NORWICH — The Norwich Women’s Club has switched to an online consignment system for its semiannual Nearly New Sale.
The change takes effect for the upcoming fall Nearly New Sale, which takes place Friday, Oct. 18-Sunday, Oct. 20. The change is partly in response to consigners, who found the old system of manually writing a list of items and the accompanying tags cumbersome, said Annette Brown, who co-chairs the sale along with Elaine Waterman.
“We’ve been asked by our younger working consigners to do this because it’s more convenient for them,” Brown said, adding that the online system generates the tags for the consigners. “This is so much quicker.”
Brown said that, while the club expects that they will lose some consigners who prefer the old system, they hope to attract new people to the sale. Additionally, the club has raised the number of items per consigner from 80 to 125. Cosigners receive 50% of each item sold.
“Now that they’re doing it all themselves at home … We figure we can handle an increase,” Brown said.
Online consignment closes at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct 12. Clothes then must be brought to Tracy Hall to be inspected on one of the following dates: From noon-7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 16, and Thursday, Oct. 17, or 9 a.m.-2 p.m on Friday, Oct. 18. There is a change to that process as well.
“It used to be that you had to sit and wait for your items,” Brown said. Now, people can drop them off and pick up the items that are rejected at a later time.
The first Nearly New Sale took place in 1963, Brown said. The proceeds go toward higher education scholarships for Norwich residents. Last year, the spring and fall sales raised more than $30,000.
The changes are also in response to a change in volunteers. While the sale used to draw 250 helpers, “now we’re lucky if we can get 200,” Brown said. Volunteers are still needed for this month’s sale to help set up, working during the sale and help clean up after it is over. Shifts are around 2½ hours to 3¼ long. Children in fifth grade and up are welcome to volunteer with their parents.
Each Nearly New Sale sees 100-200 consigners who bring an average of about 30 items each, Brown said. The fall sale features clothing for fall and winter and the spring sale features clothes from spring and summer.
Popular fall items include sweaters and jackets.
“It’s amazing the number of sweaters we get, but we seem to sell the majority of them, for both men and women,” Brown said.
She has also noticed a decrease in the amount of children’s clothing that comes in.
“We have really seen a change in the last few years,” Brown said. “There maybe isn’t quite the interest in selling as there is passing them around.”
While the majority of the sale is made up of consigned clothing, people can also donate clothing. Items left over from the sale are usually donated to Listen.
Editor’s note: The Nearly New Sale takes place from 7-9 p.m. on Oct. 18, and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on Oct. 19. The half-price sale is from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Oct. 19 and is followed by the bag sale from 1:30-3 p.m., when people can fill a bag of items for $15. For more information about consigning items, volunteering or the sale in general, visit norwichwomensclub.org/nearlynewsale.html. Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com.
