Shoppers stock up on baby goods at Lucky Duck sale

Erica Coomer and other shoppers browsing racks of children's clothes Saturday morning at the Lucky Duck Consignment Sale were pleased that the coronavirus pandemic hadn't completely canceled the annual event, which took place at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. 

"It's nice because it's keeping people safe," Coomer, a Peru, Indiana, resident, said. "You don't feel like people are kind of crowding on you."

Coomer, who was shopping for her 2-year-old daughter and her friend's young son, said she first began attending consignment sales when she lived in Indianapolis. Saturday was Coomer's third time visiting the twice-a-year sale, founded by Karen Brandt. Brandt also owns the Le Chic Holiday Market, held yearly the weekend following Thanksgiving. 

"My biggest concern with COVID was that there wouldn't be as much clothes, but it's been really good," Coomer said. "I appreciate they're taking precautions and keeping things separate."

Coomer said she was especially happy to see the Lucky Duck Sale was still on, because her daughter "is growing like a weed" and is in need of summer clothes. 

"I was really happy they were able to have it," she said. "I look forward to it every year because we just keep getting all the different seasons."

Now in its 10th year, the Lucky Duck Consignment Sale had to undergo some changes to adhere to social distancing requirements at the Coliseum, Brandt, the sale's "Mother Duck," said. The sale was the venue's first public event since March 15. The Lucky Duck Consignment Sale has operated at the Coliseum for six years.

In a typical year, nearly 400 people list various items for sale, including clothes, shoes, books, toys, cribs and more, Brandt said. But this year, that number had to be reduced by half. Lucky Duck usually draws in close to 3,000 shoppers, but Brandt said during the pre-sale on Friday, only about 600 people came to shop. Shoppers also weren't able to bring children to the sale this year and capacity was limited to 250 people at any given time.

People who sign up to sell items are typically normal residents who would rather not hold a garage or yard sale, Brandt said. Consigners receive a base commission and set their own prices. Everything is organized by size and gender and all items are inspected before they're put out for sale. Traditionally, there's about 70,000 items up for sale. In a traditional year, about 80% of the inventory is sold, she said.

Anything that isn't sold that consigners don't want to bring home is donated to the Fort Wayne Rescue Mission. The Vine: Haiti is another of the sale's charity partners, Brandt said.

South Bend residents Liz and Brian Hutchison said they were shopping for clothes for their baby on the way. The couple married shortly before the pandemic shut everything down in March. Their child is due in December.

"My niece-in-law told me about it on Facebook. She's expecting as well – she's due in September – and she was posting a lot (about it)," Liz Hutchison said. 

Although most of the bigger items were already sold by the time the Hutchisons arrived, they said they did find several items of clothing and some curtains that will be useful for the baby's nursery. 

Brandt said she didn't really know what to expect this year. The sale is usually successful, but the pandemic has definitely kept people away. Masks were recommended, but not required.

"The nice thing about this space is we can easily do social distancing," Brandt said. "Even when we have a regular sale it's pretty easy to do that, so I think people feel safe once they get here."

Despite the challenges, Brandt said she and her team learned some things that they hope to implement when the sale returns in October. The team modified the checkout procedure to increase distance, Brandt said, but an unintended result was that the line moves faster and the cashiers are more efficient. Additionally, Brandt said this year consigners put their own items on the sales floor and then sales staff inspected the items. That worked amazingly well, Brandt said.

"We've learned so many interesting little things that we would never have been able to do otherwise," she said. "It's been good. Not the best, but it's been good."

dgong@jg.net

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