The Other Women consignment store opens in Chelsea

Owners and good friends Laura Rivard and Kim Watkins, both waitresses at Metzger’s German Restaurant in Ann Arbor, have always wanted to open a business together.

Watkins’ cousin owns a successful consignment store in Brighton called Trading Closets. With the cousin serving as mentor, the friends decided to open a similar business.

“I used to go to Salvation Army before resale was popular and get these granny-style dresses for $3,” said Rivard, who also works as a relief postal carrier in Belleville. “My whole life I used to do that, and I love it.”

The Other Women—named to denote women trading things with one another as well as its slightly “sexy” sound, according to Rivard— settled on Chelsea since Watkins was living there and enjoyed the community.

In addition to women’s clothing and accessories, they also have some men’s and children’s clothing as well as a few designer items such as a Coach purse and wallet, BKE jeans and an Armani dress. They carry some newer items, too, such as brand-new women’s jeans and cords from Talbots that went out of business in Brighton.

“It really depends on what comes along,” said Rivard. “Anything that can get up the 23 steps to the business, we’ll take as long as it’s in good condition.”

Although they do have some higher-end items, they want to appeal to a large market and will take anything up-to-date in good condition — even vintage clothing.

“We’d like anybody to be able to come in and buy something,” said Rivard. “That’s our goal.”

How the store works is people bring in their freshly laundered items for sale, Rivard and Watkins check them over to make sure the items can be used and are in good condition, and the items are placed on the floor for immediate sale. Sales are split between the consignor and store 50/50, except for artists who get 70 percent of a sale.

Items are kept for 60 days. If it doesn’t sell in that time, consignors can pick it up or donate it to Faith in Action or Goodwill.

Pricing is typically a quarter of what an item sells for retail. Though the price range varies, most items are priced in the $4 to $20 range.

The friends have created one wall in the store called a “women’s wall” on which anyone is invited to post a picture of a woman in their life who has influenced them. So far, Rivard’s mom and her friend Lynn’s sister grace the wall.

Although Chelsea has another consignment store called Shabby Chic Consignments, Rivard does not consider it competition but rather believes they can benefit from each other.

“(The Shabby Chic owner) came to our grand opening, and she is very friendly. We want to help each other out. If we don’t have something, she could have it. Consignment is all that way; you have different things all the time.”

Rivard and Watkins will work at the store themselves as well as have a few friends pitching in here and there. They do not plan to hire employees at this time.

In addition to being an easy business to launch with low overheard and inventory costs, Rivard says consignment makes sense in other ways as well.

“With everything in landfills, it’s great to do consignment. Consignment helps out the consignor a bit and helps out the community. You can buy things cheaper than it would normally cost. With the economy the way it is, it makes sense.”

The Other Women is open Monday through Thursday from 10-6 pm; Friday and Saturday from 10-8 pm and Sunday 12-4 pm.