Clothes Mentor buys and sells new or gently used trendy clothes to help fashionistas reduce their carbon footprint and help the environment. Clean out your closet today and bring in styles you no longer wear to Clothes Mentor for cash on the spot!
Joe Giannuzzi, from Clothes Mentor in Syracuse, discusses with ABC how you can snag some great fashion finds or sell your items from your recent closet clean-out, earning cash on the spot, all while helping the environment.
Interviewer 1
Well, it's that time of year when the warmer weather has us all combing through our closets and doing some spring cleaning of sorts.
Interviewer 2
Yeah, but cleaning out isn't what it used to be, from shopping second-hand to selling your stuff. Joe Giannuzzi of Clothes Mentor of Syracuse says that there's an uptake in recycled clothing, and he joined us this morning to tell us more. Good morning.
Joe Giannuzzi
Good morning, guys. How are you doing?
Interviewer 2
Good, Good. And, you know, first and foremost, Joe, why don't you tell us a little bit about the Clothes Mentor of Syracuse, who you are, and how you help people?
Joe Giannuzzi
Okay. Great. Great. We're a franchise presale center here. We're right here on the Boulevard. We're your neighbors, right down the Boulevard between Thompson Road—and Bridge Street. We've been here for ten years, starting our 11th year, and recycling is what we've been all about for a long time. We're a national franchise, and we buy slightly used women's fashion clothing, accessories, et cetera. handbags. Everything from Old Navy all the way up to a Louis Vuitton, if it's available.
Yeah, so we are there, and we're missing only sizes zero to six. We pay cash on the spot for your items. We go to our matrix and determine the actual price. We pay about 30% of the dollar; we sell for 30% of the dollar. So it's a way of recycling your closets, you know, get rid of the clutter, and you're walking away with cash, or if you choose, we can give you a 25% uplift for store credit with what we purchased.
So this is how it works, and we got everything. Like I say, all the brands that ladies love.
Interviewer 1
And Joe, what would you say sets you apart from other secondhand shops?
Joe Giannuzzi
Well, first of all, we do pay cash on the spot. We’re not consignment, but we had a consignment store previous to this where you’d hang the clothes on a rack with a determined price, and the seller wouldn't see any money until the item sold.
Here, you walk in what we accept; we pay you cash, and like you say, plus the 25% uplift—that's the main difference. Plus, we take all the current fashions. We select our items pretty much by style condition and our inventory needs—that's pretty much how we base it.
Interviewer 2
Joe, what's hot right now? Is there an item or brand particularly popular with you all?
Joe Giannuzzi
Well, everything is popular right now. Ladies love designer handbags. Like I said, we can sell them for a third of the price that you see in retail. We do price comparisons in our matrix, and our system determines the price we set on a particular item. But right now, the hot fashion is color, light, and bright. Spring is here.
Well, you wouldn't know if you looked out the window this morning. But if you walk in our showroom, you can see a lot of color behind me, and the color within fashion is hot right now. We call it hot fashion. But the thing is right now with the fact that there are still a lot of ladies working from home.
We sell cozy, comfy wear. That's our hot item, really. We sell probably four or five tops to one bottom because we’re doing virtual right now. I do have pants on, so when you’re virtual, they show you from the chest up, but I'm wearing trousers, of course.
But the gals can be home working very comfortably in their yoga pants or whatever you know; if you want to go get a coffee break while they're working, they can do that. So there's a lot going on right now. It's a whole change. We're going through a paradigm shift, but guess what? We're coming out of this thing, and we're very positive and optimistic about what's going on.
Interviewer 1
Yeah, you gotta embrace it. Right?
So, do you find Joe that there's been an uptick in business? You know, as women go through spring cleaning and look through their closets and say, you know what? I don't need this anymore. I don't need this anymore. Do you notice that uptick in business?
Joe Giannuzzi
Oh, absolutely. Most indeed. We're coming to a strong season right now: March, April, and May.
Those are our strong seasons because, like you said, ladies are cleaning their closets. Why are they recycling their inventory if you would? So that's what it's all about. Why put them in a dumpster? Why take them to the trash and fill our landfills when you can bring them here?
We've been green for a long time. It's a nouveau term right now. You know, birthdays are coming up next month. So we've been green since we opened. With our concept, you should recycle and walk away with green cash, of course, and everybody is happy.
Interviewer 2
Ah, before we let you go, Joe, let's say people don't have things to sell you to give to you. Can they still come here and look around and shop?
Joe Giannuzzi
Oh, are you kidding? Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. We got, like I say. Uh, I kind of coined the term, or the term we use, “We have your favorite fashion all under one roof.” All your brands that you love are in one store. I mean, the mall situations are changing. Uh, you can just look up the street. We can see that.
Uh, but like I say, you can walk in. You have every brand you can imagine, from Chico's to Loft and Lily Pulitzer. We have all the brands people love!
Interviewer 2
Fantastic! Well, we just want to thank you so much for joining us this morning, Joe. Thank you.
Joe Giannuzzi
Pleasure, our pleasure. Stop in and see us.
Interviewer 2
There we go, and you can stop by to see Joe at Clothes Mentor of Syracuse.
They're located at 3208 Erie Boulevard East; you can also find them on Facebook and see what they have in store online at syracuseny.clothesmentor.com
