After years of working in business consulting and finance, Columbia native Kim March transformed her experience in entrepreneurship into a passion project. Divine Consign, a resale shop that sells curated clothes and accessories, opened in October and has already seen love from Columbia thrifters.
Since she was young, March has had a spark for fashion. After seeing one of her friends open a successful consignment shop, she was inspired to start her business.
Although thrifting has become a popular activity for shoppers, Divine Consign holds a different meaning for March.
“I was totally 150% retail until I started traveling a lot and visiting consignment stores and really learning about sustainability, and that kind of made a lot of sense to me,” March said.
Unlike other thrift stores, Divine Consign has more elevated items that are still considered affordable. March attests that customers at Divine Consign can shop knowing that items are in good condition and are from trusted brands.
Consignment stores specifically allow for a better relationship with customers, employees and consignors that builds community. March has found that even after only a couple of months of operation, she is already seeing familiar faces at her store.
“I would like this store to kind of be, and I think it is, growing to be a community where people are friends,” March said.
Along with relationships within the store, March has also had many close friends by her side as her business started. She has also begun to hire more long-term employees.
Addison Gooding, a first-year student at the University of Missouri, was hired earlier this year.
“I worked at a consignment store in my hometown for almost three years,” Gooding said. “Whenever I heard about a consignment store opening up here in Columbia, I was very excited.”
One of Gooding’s first shifts consisted of working the Pajama Jam on Jan. 31, an overnight shopping event featuring dozens of Columbia small businesses, where she was introduced to the consignment community.
“I got to talk to a lot of the ladies that are running those places, and so that was super fun,” Gooding said.
March hopes to hire many more employees like Gooding to bring her shop together. As her staff and business grow, Divine Consign is becoming a staple of Columbia thrifting.
Throughout her life, March never viewed consignment stores as just a place to shop. She relied on retail stores for new and on-trend items until she grew older and started to experiment with her shopping tendencies, where she realized what a hidden gem consignment shops can be.
“My vision is to have and provide sizes from 2X to 4X in this store,” March said. “And consignment shoppers are from all demographics. They just are. It’s not specific.”
March found the sustainability within this branch of thrifting very refreshing, and a profitable way to give love to older items. Whether items were never worn or never fit, consignment stores give clothing a new life.
The eclectic and unique vibes at Divine Consign are part of what makes this store so special to March. It was important to her to provide the Columbia community with a reliable, affordable place to shop.
“I’m happy to say that I’m trying to grow this business more organically by word of mouth,” March said. “And so it’s starting to work. People are telling their friends, their neighbors, people at church, people at their book club, about Divine Consign.”