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Plato's Closet offers fashion fit for teens

Cash-strapped youths swap in style at Plato's Closet.

By MARK ALBRIGHT, Times Staff Writer
Published January 11, 2008

Brittanie Dede, center, squeezes into a size 2 dress Thursday at Plato's Closet in Palm Harbor with friends Adrianna Jardell, left, and Kelsey Belloise. Plato's buys old designer clothes and resells them as used at a fraction of the original cost.
	[Douglas R. Clifford | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Douglas R. Clifford | Times] Brittanie Dede, 16, flashes $65.05 to her friends after being paid Thursday at Plato's Closet in Palm Harbor for a dozen tops and jeans, many of which were Abercrombie and Hollister brand names.

Pawing through the racks at Plato's Closet for the fifth time since Christmas, Nezmayda Rodriguez explained why she sells her relatively new clothes here, then uses the cash to buy newer second-hand replacements.

"I'm a trendy dresser, so I have be practical," said the 33-year-old bank teller from Holiday. "I love the styles and you can't beat the prices. I got a pair of ($100) 7 for All Mankind jeans here for $20."

Once the province of consignment shops, vintage clothing dealers and nonprofit thrift stores, apparel resellers have a new, fast-growing rival that buys as well as sells, and claims fickle young fashion as its home turf.

The fastest growing unit of Winmark Corp., a Minneapolis franchisor that parlayed other used-goods chains like Play-It-Again-Sports into a national brand with 381 stores, Plato's sales have been growing faster than the popular brand stores whose fashions it recycles. Its store count almost doubled to 209 in three years.

The company has not reported figures, but sales in stores open more than a year rose "double-digit" over last year while full-price apparel retailers were flat.

Plato's carries a variety of youth apparel brands from preppy Polo to Forever 21. But it really loads up on top-selling, age-14-to-25 favorites of the moment. Today that's Hollister, Abercrombie & Fitch, Aeropostale and American Eagle.

Fickle teenage fashion ages fast. So little of Plato's selection is older than 18 months.

Thanks to teens and parents anxious to save about 70 percent on full retail prices, it's part of a growing used goods industry also benefiting from other trends: young people's interest in recycling; their awareness of selling used goods over online auction sites, and a weak economy stretching family budgets.

"Whenever the economy slows, our business goes up," said Adel Meyer, executive director of the National Association of Resale and Thrift Shops. She estimates the nation's 25,000 second-hand-goods stores continues growing 5 percent a year.

Locally, Plato's Closet grew since 2002 to eight franchised stores, most of which generate close to the chainwide average of $600,000 annually.

"The secret is a lot of little things," said Scott Giesinger, who manages the brand. "We look like stores, not thrift shops. We're fortunate current fashion has a worn-in look. But paramount is our ability to buy the apparel names direct from customers that people want."

Learning the ritual takes time. For starters, first-timers are stunned their precious duds are worth so little.

The chain pays 30 to 40 percent of what its resale price will be. So the markup is even higher than a department store's.

"We only buy what we can sell, so it takes some educating that we won't buy everything," said Karen Ragsdale, who owns stores in Palm Harbor and St. Petersburg.

"Once you learn what they want, it's a great way to get something for clothes I would throw away for nothing," said Mike Wilson, a 22-year-old St. Petersburg College junior.

Peak seasons? Right before spring break, back-to-school and Christmas holiday. That's when students need cash and a new look. Plato's gets 14 percent of its business in August, 10 percent during the holidays.

The clothes-buying clerks see it all. Newcomers lug in full lawn and leaf bags hoping for a big payoff. A few dump their unwashed laundry on the counter. Occasionally a rodent lurks inside. A Palm Harbor customer's bag contained a pair of shorts with a half-full Bud Light in the pocket.

Plato buys freshly laundered rather than clean purchases.

Sometimes, however, stuff happens. In Orlando, a DEA agent complained his daughter found a baggie of marijuana in the pocket of jeans she purchased. And a Tarpon Springs girl got a refund and retrieved her clothes that her brother sold without authorization.

Plato's pays little for luxury brands because few young people buy them. Even the small selection of $150 premium denim brands goes as high as $45, while most of the 1,200 pairs of denim in a store is priced at $10 to $20.

A computer bases prices on brand and condition. So clerks judge garment age by the label vintage from a catalog of 15,000 labels (Hollister uses 25 new labels each season).

Buyers follow local teen trends. Skinny jeans? Didn't catch on. Low-rise jeans? The belt line has moved up to below the belly button, but T-shirts cover the midriff. Dark-dye jeans are in, but not faded or high-pocket.

[Last modified January 11, 2008, 01:56:17]