Archive: Business & Technology

Aunt Jemima, Betty Crocker, Mrs. Butterworth, Trader K.  Three are fictional, but one is real.  The real one, Trader K(aren Sciarabba), is celebrating 20 years next month of buying and selling clothing in Ithaca.  From humble beginnings in downtown Ithaca Trader K's has become one of the largest independently owned used clothing stores.

"We're doing something right and we have to keep doing that," says her husband and business partner Jay.  "It brings more people to Ithaca, which is going to help on the Commons, too.  In 20 years the most fun part is we're still looking through people's clothes.  We're not sick of it.  To me the fun part is that every nook and cranny is filled with inventory, so where can I find more space?"

He fills a lot of space.  Trader K's has two 4,000 square foot locations on the Ithaca Commons and in Lansing Village Place in front of the Shops at Ithaca Mall.  Five days a week you can bring your clothes to sell for cash or store credit.  People come from as far as Auburn, Syracuse, Binghamton, Owego, and northern Pennsylvania to buy and sell clothes.

Most of the 14 employees rotate between the stores.  There are two buyers in each store from 10am to 5pm except Thursdays and Sundays.  You must launder clothes you want to sell before bringing them in.  When you arrive you sign in at the front counter and leave the clothes there.  Ten or fifteen minutes later a buyer tells you how much the store will pay.

"Our model is cash on the spot.  In our busy times we look at 1,000-plus pieces coming in a day," Jay says.  "Going out we average between 300 to 600 pieces a day.  We have 50 to 75 sellers per day, who come from all over central New York."


The business employs five trained buyers.  The training lasts over a year during which they go to malls, learning what labels are on the merchandise, the quality of each item, including which designer items are real and which are knock-offs.    They price items on the spot and offer cash or credit while you wait.  There is no haggling over price -- sellers have the choice of accepting a buyer's offer.

The buyers look for clothing that is about a year or a year and a half old.  They are not interested in vintage clothing.  Jay says that sticking with the current styles, especially in women's clothing is what makes Trader K's unique.  The downtown store carries formal dresses, including prom dresses.  They carry suits and ties, sport coats, dress pants and dress shoes as well.  

Jay notes that while there used to be a stigma about wearing used clothes changes in the economy have changed that perception, and that in any event nobody would know the clothes they sell didn't come from Macy's.

"Now it's all tapered-leg pants.  Before it was flare legged," says Jay.  "We have to go with the times, especially with women's clothes.  What's the style now that they're seeing on the cover of People Magazine, or what's Kardashian wearing?"

The Sciarabbas started Trader K's early in their relationship.  When they met 21 years ago Karen was already planning to open a used clothing business.  She lived in Dryden, but spent the winter in Arizona where they had similar buy-and-sell clothing stores.  She had begun collecting clothing and store fixtures, going to  stores that were closing and asking for their racks.  She shopped at Salvation Army or garage sales for each piece she thought would fit in her concept of the store.  Finally she approached her father-in-law, Andy Sciarabba, to rent the original 900 square foot space in the Rothschild Building.

"He said, are you sure you want to do this?  I'm going to treat you the same as I would treat any tenant coming in," recalls Jay.  "She said, I want that.  I want to be a businesswoman -- if I can't make it, I can't make it.  A lot of times people are handed things -- they get a free year of rent and after a year they can't pay.  That's not going to help.  You've got to struggle first to make yourself better.  And she did that.  We've always built everything ourselves."

Jay had worked for F&T food distributors and George Junior Republic before Trader K's and also also owned the Parcel Plus store that used to be in Lansing Village Place.

"It was good because I had a taste of small business, which she didn't have.  We had one of the best brains in Ithaca in Dad," he says.  "If you're going to learn from someone, he is my best and only teacher who has given me everything I needed to know that no four year school could ever give me."


Within the first six or seven months Trader K's doubled in size.  After a year it had almost tripled in size, and after 10 years they bought their own downtown building, their current 4,000 square foot downtown space.  Four years ago they opened a second location in Lansing Village Place.  Since opening the store has seen two expansions in the Rothschild Building before they bought their own building.  The store has expanded twice in Lansing Village.  It is now 4,000 square feet, the same as the downtown store.

"To have two locations within five miles of each other, and to have both be successful shows that there is a need," says Jay.  "People are thrifting a lot more.  When the economy crashed in '08 and '09 people bout cloths more in thrift stores.  It's been great for our business because people who didn't come here before come now."

Jay says the first year of construction on the Ithaca Commons didn't impact business at their store there, but numbers are down for the last year.  At the same time business is up in the Lansing Village location.  He says he recognizes customers who live two blocks from the Commons who are now coming to the Lansing Village store.

Getting to know the customers is one of the things the Sciarabbas love.

"The challenges and the fun things are about the same, he says.  "This is more of a challenge to figure out what you're going to put out that they will buy.  It's a game, and the most fun part is watching the styles change and watching people change.  You might have some Ithaca-downtown hippie people, and the next year they're wearing Gap clothing.  So it's fun to see how people change, and people that keep coming in with families is great.  And the most fun its the people you get to know."

One customer has dressed her triplets -- all girls -- at Trader K's all their lives.  

"They just went to college last year," Jay says.  "She recently came in and said, 'If I didn't have you guys my kids probably wouldn't be going to college.'  Kids grow out of clothes, especially triplet girls, in a month or two and they keep on recycling.  If it's still in good shape you can turn it back in.  You're getting money back and now your percentages are a lot higher."

All the Sciarabbas' own clothes come from the store as well.

"We haven't bought new clothes in 20 years," he says.  "People are amazed when they see what I wear, see what my son wears.  It's nice to have that clothing."

The Lansing Village location was opened to capture the northeast Tompkins County market.  Jay says people who live in the northeast don't go downtown that much, and the construction there has impeded business downtown.

"That's a shame," he says.  "We have three parking ramps within a block of the Commons.  We're lucky we're not in New York City or Syracuse or Binghamton.  On the other hand, to get down there has been a pain, and especially with the construction on the Commons there's nothing to see down there.  We're lucky that we've been in business 20 years and we are a stable store.

Buying and selling isn't the only thing that drives the Sciarabbas.  They are all about recycling, and not just in the sense that their customers are reusing clothing.  Counters and desks in the northeast location were left there by Advion Labs when they moved to their current space.  Signs that mark the various departments in the store were originally in Borders in the Ithaca mall.  When they hear stores are closing the couple look for fixtures there.

"If we don't use it that stuff goes into landfills," Jay says.  "So we're recycling clothing, which helps with emissions because the factories don't have to make as much.  If we're keeping it local we're keeping people from driving to Syracuse, reducing gas emissions also.  Every year we donate close to 12 tons of clothes to the Blue Box (a Binghamton company that sends clothes to countries in need such as Haiti).  The green issue is huge with us."

He says that the fact Trader K's can be so successful in a town where Salvation Army has such a presence means there is huge demand for used clothing.

"We love the Salvation Army and Thrifty Shopper because they benefit the community and it gives people the opportunity to have more money to pay their bills," he says.  "We frequent those places weekly.  That's how we got into our business."


Jay says customer service is key.  He sees negative reviews and comments as challenges to make the customer experience better.

"We have to make this a destination and make people come back.  So the fun part is seeing how many people come back," he says.  "My job is -- I do the bull work -- where am I going to put this stuff?  For Karen -- she's put her time in.  We work.  We're business owners and we know we have to be there.  People look for us."

Keeping it fun is what has kept the store going for 20 years.  Jay notes that the work can be grueling, looking at so many pairs of pants a day, and physically challenging.  But he doesn't see an end to Trader K's any time soon.  The official 20th anniversary celebration is planned for the weekend of May 16th.  After that there is more to come.

"How long do we have?  To us, as long as we still enjoy it and people are enjoying it, that's important to us," Jay says.  "We put out the best product we can and the best pricing and customer service, and if you have a problem come talk to me.  We've seen a lot of stuff come and go.  We can't believe it's been 20 years."

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