you’d like us to point consumers to you. Your social media handle will also be on the display in case someone isn’t familiar with QR codes. We’ll indicate on your custom display that you take orders for custom work and encourage people to reach out to you or follow your account.

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Those 10 items will get the following every month

               Professional product photos for both our online shop and for your own use.

               Monthly Lifestyle photoshoot with one or more of your products featured.

Monthly advertising on social media promoting your product on our online store. We have over 5,000 local views on average for any ad we run. Since we will be promoting an online store, we can now run ads nationally as well.

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Exposure and promotion of your brand

The Mesa Dr. Gift & Thrift will be open Tuesday – Sunday with various hours and people will be able to shop your merchandise while our staff will be encouraging everyone that comes by to follow you on your social media platforms. Long term goal for the Mesa Drive location is to have it as a Coffee House. We have some updating we need to do to the kitchen for it to be code compliance.

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Weekly Concerts: Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Mesa Dr. Gift & Thrift will have shows weekly with live music and food vendors. We’ve learned that more people come out for good food and music, and then they shop for the vendors and artists. Our smaller downtown Mesa location didn’t allow for us to have weekly events that would increase foot traffic.

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Downtown Mesa Location: Our downtown Mesa location will be open Thursday-Sunday various hours. The hours will align with Novel Ice cream that is next to us. We discovered that the foot traffic from the Ice cream shop is our main traffic.

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Resources and Support

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Full-time Staff: With the upfront vendor fees, we are able to pay a full-time staff to manage both locations, the online store and social media marketing. We will only be hiring from within the vendor/artist community. It's always been our goal to help our vendors and artists leave a job that might not be fulfilling to them and offer opportunities where they can be creative and help other creatives grow out of their day-to-day jobs as well. Think of these people as your marketing and merchandise department. They will be accessible to help whenever and wherever they can.

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Workshops, both online and in person: We’re going to be helping with everything you need from starting a business and getting an LLC or TPT license to saving money on supplies and how to operate a successful small business. We work closely with a non-profit called RAIL CDC and they offer grants, business plan writing, bookkeeping and other small business consulting (for free).

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Market Vendor Discount:

Market on Main event: If you sign up with a year contract to be a vendor in our shops, you’ll also get 50% off all vendor fees at any Market on Main event.

Mesa Drive Market: If you choose to participate in any market on our Mesa Drive property and you are an approved vendor for that event, you won’t have to pay any vendor fee for a 10x10 tent space. We phrase it this way because there is space for 35 vendors and different events might have different themes. For the most part there will be plenty of room for anyone who wants to participate in the smaller markets but we don’t want to guarantee a spot will be available at each and every market. Plus you may not want to participate in every market. So the deal is that if you want to vend during a market, and there is space and you’re approved then you don’t have to pay any fee for that market because you’d already be paying a monthly fee to be a Gift & Thrift Vendor. 

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If you're interested in being an Instore Creator fill out this quick application.