Ellie & Co brings unique model to mother/child consignment with Blyth store
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
In Blyth’s historic downtown, a new shop has opened its doors to the public, and it might just be the perfect place to add a little ease into the lives of local families looking to spend less and get more. Ellie & Co. is a consignment shop that specializes in selling gently pre-loved clothing for women and children at the kind of affordable prices that you simply don’t see anymore.
Ellie & Co. is the brainchild of Tori Hedge, a young mother of three who knows firsthand just how many irons the modern mother has in the fire at any given moment. The idea to open up the kind of store she would want to shop at came to her right when she was coming to the end of her most recent round of maternity leave. “When I thought that I had to go back to working three part-time jobs, I was kind of scattering,” she confessed. “I didn’t want to go back to working for somebody else - I wanted to journey through being an entrepreneur. And I’m learning a whole lot of stuff! It’s a different way to think about business. I've always worked for somebody else, who told me what to do and how to do it. And so trying to make up the rules and figure out what my expectations of myself are is a little bit different.”
The brilliant thing about Ellie & Co. is the consignment model. As a mom, she’s noticed that children are always growing larger, which means they constantly require an influx of new, bigger clothes, rendering their old, smaller garments basically obsolete. So the way she sees it, you can bring in all those too-small ensembles to Ellie & Co. and Hedge will add them to her well-curated collection of consignment items. If they sell, you get to recoup a little bit of the cash you shelled out for the outfit in the first place. “Anyone looking to make a little bit of cash on the side can drop off their clothing,” she explained. “I offer a 60/40 split, so consignors will get 40 per cent of whatever I price the item at. And each time something sells, it accumulates on their account. So, when folks shop, they can either use their account balance to purchase other items in-store, or I can offer a cash payout as well.”
Once you’ve accrued some cash from selling your kids’ old clothes, you can put it towards something in a larger size, or maybe just something cute for yourself to wear. It’s a perfect way to escape the high cost of living while dodging the global guilt that comes along with buying fast fashion off an international website!
Hedge is also hoping that giving families on a budget the chance to have a cute shopping experience without breaking the bank can be her way of giving back to the community that she’s called home for nine years. Her goal is to create a sustainable, affordable alternative that local families love.
Although her grand opening last month was one of the many casualties of this past winter, lots of folks within walking distance braved the snow to welcome her new venture to the neighbourhood.
She’s also received a warm welcome from the other businesses in downtown Blyth. “Leona at Lunar Lounge has been so lovely to mentor me a little bit, and show me the ropes of it. I’ve been chatting with a lot of the local businesses and it’s gone really well so far,” she said.
Right now, Ellie & Co. is adding sports equipment, baby toys and kids’ books to the shop, and Hedge is open to suggestions for other items you’d like to see on her shelves. “We’re kind of just going with the flow,” she declared. “Just seeing what people are interested in!”