Overview
Love fashion and style? Love being around young people? Then why not make it your business?
Plato’s Closet buys and sells gently used apparel, shoes, handbags and accessories to teens and young adults in a fast-paced, fun and energetic environment. We pay our customers cash on the spot for their gently used merchandise, and help them stretch their limited budgets further by offering them high quality, used merchandise at a fraction of the cost of new.
The stores range from 3,000 to 4,000 square feet and are in suburban centers and power strip malls. The franchise monitors trends and style changes so that the franchisees and their staff can focus on buying the right merchandise at the right price. The point of sale system has a built in pricing matrix, allowing the franchisees and their team to simply enter the items on a touch screen monitor to get a price quote for the customer.
The stores pay cash on the spot to people who bring in gently used items purchased within the past couple of years. These items are then resold for 70% to 90% less than what the item would be new. No appointments are necessary for customers who wish to sell items, and they can sell all year round, no matter the season.
Why Choose Us?
Plato’s Closet has been ranked by Entrepreneur Magazine as the #1 teen and #1 retail franchise for the past several years. We have the highest average unit sales volume in the industry and the highest gross margins. We have been the fastest growing resale retail franchise since our inception in 1999. In addition:
- The retail resale segment is hot right now, representing the fastest growing segment of retail today
- Environmentally-friendly business models are driving the green economy
- Recycling businesses focused on sustainability are on trend and growing, and are especially important to Gen Z and Millennial customers
- The shared economy represents the greatest opportunity for entrepreneurs now and in the near future
- The service resale retail stores provides to their customers makes us an important part of their communities
Despite the robust growth of Plato’s Closet, plenty of opportunities remain for new stores. The franchise website lists the cities/areas in each state that the company would like growth in.
Winmark, the parent company for Plato’s Closet, offers extensive training and support to store owners in areas such as business planning, pricing, styles and trends, retail site selection, marketing and advertising, and field operations.
Ideal Candidate
Plato’s Closet prefers that its franchisees serve as hands-on store owners and operators, although the company can give consent for a franchisee to delegate the duties. That’s necessary for those owners who have multiple locations. The candidate must be passionate about the brand, the good purpose we serve to our communities and the good we do for the planet. No prior retail experience is required – in fact, most of our franchisees had no retail experience prior to joining our franchise.
Winmark reports that many of its franchisees become multi-brand owners (with the brands available being Once Upon a Child, Play It Again Sports, Plato’s Closet, Style Encore and Music Go Round). Franchisees who are interested in this possibility may also make ideal candidates.
History
Winmark Corporation, based in Minneapolis, is the parent for Plato’s Closet and has been franchising the stores since 1999. Winmark focuses on used items, and its other franchises include Play It Again Sports, Once Upon A Child, Style Encore and Music Go Round.
Training And Support
The training program consists of more than 65 hours of in-store and classroom training in areas such as store operations, merchandising and customer service.
Disclaimer
*The Average Store numbers are the 2019 Average Gross Sales and Average Gross Profit amounts stated in Item 19 of the 2020 Plato’s Closet® Franchise Disclosure Document (as reported by 453 of the 454 stores that had been in operation at least one year as of December 28, 2019). Of the 453 reporting stores, 193 or 43% of the stores attained or exceeded the Average Gross Sales and 192 or 42% of the stores attained or exceeded the Average Gross Profit. The Top Quartile Average Gross Sales and Average Gross Profit only relates to 113 of the reporting Plato’s Closet® Stores who ranked in the top 25% of the gross sales range. Of the 113 reporting stores in the top quartile, 44 or 39% of the stores attained or exceeded the top quartile Average Gross Sales and 45 or 40% of the stores attained or exceeded the top quartile Average Gross Profit. A new franchisee’s results will likely differ from these results.
