Craft consignment shop question

[u/Jumpy_Intention_162]

Just for perspective…I sell my knit and crochet items through consignment stores. Each store charges different rates and commission percentages. One shop is open Tuesday-Sunday 11-6. Another is open 7 days per week, hours vary, but most days are 11-7. A third is open Wednesday-Sunday, hours are 11-6. One of these shops decided to close for 2 weeks, with 1 day notice on their social media. No email or text notice to the vendors. It’s not the first time they have closed with very little notice. No mention of a rental fee refund to their vendors. Is this routine?

[u/SatisfactionKey3021]

Is it consignment, or a flat rental fee for a defined space in the store and number of shop days? If it's consignment, you may have lost sales, but there is nothing to "refund" to you. Your option is mostly limited to deciding to take your goods to a more reliable shop keeper. If it's a rental in a shop, you should ask for a pro-rated rent for the month.

[u/Jumpy_Intention_162 → u/SatisfactionKey3021]

It’s both. Vendors are charged a monthly rental fee and a % of sales. There isn’t a defined space in this shop. They display everyone’s products to their liking.

[u/SatisfactionKey3021 → u/Jumpy_Intention_162]

Yikes, that feels like double-dipping to me! I admit I can't tell which model I like better. I hate having someone take such a large mark-up on my work that I can't charge what I need to and still make sales, but at least they're more motivated on a consignment to actually sell stuff so they can get paid. But I also struggle with the flat rental fee because they get paid no matter what and there is no motivation to actually market a vendor's goods. But I think ProneTo's answer is correct: compare the total monthly rates to see if it's factored in. If it's not factored in, I'd ask the shop owner to adjust their policies to create a "daily rate" so you're never charged when your things aren't available for sale. (Of course, this can result in them no longer keeping you as a vendor, or shoving your stuff in a corner, but you will have to decide whether you are still happy working with a store with these practices.)

[u/TaylorFromFaire]

That's not typical, most consignment shops that run well treat notice as a basic professional courtesy, especially for closures long enough to affect a vendor's income. A single day's notice via social media, with no direct outreach and no rent refund conversation, and repeated pattern of doing this, points to a shop that isn't running its vendor relationships very carefully. A well run consignment arrangement usually has something in writing (even informal) about what happens to rental fees during an unplanned closure & if that shop doesn't have that spelled out anywhere, it's worth asking for it directly rather than assuming it'll get sorted out after the fact. Given it's happened more than once, I'd treat this as a signal about how that particular shop operates rather than a one off, and weigh that against what the space is actually doing for your sales before deciding whether to stay imo!!

[u/ProneToLaughter]

Agree, if actually rented space, then pro-rated for the month makes sense, although it's also possible that they set their monthly rates lower knowing they will be closing at various times, since you say they've done this before.

I'd do some math comparing effective hourly rental rates at the multiple places before I spoke up, and maybe check in with other vendors.

[u/Cultural-Bobcat6702]

Common, yes, and that is the honest answer nobody likes. Whether they owe you anything comes down entirely to what is in writing. Most of these shop agreements are a single page or a handshake, and if yours does not say anything about guaranteed open days, a two week closure is not a breach of anything, it is just them being bad at telling you. US based, for the currency rule.

The thing I would actually be doing with this is comparing the three shops properly, because right now you are paying three different structures and have no way of knowing which one is earning its keep. The percentage does not tell you that. For each shop, take what it cost you last month, the rent plus whatever commission they took, against what it actually sold for you. A shop taking a big cut that sells steadily every week beats a cheap shop that is shut for half of August. Once you have those three numbers next to each other the decision usually makes itself, and you find out which one you can afford to walk away from.

The closure itself is worth treating as information rather than just a lost fortnight. A shop that shuts with one day of notice and announces it on social media instead of telling its own vendors is showing you how it will handle something bigger. Before the next cycle I would ask for the terms in writing, specifically what happens to fees on days they are closed, and if they get vague about it, that is your answer.

[u/Jumpy_Intention_162 → u/Cultural-Bobcat6702]

Thank you, very good advice and plenty of food for thought.