Tips 4 Shopping at the Rhea Lana’s Fall 2015 Consignment Event

In recent years, kids’ consignment sales have gained popularity as parents look for ways to save money. A great consignment sale event here in Des Moines is Rhea Lana’s of Ankeny/Des Moines. Jessica Hansen, local franchisee, invited me to attend the Consignor’s Pre-Sale at Merle Hay Mall yesterday and I am sharing my experience with you.

Know Before You Go

Location: Merle Hay Mall by Target
Hours of Operation:
- Sunday, August 16, 12:00 – 5:30 pm
- Monday, August 17, 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
- Tuesday, August 18, 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
- Wednesday, August 19, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm
- Thursday, August 20, 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
- Friday, August 21, 10:00 am – 9:00 pm
Cost: FREE
Parking: FREE
Prior to your visit check out Rhea Lana’s of Ankeny/Des Moines’ website where you’ll find everything you need to know.

While You’re There

Rhea Lana’s offers a wide selection of items to choose from while shopping at their Event. It’s an experience very similar to shopping at a department store. While bargain hunting you will be able to look through more than 25,000 items that include infant, toddler, kids, and maternity clothing, as well as, baby equipment, toys, games, bedding and decorative items. Most of the clothing I saw was for the upcoming fall and winter months, including Halloween costumes.

Just as you would before any shopping trip, I suggest taking a quick peak at your kids’ closet and making a list of items you need to purchase. While writing your list make note of your child’s size. I decided to primarily shop for a few school clothes and was also keeping my eye out for “nicer” clothes for my son. He tends to wear sweat pants and a t-shirt to school every day and dress clothes are only worn for concerts and special occasions. So, I thought this would be a good opportunity to pick up a couple of those items for a lot less than paying retail prices.

I decided to leave the kiddos at home. Which is usually preferable for any kind of shopping, but especially at this type of event. Obviously, kids are allowed, it’s just easier and more pleasant to shop without them:). However, my kids are older, almost 7 and almost 10, and can be quite picky about what they wear and usually prefer to select their own clothing. In this case you may want to bring them along. Additionally, I ended up buying a pair of pants that just fit my son, so he probably won’t get as much wear out of them as I hoped. If you’re not quite sure on sizing, I would say pass on the item, as all sales are final and there are no returns.

There were all kinds of name brands stocked. I saw a lot of clothing from Gap, Gymboree, Tea Collection, Jessica Simpson, Old Navy, and many items I recognized from Target and Kohl’s. There were also several brand new items. As I shopped, I started to make note of the brand for a variety of reasons. It helped me to determine what size to purchase, as sizes do not run true across brands. It also helped me to determine the value of the item and if the consignor was asking a fair price.

I shopped multiple size racks for my kids. I perused the 8-10 and 12-14 racks for my son and the 6, 7 & 8 racks for my daughter. I think it’s a good tip to check multiple clothing size sections. Again, sizes vary and the way sizes are labeled vary from brand to brand. Besides, just like at regular stores, clothing gets put back in the wrong section all the time. So it’s worth a look at more than one size rack.

I was amazed at how much stuff a lot of the customers were loading up on. Several of them had brought large bags with them to put their stuff in as they shopped. This is another good tip, as I didn’t see any shopping carts or baskets available to put your stuff in.

I spent about an hour and a half looking through a lot of clothes for my kids at the sales event. It is well organized, well-staffed and it’s in a convenient location in Merle Hay Mall. I spent just over $30.00 on eight items and my kiddos were pretty pleased with their new duds. I think having the opportunity to shop early was truly a benefit.

Upon check out I received a large bright pink re-usable Rhea-Lana’s bag. It is my understanding that the first 250 customers will receive these bags. Once they run out of those, they have large purple plastic bags available for your purchases. I also wanted to make sure to tell you, that they accept credit and debit cards, just make sure to have your ID handy. Rhea Lana’s sales event starts today and runs through August 21st with the Half Price Sale on Thursday and Friday.