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Saturday, July 5, 2025

The Shoppe on Main: Providing for a Non-Profit Organization

With their one-year anniversary coming up in December, The Shoppe on Main at 236 North Main Street continues to promote their store to the Farmville community. The local consignment shop is owned by STEPS, a non-profit organization, which benefits from the store's proceeds. STEPS provides employment opportunities for people with disabilities or diverse abilities. The non-profit organization owns many other businesses, such as a cleaning service and a plant that produces jackets for the army.

The Shoppe on Main has many different advertising outlets. They continually update their Facebook page with pictures of mannequins, and they try to get as many "Likes" as possible. "But a lot of people honestly that live here still don't know we're here," said Assistant Manager Debbie Militello. With the regularly changing window displays, the hope is to attract customers and bring them into the store.

As their target customer market ranges anywhere between the ages 18 and 60, the shop has also advertises with The Rotunda and The Farmville Herald. "We have high school girls that come in; all sorts of different ages," said Militello. Recently, the shop sent out a huge direct mailer as well, which consisted of 1,300 cards in order to promote their business. They also have a brochure of monthly coupons, which are valid through the rest of this year.

A previously owned retail space opened up in South Hill and one of the store's board members encouraged them to open another store in that space. "The other store is called The Repeat Boutique and it makes more sense because you kind of think, okay, so that means you're using it over," said Militello.

With the second store that just opened in South Hill in October, the shop continues to grow. "We wanted to expand the reach of STEPS," said Boutique Manager Katherine Beale. Beale is responsible for both The Shoppe on Main and The Repeat Boutique. "Well, right now I'm starting the business up [at The Repeat Boutique] and my team in Farmville is very well-trained; they know what I expect," said Beale. Beale spends most of her time at The Repeat Boutique to train staff members at that store.   

Many people are not yet aware that The Shoppe on Main will be changing their name to The Repeat Boutique around their upcoming anniversary. "I think that's why a lot of people don't come in here because they don't know what it is," said Militello. It may be assumed that The Shoppe on Main is a pricy boutique instead of a reasonably-priced consignment shop.

The consignment shop carries name brand items such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Ann Taylor, Lilly Pulitzer, and Marc Jacobs. The shop is currently looking for more clothing items and accessories that cater to the younger college crowd. Even though they have guidelines for brands they do and do not accept, as long as clothing pieces look nice and are what the shop is looking for, they will most likely look into buying them from customers. "A lot of people are choosing to donate their items since we're non-profit," said Militello. Customers are realizing the importance of the non-profit organization and are donating their clothes to the shop instead of selling them in exchange for cash.

"Right now we have a system in place that's called ‘A Drop and Run,' so if they're a current consigner they don't have to stand around and wait for us to go through everything," said Militello. Customers can drop off their clothes, leave, and come back and pick up the clothes that the store does not accept. "It's convenient; it's an asset to Farmville. It gives you a choice of higher end clothing that's not in town," said customer Pam Waycaster. Waycaster has made three trips to the store and plans to consign with the shop in the future.

Right now the shop is looking for volunteers in order for the employees to get more time on the floor selling instead of doing inventory and organizing in the back. "We spend a lot of hours taking in clothes, so we're not on the floor as much as we could be because we're kind of doing behind the scenes, so it would be nice to have some volunteers," said Militello.

All of the managers have multiple tasks among all of the store's responsibilities. "I'm on the floor, I do the inventory, I do all of the bookkeeping; I do whatever is necessary," said Beale. Beale previously worked at a bank, and was approached and asked if she wanted the opportunity to work with STEPS, who had just received a grant for an upscale consignment business. Beale jumped on the opportunity because she had always been interested in owning her own clothing store. "I love what I'm doing now; I feel like I'm doing something good," said Beale.

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