Buying and selling second-hand items is popular. The success of dedicated sites like Le Bon Coin or Vinted are proof of this. Garage sales and increasingly house clearances still have a certain amount of traffic. In recent years, permanent garage sales have appeared. Here, the seller rents a space and also pays a commission. Still others offer cash payments.
The new store that will open on July 3 in the Mendès-France area, in Niort, offers different formulas. Happy troc Niort, which will be on July 11e The store of the name in France already stands out for its size. It covers more than 1,000 m2 where you can find almost everything second-hand “guaranteed for one year”: from large pieces of furniture to small trinkets, including beds (they are new), books, sofas, musical instruments, old dishes… Almost, because there are no clothes at the moment.
“520 passages” on a Saturday before opening
Before starting sales on July 3, it opened to receive deposits on June 12. “We have around 300 visits per day and on Saturday 22nd, we had 520 visits,” says Noah Giroire, the 23-year-old store manager who leads a team of three employees and two apprentices. A week before the opening, he estimated that “2,500 to 3,000”the number of items already deposited. “We didn’t expect to have so many!”
Having started at the brand’s store in La Rochelle, he has knowledge of the clientele: “Many people come for the ecological approach” preferring the reuse of a second-hand object to a new purchase. “A lot of people also come for budgetary reasons with the drop in purchasing power”. Finally, “We also have people who come looking for unique old pieces”. The 1960 pinball machine in the entryway is one of those gems. Not to mention all those who don’t come looking for anything and always find: “Our stores are very much driven by impulse!”
“15 to 20% of people know the price”
The brand is revolutionizing second-hand buying and selling by offering several ways to sell and buy. Sellers can sell their items directly to the store and leave with money or vouchers. The price is discussed on site as well as the commission that will be retained. “which depends on the product and the rotation in store”. That morning, for example, a gentleman came with two glasses. “He was expecting €2 or €3 and he left with €50. It was Baccarat and he didn’t know it!” Nice surprise for the seller and the store should benefit by selling them a little more expensive.
If people expect a higher price than the store offers them, then “they can leave them on consignment” without paying space rental but the price will automatically decrease after two months and then every month. And you will still have to deduct the store commission.
Estimate, house clearance…
Noting that “70 to 80% of people don’t know how much what they are selling is worth”the brand also offers “a free home estimate”. For the rest, “15 to 20% of people would know the price of what they are selling if they took care of it.” Not doing it saves them time and hassle, but that’s the price of the commission. “The goal is to find the right price so that the customer is happy and so are we.”
This will not be the case from the opening but “In July, we will offer home collection” for large objects, “in Niort and the surrounding towns”.
Happy troc Niort also offers house clearances. “We do a lot of this after inheritances, divorces, accidents in life… We take care of emptying all the property from A to Z, right down to the inside of the fridges, explains Nicolas Guignard, the store manager. I go and make an estimate. I see how much it can bring in and how much it will cost. Depending on that, I either write a check or it’s the other way around. And if it’s the same, we’ll clear it out for free.”.
Happy Troc, 16, rue Martin-Luther-King in Niort.
landmarks
From troc.com to Happy troc
- In the “Happy” family, there are Happy Cash, stores “between 100 and 200 m2 often in city centres or shopping areas” who buy and resell specific second-hand items: video games, computers, telephones, etc.
- In 2019, the Happy Cash group bought the Troc.com stores. These were consignment stores. The first of the name was created in 1982 in Vaucluse. At its peak, the brand had “up to 250 stores in France and Europe”.
- When Troc.com was acquired by Happy Cash in 2019, there were only about fifty stores left. These former Troc.com stores are gradually changing their brand names to become Happy Troc, in addition to new stores being created.
New and used
The Happy troc of Niort is 174e Happy store (barter and cash). “I wanted to open it in 2006” explains the manager, Nicolas Guignard, but it was refused. So I opened one in Les Sables-d’Olonne in 2006, then another in La Rochelle in 2016 and this one in 2024 in Niort.”
“I am from the Guignard family, from Meubles-de-l’Autize. We are all in the furniture business.” recalls the entrepreneur. The brothers have other brands selling new furniture. “When we deliver new goods, people often want us to take back the old ones. That’s where the idea of selling second-hand goods came from,” explains the manager who hopes that the Niort store will operate on the family land in Deux-Sèvres. “It’s a bit of a test compared to the others who are in coastal cities, but we really believe in it.”
