It’s not just what you sell but how you sell it

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Community Forklift are a not-for-profit who have taken the marketing and merchandising of salvaged building materials to a new level. They have proved that presenting salvage materials professionally and neatly, just like a retailer of new items would, means you can move a lot of materials.

    

Led by Nancy Meyer, this focus on marketing has produced a large high-functioning organisation with a turnover of $4.3m NZD per year, supported by full time staff of 35. In operation since 2005, they occupy a 3700 square metre warehouse space in Edmonston, Maryland. 

 
The feel of the store is vibrant with CEO Nancy Meyer telling me that it’s important to create a vibe that that is funky and fun. This has produced widespread knowledge of their work and ability to take and sell a wide range of building fixtures and fittings. The warehouse was busy on the Monday afternoon that we visited with a stream of items being loaded in to car boots, trucks and utes to be taken away. 

 

Having been in business for so long, they have an eye for what sells and what doesn’t. With a large number of heritage buildings in the nearby Washington DC, Pennsylvania and Maryland towns and cities means there is a constant supply of the hardware, fixtures and fittings that go with these buildings. Likewise, many heritage buildings are undergoing renovation or restoration with owners seeking these types of fittings. 

Community Forklift also receive a supply of fittings and furnishings from manufacturers, hotel refits and disposals of high-end and high-value items, items that the previous owners simply didn’t want to go just to landfill. Many of these items are sought after and sell for a high return.
When entering the Community Forklift warehouse, it is obvious that a lot of attention is given to merchandising. A feature are the elaborate departments and displays more likely to be see in a department store. The size of the warehouse is sufficient to allow everything to be set out and displayed without undue clutter making things easy to find. 

 

Nancy explains that the key to getting turnover is to make sure stock is in good condition without undue damage that prevents reuse, no junk. Some items such as fridges and doors receive some cleaning and preparation before going for sale.

A key feature of Community Forklift’s marketing is their online business. Four fulltime staff support sales and marketing on Ebay, Shopify and Chairish, a website for vintage furniture. Marketing manager Scott Buga also makes 3-4 YouTube videos per week highlighting items of interest for sale. 

Community Forklift are also active in developing new small businesses attached and within the site. Small local businesses sell their products through the warehouse. This includes items such as restored heritage lighting, timber slabs and recovered and remixed painr.  

The attention to merchandising and marketing detail is a crucial part of the success of Community Forklift. 

Thanks to Nancy for generously giving me her time to tour Community Forklift.

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Chairish is the design world's ultimate destination for home furnishings and art. It's beloved by interior designers and tastemakers—who come for the rare vintage, antique and contemporary pieces, and stay for, well, lots more of that, with 2,000+ expertly edited items added daily. Every month, millions of shoppers strike gold (or lacquer, or marble, or ornately carved wood) on Chairish, a platform where buying and selling is smoother, more sustainable, unexpectedly intimate, and always, always delightful.
 https://www.chairish.com/

 


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