Current Boutique | Designer Consignment Shop — Local services in Washington

Ok so I waited to write a review until I’d both participated as a customer and a consigner.

As a customer I would give Current 4 stars. I think the staff are nice and the selection is cute (clear intention behind curation - which though conversation is a shop goal right now). The shop is a great size for a curated boutique feel. But as a shopper, the prices felt generally higher than I would like to frequent this store. Part of what I learned as a consigner are the stringent rules and restrictions for the clothes they accept, which is great when you want to feel like you’re buying new high end clothes. I’ll definitely be back for nicer used clothing options.

As a consigner, I would probably give this place 3 stars. I’m relatively new to the consigning process but in general I value places that are transparent about pricing, criteria for accepting, and ease of processing. Overall I think you generally get a good return on your items but some particulars make the process uncomfy. (TLDR? portal access comes a month after drop-off, additional fees are added to the listing price without informing you, 1 cash out every 3 months).

When you come in they ask you to browse the store while they go through the items you brought. This is a bit annoying because there are no seating options (most shops I’ve been too having seating).

My biggest annoyance was that once they select items they don’t give you any price estimates. So they decide what they want from your items and don’t tell you anywhere close to what you’ll get. They give you the model which is pricing at 1/3 of retail, and you get 50% of that. But you don’t actually know the list price until you get access to your portal log in (a month AFTER you bring your clothes in). Then I came into the store and saw that my items were listed at $1.99 more than their list price online, which just seemed odd because the “listing fee” isn’t a part of the listing agreement.

I also came into the store while in the area because I've heard of the challenge for consigners that they don't know when their items are taken off the shelves. I didn't want to wait to cash out if my items weren't still up for sale.

Lasting the payment process encourages sellers to wait to cash out to limit processing. You can only request one payment every 90 days, and then those checks are subject to additional fees despite the $1.99 per item...

This shop has a nice variety of mid-upscale second hand items and I’ve enjoyed shopping here before with a good experience. However, I went to shop a week ago and there was an attendant who was overly interested in my shopping and how she could “help me” but she only did this to me out of the ~20 people in the store. She kept trying to take the clothes I was carrying out of my hands and seemed wary as I shopped in the vintage section near the door. I was polite in telling her I didn’t need assistance but she came back 5 minutes later offering to check me out when I hadn’t given any indication that I might be done shopping…I was still browsing through racks. All of that extra behavior just to make me wait to check out once I was finally ready even though there was no line. The real kicker is that she was so worried about me stealing but wasn’t thorough in my check out and left two security tags on my dresses. So now I have to go back on my day off to get them removed when if she had just been normal…and acted normally…instead of being weird and frantic (which plainly comes off as racist in a store of majority white shoppers and employees) then I would be able to enjoy my clothes which I deserve, especially after not enjoying my shopping experience. I definitely debated leaving without buying anything as an establishment so concerned about my willingness/ability to pay for clothing doesn’t deserve my hard earned money—but as I said before, the clothes were nice and I needed them for an event. Will definitely explore other options...

Props on the most savage business model I’ve seen. Here’s how it works:

We brought in a box of high end clothing to sell at Current Boutique. They kept most of them to be sold in the store. Before they can sell the items, owners sign an agreement. According to the agreement:

Current Boutique sells the items for 1/3 of the market value and share 50% of the sale price with the owner (me). That’s quite a share but fair enough. If my clothes are damaged in the store by customers or employees or anybody else, Current Boutique donates the items and the owner gets nothing. If my clothes don’t sell within 90 days, Current Boutique donates the items and the owner gets nothing. If they decide they don’t like it anymore, Current Boutique donates the items and the owner gets nothing. If the owner decides they want something back, Current Boutique will not return the clothing to the owner. Finally, if the clothing DOES SELL, Current Boutique will not even automatically process a payment to the owner. The owner actually has to track their own products and then officially request payment for each item that sells.

Madness. Most of the 1 star reviews seem to be from those we tried to sell at Current Boutique… I wonder why.

We just decided we’d rather donate the clothing and do...