PLATO'S CLOSET: ASHEVILLE, NC

Owner, Ann Brown, discusses her Winmark journey.

How did you come to own a Winmark franchise?

A few years ago, and over the course of 6 months, I happened to be shopping at various Plato’s Closets around the country with my teenage daughter. I loved the resale concept and when I learned Plato's Closet was a franchise, I started to investigate the ownership opportunity. Having a franchise framework to start with…the systems and procedures, support staff, and brand recognition, I decided it was the right business opportunity for me.

What is one thing you know now that you wish you had known when you first opened your store?

How to manage inventory levels as well as product placement on the sales floor. It took me and my team a minute to figure those two elements out but once we did we increased our average sales transaction significantly.

2020 was, without a doubt, a challenging year. What was one way you evolved your business that you will keep utilizing throughout 2021?

Online selling. We aren’t actively selling online at the moment but we have a Shopify site and will add more inventory to it soon so customers far and wide can shop our selection again. When we were closed for six weeks in 2020 we had repeat customers shop us from Texas, Kansas, New England…lots of states outside the driving distance from our physical location.