I recently read a review on yahoo about ANOTHER consignment shop where the owner got ripped by the reviewer for "rudely" insisting that the person have an appointment before bringing their items in.  Perhaps the owner was rude. I do not know, I was not there.  BUT, I do have to say that people have left my store extremely irritated when I have been unable to take their clothing without an appointment.  AND, I absolutely was not rude. I have been, in fact, deeply apologetic about it.  MANY MANY TIMES.
     I get it.  I get that you have cleaned out your closet and want to get rid of the pile of stuff you no longer want. NOW! I get that there are some things you just cannot bear to give to the Salvation Army, Goodwill, or your second cousin who does not deserve your generosity and probably will not appreciate it anyway. I am the same way.  When I finally put off procrastinating, I want it done and over with.  I do not want the stuff to sit there in my newly purged and organized closet for three weeks while I wait for some snooty store owner to grant me an audience. I get it. Really, I do.  You still need an appointment. Maybe if you understood why, you wouldn't leave my store or any other in an unecessary, and very unhealthy, rage.
     **Most consignment stores are small businesses.  They are owned and run by one or two employees. As for Alexis Grace, I am pretty much it.  I could not possibly accept all the clothing that comes through my doors.  As it is, I am booked nearly a month in advance, and I take two to three appointments a day.  That means I price and tag about 100 plus items per day. . . WHILE waiting on customers, cleaning, organizing, paying bills,  . . . you get the picture. 
     **In today's economy more and more people are considering consignment as a way to make a few extra dollars.  I am INNUNDATED with people wanting to consign.  I, literally, without exaggeration, receive 10 or more phone calls and another 10 or more emails a day from people interested in consigning. Please understand, I am not complaining--this is not a terrible problem to have--it allows me to be selective, to have a great variety for the customers, to continually turn over new inventory and to meet and speak to lot of great people. BUT--if I allowed every one of those callers or emailers to come in whenever they wanted, with whatever they wanted, my store would be bursting at the seams and I would be in lockup.
     **YOU probably have great things.  Yet, for every one of you there are two disillusioned, misinformed, clueless people out there who bring me things that Pigpen would turn his nose up at.  Or just things that may be perfectly nice--in ANOTHER store.  I have made people angry by telling them I am terribly sorry but I cannot take their opened box of diapers, dirty stuffed animals, pet toys, 1986 stained Patriots t-shirt, broken jewlery, watches with no batteries, pilly sweaters, sweaters covered in dog hair, winter coats in July, wrinkled clothes that you just pulled out of a trash bag, pants with broken zippers, missing buttons and smelling of mold, smoke, perfume and/or moth balls. Every time one of these people leave my store, or I just have to turn someone away who stops by with clothes in their car, I have this deep seeded fear that I am going to see Alexis Grace written up on the blogosphere with a frowny face or two thumbs down symbol next to it. 
     So, please, before you write a nastygram about me or any other store owner, take a minute and walk a mile in our Franco Sartos.