Fast-growing resale clothing franchise is taking the thrift store experience where it’s never been before
When Americans think about buying used clothes, images of bargain-bins and treasure hunting in cluttered, dingy thrift stores come to mind – but most Americans haven’t been to an Uptown Cheapskate resale clothing franchise.
At Uptown Cheapskate, we marry best-in-class value and assortment with a beautifully designed boutique shopping experience. When shoppers walk into Uptown Cheapskate for the first time, they might not even realize that they’re in a used clothing store at all – except when they look at the prices. That’s exactly why more and more shoppers are turning to Uptown Cheapskate for their fashion needs and why Uptown Cheapskate is the fastest-growing brand in the $39 billion resale clothing industry.
“The secondhand clothing industry is exploding right now,” says Chelsea Sloan Carroll, Uptown Cheapskate Co-Founder. “The media focuses on the rise of online retail shopping, but in reality, our stores have average ticket prices of $10. There is a tangibility about shopping resale that you simply cannot get online. When people come in and shop for clothing, they’re going to reject a lot, and for a $10 average price, it doesn’t make sense for us to ship our clothes online, and it doesn’t make sense for customers who want to try their items on. We’re seeing tremendous growth in terms of profitability and customer count in our stores, and we’re seeing a tremendous rise in the popularity of resale shopping.”
Uptown Cheapskate is an ethical way to shop
One of the reasons why resale clothing is becoming so popular, especially among the coveted younger buyer demographic of millennials and Gen-Z, is because shopping for new clothing is terrible for the environment. Vogue published an article titled, “How Your Fast-Fashion Habit is Harming More than the Earth,” which details exactly how shopping for new clothes negatively impacts everything from greenhouse gas emissions to workers’ rights and more:
“Producing a single pair of jeans can take more than 10,000 liters of water, one-fifth of a person’s entire personal water consumption in a lifetime,” the publication writes.1 “And if we’re not clad in cotton, we are usually to be found in a form of polyester. According to the World Resources Institute, world polyester production releases greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 185 coal-fired power plants every year.”
Uptown Cheapskate is the antidote to the horrible practices of the fast-fashion economy. Our franchise owners buy gently used clothing from their customers, and give those items a second life by selling them at a significantly reduced price. The quality of what we accept is highly rigid and automatized through our proprietary software to ensure quality. Our customers love the savings – and they also love that they’re saving the environment at the same time.
“There’s a high cost for shopping new and consumers are waking up to the fact that fast-fashion brands are big polluters,” Sloan Carroll says. “Oil is the number one polluting economy in the world, and fashion is number two. If our customers are shopping resale, they’re saving the environment and they look just as good as their friends who go down to the mall and pay full price.”
Better Together Means We’ve Got Your Back
As a franchise opportunity, Uptown Cheapskate has no equal. Founded by the visionary leadership team who made Kid to Kid a national resale clothing franchise with more than 100 locations throughout the country, Uptown Cheapskate knows exactly how to empower entrepreneurs to own thriving businesses that make a difference.
The industry agrees
Our proven business model has been lauded as a best-bet investment by Entrepreneur magazine’s “Franchise 500,” for five consecutive years, as well as included in Franchise Time’s Top 200+. The reason for our ranking is simple: as an emerging leader in the resale clothing segment, Uptown Cheapskate offers world-class support that begins the moment a franchise owner starts their journey with us.
“As a franchisor, our goal is to help franchisees be successful in our system,” says Scott Sloan, Uptown Cheapskate Co-Founder. “Our goal is to drive profitability, manageability, and growth of the stores in the system. We do that by providing world-class franchisee support in all aspects of the business. We have a full-service marketing team, including social media experts, that makes it easy for franchisees to get the word out to their communities. We have a bookkeeping team to help our franchisees exceed their financial goals. We have a proprietary software suite, which includes managing the buying process for items that go into our stores and so much more. Our support is robust, and we’re very active in ensuring that your business has all the tools you need to thrive.”
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