By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — To buy or to sell — that is the question for customers of 2nd Street, the new Main Street store that promotes trade in second-hand clothing as “more valuable than new.”

The store, slated to open Friday, not only has a wide variety of clothing for sale, including an eclectic selection of purses, wallets and jewelry, also offers “cash on the spot” for customers looking to sell clothing they no longer need.

Unlike many stores that sell second-hand clothes — where customers get a percentage of the sale price returned only when items are sold — 2nd Street offers same-day deals on everything brought in for re-sale, said Brittany Gautier, training coordinator for the 2nd Street chain, who has been working with the Westport staff. 

The 2nd Street store in Westport is the 45th in the U.S. Founded in Japan in 1996, the business also has another Connecticut store at the Shops at Yale in New Haven.

“We look at everything,” Gautier said of clothing and other items brought in by customers. Then, a sales associate makes a cash offer for the whole lot. Customers are free to take back any items they decide not to sell or to leave things not accepted for sale that 2nd Street will donate to charitable causes, she said.

There are also plenty of people who come to buy at 2nd Street stores, she added, with many would-be customers stopping by the Westport store before it opened, hoping to check out the merchandise.

“It’s a balance between buying and selling,” she said. “Otherwise, this format wouldn’t work.”

Gautier, who has worked for the company for seven years, said there is no specific percentage of the sales price that is returned to people selling merchandise to 2nd Street. It depends on many factors, including data the company has collected from its stores around the country, she said.

But customers can walk in, leave their clothing and get cash the same day, although there may be a short waiting period if other customers are ahead of them.

People of all ages are welcome, but those selling goods must be 18 years old or over, and have a driver’s license or other form of identification.

Watches, children’s clothing and formal wear are not accepted, Gautier said.

2nd Street, 17 Main St., is open 11 a.m.-7 p.m. daily. More information, including details about what is accepted for sale, is available at the website or by calling 203-742-1512.

________________________________

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York and Southern Connecticut State universities.