The Clothing Broker

Posted by Kathleen Fasanella on Jun 8, 2005 at 5:42 pm / Sourcing / Trackback

I have a friend named Miracle, that’s her real name. I’d tell you how I admire her savvy and intelligence but she’s so humble and discomfited by praise that she won’t talk to me for the next six months. Regardless, Miracle has a blog called the clothingbroker.com. In a recent post Naughty or Nice, she mentions a conversation we had as such:

I remember once I had a meeting with this consultant. She made this comment (and I’m paraphrasing here because I don’t remember exactly) that a crucial mistake people make is choosing to do business with people that they like, who are not always the best choice. And it really got me thinking today.

Let me just say that I have never known of a scammer who wasn’t nice. And neither has anybody that I know who has been scammed. They are always friendly, cordial, always available to take your call, never too busy. I think this is part of the lure, why people trust them so much. Because, obviously, when you deal with so many curt or rude suppliers, you figure you’re better off with those who are the nicest.

As I told Miracle, when have you ever heard of a rude con-man? Or a rude used car salesman for that matter? I’ve always had more confidence in someone who was abrupt with me. I’ve said this many, many, times but nobody listens. This is a wholesale, not retail business and the veneer of consumer shopping does not apply -not at our margins- and it’s not just vendors either. It’s very common that contractors, cutters and pattern makers are similarly “rude” mostly because people aren’t as prepared and their lack costs us time and money. The other thing is, these are very technical jobs and people in technical positions are known to have less than sterling social skills. I’m not suggesting that nice professionals are incompetent but the reverse is true more often than it is not.

Miracle is a buyer/retailer of ladies lingerie but she used to be a clothing broker. She bought off-price remaindered clothing so if anyone would know how top designer brands end up being remaindered, she would. In other words, the goods were marked down for a reason and if you know those reasons, you can prevent having to mark down your own goods in order to move them. Her blog covers a lot of retail ground. There’s a lot of solid information useful to manufacturers and even consumers. This is one of the better informational sites you’ll find on the internet.

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