Consignment shopping eases pain of rising prices

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Sari Pogue, Kirsten Whitefleet and Jennifer Ramos have something in common: The three young Sacramento mothers share the pain of rising costs for everything from food to gasoline to clothing for their growing children.

That's why recently they and more than 1,000 other moms and a handful of dads sorted through sales tables and scoured racks of "gently used" clothing at a Sacramento Convention Center exhibit hall as they searched for bargain buys.

"Every. Penny. Counts," said Pogue, the mother of four, pausing between words for emphasis. "Especially in this economy, the way it is, this needs to happen much more."

Just Between Friends, the massive three-day consignment show, is another barometer of a struggling economy as parents skip the trip to the Gap or Target in favor of deals on used children's clothing, strollers, cribs and toys. Started in 1997 by Tulsa, Okla., duo Daven Tackett and Shannon Wilburn, the idea grew from their first living-room consignment sales to 65 franchises in 16 states.

Housing and food are the two greatest expenses in raising children, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. Sometimes deals on those items can be hard to come by -- but clothing can be another matter.

"We spend a lot on clothes, probably $2,000 a year on clothes and shoes because they turn over so quickly," said Melissa Morris of Elk Grove, Calif., a mother of a 1-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl.

At this show, tables were covered with used clothes, toys, books and games. Cribs and strollers were in the back, and racks of hanging clothes stretched along the sides.

Whitefleet is the mother of a 2-year-old girl, and she doesn't need federal statistics to tell her that she will spend hundreds of dollars a year to clothe her daughter. As for Pogue, who has four children, she just spent up to $200 getting each of her three school-age children ready for the classroom.

Don't get her started, though, on the cost of shoes.

"They lose them. They ruin them. The dog chews them," Pogue said. "Clothes are the casualty of childhood."

Ramos, a stay-at-home mother whose husband works for a grocery, knows how to pinch pennies, watching everything from the price of gas to bottles and baby formula. Her daughter is 4 months old.

A $14 can of formula is $8 at the Just Between Friends consignment sale. A six-pack of baby bottles is $5; one bottle is $4 at Wal-Mart, she said. The baby stroller doubling as a cart for her haul of winter clothes: $55. At another store, the stroller "would be at least $150," Ramos said.

It's Ramos' third Just Between Friends sale, and the event is on her family's calendar.

"We save and save and we come here and spend," she said. "It's expensive nowadays. You can only go so many places without running out of gas, and baby stuff's extremely expensive."

That's what initially drew Shannon Carter to Just Between Friends' Sacramento sales in 2003. Now a Just Between Friends franchisee who holds twice-yearly sales in Sacramento, Carter said those early events helped the family get by.

"I have six children myself. This was a huge savior," she said.

Carter said she expects this consignment concept -- she calls it a "multifamily garage sale times 500" -- to grow as higher prices push demand for bargain items.

Alisa Harrison, a spokeswoman for the International Franchise Association, the Washington-based trade organization for franchisees, said franchises are poised to do well in a slowing economy.

"Franchise businesses can grow rapidly to respond to growing consumer needs," she said. "Logic will tell you there's a demand here and there's also potential for growth."

(E-mail Darrell Smith at dvsmith(at)sacbee.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)