In the world of thrifting, few things are more important than product turnover. A thrift store that moves product quickly and consistently displays new items will be a popular place for thrifters to visit. “The thrifting community is pretty tight,” said Lt. Colonel Lee Ann Thompson, who leads the Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC) Command with her husband, Lt. Colonel Greg Thompson. “Word gets around to where the good stuff is.”
Working off this knowledge, exciting things are happening in ARC thrift stores across the territory. Over the past year, each store has been “flipped” with processes and procedures getting an overhaul to increase the rate of donations from backroom to store floor to sold. The Flip the Store initiative has been an immense success, with stores reporting higher morale, positive employee feedback, and an immediate uptick in product movement and sales.“The beauty of this is that it doesn’t cost anything,” said Colonel Lee Ann. “It’s a new and improved way of processing donations that gets them out on the sales floor more quickly.”
A method developed by Envoy Tom Canfield, administrator for business at the Minneapolis, Minn., ARC, called “power sorting” and a formula for determining key indicators and efficiency standards was the basis for flipping the stores. In most locations, shifting a few things around in the backroom and training the staff in the power sorting method is all that was needed to process 75 percent more product for the floor each day, resulting in an instant increase in revenue. Some stores are seeing an increase in sales of as much as $1,000 per day.
“The reality is that the ARC overall has been struggling with funding. Administrators are doing the absolute best they can do to keep expenses down, so the only way you can address that is to adjust production and pricing,” said Envoy Jacqulynn Idzior, who with her husband, Envoy Bob Idzior, leads the Southeast, Mich., ARC. “The question was how to do that without adding to the plates of administrators that are already full.”
Envoys Bob and Jacqulynn came up with the idea of sending teams with experience using the new method out to other ARC locations for a week of training and mentoring their administrators and store employees on not only power sorting, but also the important metrics needed to determine daily production goals. That way, instead of seeing it work somewhere else, they could see the possibilities in their own contexts.
“By training administrators in their own centers, we were able to show them that hey, you can do this, and it can be fun! It can be energizing. And when you take that energy and spill it out onto your staff it’s contagious,” she said.
In addition, weekly check-in meetings with assigned coaches from the ARC Command were
implemented. Coaches, administrators, ARC staff, and store managers from each center gather virtually to discuss how things are going. “We’re very honest in our feedback,” said Colonel Lee Ann. “Each week we look at stats, celebrate successes, and talk about challenges. The success of the teams is really driving them to want to do more.”
“It builds so much confidence having the leaders of the command in the trenches with us,” said Envoy Jesse Links, who leads the St. Louis, Mo., ARC. “That call puts everybody on cloud nine. It sets the week.”
While there were growing pains, administrators report overwhelmingly that adopting the new process has reenergized staff, increased morale and motivation, and brought them into a more cohesive team. “It helped change the culture. It got everyone in the store involved in what is ultimately the most important thing, which is the mission,” said Envoy Jesse.
