New Ventures: Clothing reseller opens first drop-off site

A Northampton County-based apparel reseller has opened its first bricks-and-mortar store in an effort to expand the business.

Recycle Your Fashions, which has been operating for more than four years, now has a storefront at 630 Selvaggio (Municipal) Drive in Nazareth.

“This is our first drop-off location,” said Rahmieneh Ortiz, who runs the business with her husband, Carlos. “Before we had a warehouse situation, and we didn’t want people to have to walk into a warehouse.”

Instead, she said, the business has been operating through the mail. And while that has been successful, it limited the kinds of clothing, shoes and accessories people would sell.

To figure in the cost of postage, customers were more inclined to only send in high-end items. By having a drop-off location, the store can accept items for resale that are in the mid-price range – and the business now carries everything from Gucci to the Gap.

When Recycle Your Fashions receives an item, Rahmieneh Ortiz and her staff put their skills to work making sure the item is clean, neat and pressed. A professional photograph of the item is taken to be listed on Ebay.com and her website, www.recycleyourfashions.com. The business keeps 50 percent of the sale price.

Ortiz said she would like to open more drop-off sites.

She said that while she does business globally, such shops would create jobs and make it easy for new customers to access her services.

Metro Bank, which has locations in Berks County, has launched a new online business valuation tool called the Metro Bank Business Valuator.

Users provide basic information about their business to receive an estimated valuation, as well as a comparison to industry specific key performance indicators, within minutes.