Chapter 9
Claire spent the afternoon debating whether to just sell some stuff or try to actually make a business of it.
If she could make a go of it, the possibility was there to earn more than she could make as a retail clerk or working in a restaurant, which were the only jobs she realistically had a chance of getting.
Claire had researched for hours and was close to making a decision but was still hesitant. She hadn’t held a real job in many years, so it seemed a little crazy to consider starting a business. What did she know about running a business? She needed to talk it through with Rachel.
Rachel answered on the first ring.
“Are you busy? Do you have time for coffee?”
“I’m just doing laundry. Come on over.”
Twenty minutes later, Claire pulled up to Rachel’s house.
It wasn’t as grand as Jenna’s, but Claire loved Rachel’s place.
It was a roomy Cape Cod–style house with a cozy kitchen and distant ocean views.
Rachel was sitting at her kitchen island when Claire knocked on the door.
She waved her in and walked toward the coffee machine.
“Regular or decaf?”
“I’d better do decaf, I guess,” Claire said.
She’d already had two cups of coffee earlier and normally wouldn’t have hesitated to have a third but was being more careful now that she was pregnant.
Once they had their coffees, they settled on stools at the island.
Rachel stirred a packet of sugar into her coffee while Claire filled her in on Jenna’s suggestion to sell more of her stuff.
“She thinks I could make a business of it. I laughed off the idea at first. I mean it’s been so long since I’ve done anything.
I could just sell a few things if anyone is interested and keep looking for a job, I guess.
” But the thought of standing on her feet all day as either a retail clerk or restaurant hostess for little more than minimum wage wasn’t appealing.
Rachel stayed quiet for a long moment. “I think you should do it. I agree with Jenna. It’s a great business opportunity, and you already have the products, so the risk is low.”
“I should find a space though if I’m going to sell to people I don’t know. I don’t feel comfortable having strangers in the house.”
Rachel nodded. “That’s a good idea, but it might be tough. Rents are expensive here. How much did you get for Jenna’s bag?”
Claire told her, and Rachel’s eyes widened. “If you sell even one bag every few months, rent won’t be a problem. I wouldn’t sign a long lease though, just in case.”
“Right. This really is tempting. If I’m going to work in retail, it’s a lot more appealing if it’s my own thing.”
“What will you call it? You need a catchy name.” Rachel sounded excited, and her enthusiasm was contagious.
Claire laughed. “I haven’t thought that far ahead. Something with consignment in the name? Nantucket Consignment? That doesn’t sound very high-end though.”
“Nantucket Luxury Consignment?” Rachel suggested.
“Hmmm, maybe better without consignment in the name.”
They went back and forth on a few different ideas before Rachel suggested, “Nantucket Second Chances.”
Claire loved it immediately. “That’s perfect! It’s intriguing and gets my interest immediately.”
“And you can use a tag line like A luxury consignment shop, maybe?”
“I love that. I am so tempted to do this.” Claire sighed. “Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself though. I’ve only sold one bag so far. Jenna said she’d tell her friends, but what if that’s all I ever sell?”
“You don’t have to decide today. Give it a bit more time, and see. You’ll know if it’s right.”
“You’ll need a website. I can help you with that! And social media, Instagram, Pinterest, maybe even TikTok.” Lily was enthused about the idea when Claire mentioned it over dinner.
Now that she was telling her family, Claire was both excited and nervous, and she hoped she hadn’t acted too impulsively.
But it felt like the right thing to do. And as she’d researched it, she grew even more excited.
The risk was minimal, as she was just operating out of her mother’s house and mostly selling to friends.
What tipped her over the edge in deciding to definitely do it was getting a phone call from Alexis, one of Jenna’s friends, who wanted to come by the next day.
Jenna had told her about Claire’s black Hermès Birkin.
“I already know that I want it, and she said I needed to call you fast before it’s gone. I’ve been waiting so long for that particular Birkin.”
They made arrangements for Alexis to come by the next day, and that was when Claire headed downtown with Jenna’s check.
She’d only been home from Rachel’s house for a few hours before making the decision.
She got an Employer Identification Number online before stopping by town hall to register the business by filling out a DBA form.
She then took those documents to the Pacific National Bank and opened both a personal and a business account in the name of her new venture, Nantucket Second Chances.
Her mother seemed intrigued but a bit less enthused than Lily. “I think it’s a great idea to sell some of your stuff, especially the more expensive pieces that you don’t care about. But what will you do when you run out of things to sell?”
Claire had researched that too. And she’d taken action to test out what she learned.
“I called some friends in Manhattan and ran the idea by them, both to see if they might be interested in buying anything but also to see if they had anything they might want to sell. They could list it with me, and we’d split the proceeds.
” Claire grinned. “They loved the idea and are interested in buying and selling potentially.”
Her mother’s eyes widened. “Oh! Well, that sounds promising.” She looked deep in thought for a moment. “But what about when you run out of friends to call?”
Claire had anticipated that too. “Well, my friends have friends they can spread the word to. And I thought maybe I’d advertise a little—just on social media at first.”
“It’s amazing that you got more for that bag than Ellis paid for it. Maybe there is something to this.” Her mother looked thoughtful. “If you can get it up and running now, you could keep it going with the summer people. They really are the audience for this type of thing.”
“I think it’s awesome,” Lily said. “And this means we can shop at real stores for my dress now, not just the thrift shop?”
Claire laughed. “Yes, we can shop anywhere now.”
Her mother raised her eyebrows. “Don’t knock the thrift shop. You never know what you might find there.”
Alexis came by the next day and bought the black Birkin. It wasn’t worth quite as much as the bag Jenna bought, but Claire was very happy with the check for sixteen thousand dollars. She deposited it in the bank as soon as Alexis left and called Jenna when she got home.
“Thank you for referring Alexis.”
“Oh! Did she buy the Birkin?” Jenna sounded excited for both of them.
“She did. And I would like to donate a bag for the silent auction. A Savette Pochette in black lizard. It’s an elegant evening bag worth over three thousand.
” Claire didn’t mention that it was another Ellis gift.
She already had an almost identical Savette bag in smooth black leather, so she was happy to donate this one.
It was worth more than the one she was keeping, but she was fine with that.
And she knew the women would recognize that the lizard was more valuable.
“Oh, that would be fabulous! Thank you. It’s too bad you don’t have a shop. I’m sure some of the women attending the event would definitely stop in if you did,” Jenna said, then quickly added, “But you said you’re going to be online too?”
“Yes. Lily’s helping me with that. We’re hoping to get everything photographed and onto a basic Shopify site in the next few days.”
“I can’t wait to see it. Can you send me a picture of the Savette so I can get it out to the ladies ahead of time? We’ll have a page with all the silent auction items. We’ve found that helps generate more bids at the event itself when people can look ahead of time.”
Claire was about to confirm and end the call when Jenna spoke again.
“Why don’t you come to the event? Since you’re donating such a great gift, I can give you a few tickets.
Maybe your mother and Lily might want to come?
It’s a fun time. And it’s Daffodil weekend, so it will be more colorful than the usual black-tie event.
” She spoke in a rush, and Claire tried to keep up.
“I’ll get the picture over shortly. And we’d love to come to the event.”
“Perfect. I’ll put your name on the list. And if you could arrive maybe fifteen minutes early to drop off the bag, that would be great.”
Claire spent the rest of the day taking pictures of everything she wanted to sell.
She brought the items into the living room and used her cell phone to photograph everything where the best natural light came through the big windows overlooking the ocean.
She used a few different blankets in contrasting colors for backgrounds—navy or black for light items and cream for darker ones.
It wasn’t fancy, but it worked well enough to get good shots of each bag or pair of shoes.
One of her Manhattan friends called her back and asked about a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes that Claire had worn to a wedding.
They were black with a glittery rhinestone strap, and they were very pretty.
Claire liked the shoes but was more than happy to sell them.
They agreed on a price of seven hundred dollars.
Claire had paid twice that and worn the shoes twice.
Another friend texted that she’d put her quilted pink Chanel bag in the mail to her.
She’d loved the bag when she bought it, then realized it didn’t really match well with her usual outfits, and she almost never used it.
Claire picked up Lily, and she spent the afternoon uploading the photographs and product information to the Shopify site.
Meanwhile, Claire searched online to see if there were any available shops for rent.
She expected there to be a few but knew they’d also be as expensive if not more so than Manhattan rents.
The average home price on Nantucket was over three million, which meant it wasn’t affordable for the average person—unless their family had owned property for years and passed it down.
Or if they qualified for the affordable-home lottery, which was income based and kept a certain number of homes below market price.
This helped first-time home buyers who wanted to live and work on the island.
Still, Claire was surprised and disappointed that there didn’t seem to be a single commercial shop lease advertised. When Rachel called a short time later, Claire whined about it.
“I didn’t think it would be as difficult to find a rental space as it is to find a job. Not a single listing.”
Rachel sympathized. “Well, at least you don’t have to stress as much about finding a job now. And you can sell online.”
“True. For now it’s fine, but I’m not really comfortable having people I don’t know coming into my mother’s house. It doesn’t seem professional.”
Rachel laughed. “They might not care if they can get the Hermès bag that they want quicker.”
They chatted a bit longer and made plans to see a movie over the weekend. Claire went back to her laptop and tried to learn more about using the Shopify site while Lily continued adding the product information.
For the first time in a very long time, she was excited about her future instead of just feeling nervous and uncertain about it.