The SIFE Used Furniture Store
Attention the SIFE Used Furniture Store is preparing to close. Our going out of Business Sale is September 16th from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.
We will have refreshments, BOGO deals, LCCC ID discounts, and special drawing each hour, on the hour. EVERYTHING MUST GO!
September 19th from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. final day of business. All Merchandise must be picked up by 4 p.m. ALL SALES FINAL!
Any questions call SIFE at 440-366-4935
The SIFE Team has the privilege of working with the college administration in finding an outlet for the used furniture from the college renovations. The college has proposed that the SIFE team run a retail outlet in which to sell the used furniture. The college secured a location next to Drug Mart and moved tons of used furniture to the new store.
The SIFE took over after the furniture was legally signed over to the team. The first order of business was to find a place to recycle the steel left over from the library. We ended up with xx tons of steel. We ordered a dumpster and with the help of many students we loaded up 3.5 dumpsters full of very heavy steel. Then we proceeded to try and organize a warehouse full of furniture. Volunteer students learned the first order of opening your own business -hard work!
Finally categorized and a show floor set up we began the inventory process. We then looked to the office side of the business. We needed a laptop, printer, cash register, and method in which to take credit card payments. Thanks to LCCC we have acquired all the necessary equipment. The business division had QuickBooks loaded onto our laptop so we can efficiently run our new endeavor.
Next, we utilized the LCCC Fab Lab and had students make store signs for the windows. These turned out great and were visible from the main road.
All the hard work done, we prepared for opening day. We began our marketing campaign and prepared an invitation only pre-opening event. We invited many of the college administration, faculty, student life and our own SIFE advisory board. Saturday, November was picked for opening day with the pre-event on Friday.
Everything changed Friday Morning with one phone call! The City Building Inspector had driven by our store immediately shut us down! We needed to vacate the location immediately. Now, we had some 20-30 guests coming in just a few hours for the pre-party. After an inspection, the city closed us down permanently until everything on the list was corrected. After a phone call to LCCC, we were able to negotiate with the building inspector to be able to proceed with the pre-party. His terms required some items to be rectified immediate before anybody could enter the store. Thanks to LCCC Facility maintenance everything was fixed before our 5:00 p.m. party.
The party was a success! But now we were closed and we even had to take our store signs down and get them approved by the city zoning department.
Currently all the work requested by the city is complete and as of Monday, December 23 we are allowed back into the store. We are still waiting on the sign approval from the city. We are preparing another opening day and a ribbon cutting ceremony after the holidays. The purpose of the store is to generate funds for the SIFE Team and to create an educational tool for LCCC students. We are offering LCCC students a real life experience that will help them in their career endeavors and maybe encourage them to look into the world of entrepreneurship as an option in their future.