Consignment shop preps families for school year, football season

ELMA, N.Y. (WIVB) — Nancy Baker has always shopped consignment, and decided to open up her own shop to help families in Western New York have a place to get high-quality, affordable clothing for their children.

“I found a need in this community, we really needed something like this for our families to save money, because there’s really not that many options for saving money,” said Baker, who owns Southtowns Kids Consignment. “There’s not a lot of options for shopping, so it just seemed like a good fit.”

The 800-square-foot building located on Seneca Street holds racks full of infant through teen clothing that is on consignment. She says people can make an appointment, bring in clothing items, sign a contract and then they will get a percentage of in store credit after their items have sold. After 90 days, if the items don’t sell, they can pick them up.

“It’s been unbelievable how well this has worked, and the exciting part for me is that people have bought items, taken them home, used them, and then they bring them back and they can get credit,” Baker said. “So you can continue to recycle and reuse and that’s the exciting part about consignment. I’m just excited about recycling, reusing, helping the community, it’s just a good idea, it helps everybody it really does.”

She encourages parents to consider consignment shopping for back-to-school clothing, as the cost of clothing can add up.

“It helps them, it helps the community, it helps everybody save money and that’s important right now, because there’s not that many ways to save money and this is really a good solution to save money and still make your kids look good,” Baker said.

While parents and children walk through the aisles of the store to find their back-to-school looks, they can also find some revamped donations that can help them get ready for game day.

“Everyone loves football,” Baker said. “Everyone goes crazy over it, and I don’t blame them, it’s exciting, it’s fun, it’s really fun for kids.”

Baker, a former teacher aide, has seen the spirit around the Buffalo Bills in local classrooms firsthand, especially right before game day.

“A lot of kids have had nice clothes and some of them, their parents may not have been able to afford the specific gear that the other kids had,” Baker said. “We’re trying to come up with solutions for families to be able to afford things so that their kids could fit in, because it is a big hype and all these kids want to do is fit in and feel good about celebrating football and Buffalo.”

In hopes of creating affordable game day gear, Baker has started taking a “Buffalo Football” vinyl print and pressing it on donated clothing items. Those presses are selling for $6 to $12 each, depending on the type of item.

“This won’t be a custom order, we’re basing it off of what I’m getting to make it affordable,” Baker said.

She said she’s collecting donations of red, white, blue and grey cotton t-shirts, especially smaller sizes to help children get their own game day gear to wear throughout the school year.

For people who are interested in donating or becoming a consignor, she asks you to call and make an appointment. The store’s number is (716) 242-8866.

If you’re interested in stopping by to shop, the store is located at 7510 Seneca St in East Aurora. For more information, visit their website here.

Hope Winter is a reporter and multimedia journalist who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here .