Consignment Store Celebrates 32 Years

Back By Popular Demand, a consignment store in Lilburn, is celebrating its 32nd anniversary today, Nov. 15.

According to owner Melissa Baxter, Back by Popular Demand (BBPD) is the oldest of its kind in the Atlanta area.

On Nov. 15, the store will celebrating its 32-year history by offering cupcakes, cookies, and 32 percent off regularly priced items in the store. And, yes, that will include designer clothing, purses and shoes.

Patch caught up with Baxter, who started working in the store at 15 and then bought it in 2002 when she was 20, for a few questions on how things are going.

Baxter Q & A:

1. Thirty-two years is a long time. What do think have been the keys to your success?

"Resale is like any other business and is effected by today's economic climate changes; the difference is that we are blessed to be able to offer great products at prices much lower than your mall stores and instead of having one supplier we have thousands.

"This allows us to have an ever-changing flow of new inventory constantly hitting the floor giving our customers a new selection of treasures every day. The keys to our success has been our ability to consistently offer value, variety and personal customer service."

2. In the time that you have owned the business, what would you consider to be the business' biggest change, and why did you all make that change?

"The biggest change I have made since owning the store would be truly separating departments and giving those departments their own feel. Our Lilburn location has three very distinct departments: Ladies, Plus and Juniors.

"Each departments is sectioned off and offers a large variety to choose from. For example, instead of looking through one or two racks that are a collected group of plus clothing, we are able to offer 11 racks of neatly sectioned ladies clothing sizes 16-26."

3. What do you like about being in the Lilburn area?

"I love the family community that is in Lilburn. Gwinnett is well known for all of its beautiful parks and recreational centers and we are fortunate enough to be located next to one of the largest parks in the Gwinnett area: Bryson Park."

4. Why did you pick Marietta as the newest store location?

"We picked Marietta for our new store location because of the same "family" style community. Marietta has welcomed us with open arms and we feel extremely blessed to have joining the community."

5. What makes the store different from others?

"The biggest difference that you will see when shopping at any one of our locations is the vast variety of items and the length to which we go to display incoming inventory. We are proud to say that over 82 percent of our inventory turns within the first 35 days so instead of doing color tickets markdowns.

In our stores, we focus on pricing it right the first time to move it out the door. You never have to wait for a sale or rummage through over flowing racks, we offer clean, tidy, sized and well organized shopping experiences."

Business Timeline:

1980 - BBPD opens in Lilburn, Ga.

2002 - BBPD sells to Melissa Baxter (small store in Main Street Lilburn, just some 1,800 square feet)

2004 - Baxter moves the store to a more visible location on Lawrenceville Highway, still in Lilburn

2005 - BBPD expands in the same building to a 5,000 square foot ladies' store

2010 - Forever Young (a young, trendy store) opens in the same shopping center adding another 2,400 square feet of consignment

2011 - BBPD opens in East Cobb in Market Plaza shopping center in 1,050 square feet

2012 - BBPD in East Cobb doubles it size due to overwhelming success

Don’t miss any Lilburn news. Subscribe to Lilburn-Mountain Park Patch’s free newsletter, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.