Life

Niche shop cashes in on knickknacks

By Wang Wen (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-11-15 07:55

Swap shop owner Zhong Jie arranges some of the trinkets and knickknacks on the store's packed shelves. [Photo/ China Daily]

Co-owner Liao Hongbin stands at the entrance to his second-hand store.

Rows of tiny wooden cats and rabbits on offer at swap shop Change.

When passers-by marvel at how all the things in Liao Hongbin's shop are second-hand, they actually only see about half the picture.

"Everything in the store has a value when it becomes useful for someone," Liao said.

So it is no surprise that Liao used material from his previous bar business - window, door, floor and ceiling - to create his new shop.

Liao and his wife have operated their swap shop in Wudaoying Hutong for five months. Customers bring in their unwanted things, which are evaluated by the couple, before being handed vouchers for use in the store.

"We don't buy anything with actual cash," Liao said, adding that he strongly believes his store has something for everyone.

Zhong Jie, Liao's wife, first classifies the "new" old stuff and then shelves it. In addition to swapping tit for tat, customers can also buy items of interest directly with cash.

"This so-called useless stuff is always useful for other people," said Liao. "We help these things to find new owners and consumers to get fresh things."

Liao said the business was first conceived after the couple started selling their own cast-offs at another business venture, back in February.

They noticed that customers were more interested in old goods rather than their newer counterparts.

A foreign friend informed them about the concept of a swap shop and they opened their own in June. The shop was called "Change".

"Some friends said the shop should be called 'Exchange', but I wanted to stress the idea of change that might take place in a customer's concept of life," Liao told METRO.

To begin with, there was an issue with securing a solid supply channel of old things, but things soon picked up.

"Almost everyone has some knickknacks going to waste," said Liao, who added that he wants to teach the public about the importance of sharing.

The couple has now collected so much stuff that they need another two shops to put it all in.

Their current 25-square-meter shop can only display a few choice items out of the grand total.

"We change the goods on the shelves every two weeks or so," Zhong said.

Zhong is in charge of arranging the shop and loves to chat about the objects on offer and the people who snap them up.

"A large chunk of our customers are actually neighbors," Zhong said, adding that they are also mostly elderly people.

"They are great because they live in hutong that have large spaces, meaning that they have amassed a lot of old things."

Liao said the original business plan was to target customers living within a 3-kilometer radius, meaning that any taxi ride to the shop would be just 10 yuan and in keeping with the idea of saving money.

Not everything is accepted though. The shop refuses to accept items larger than a microwave oven, as well as cosmetic goods that come into direct contact with the body. Old electronic products are also not taken.

However, some of that might soon change as Liao plans to renovate the business to handle larger items, such as pieces of furniture.

"This kind of shop should be in every community in the city," he said. "Just like convenient stores."