Village Consignment

I’m an interior designer who frequents fine consignment retail environments often in search of great items for my client projects as well as for myself. I have shopped VC for many years and can calculate off the top of my head upwards of $ 25,000 spent during my tenure of shopping with them. I would think that my loyalty and continued business would be of interest and or concern to the owners, Karen and Sheldon, but apparently it is not ~
Since I had purchased an abundance of lovely items from VC over the years, I decided to look to them to consign some of my clients beautiful furniture, accessories, textiles and lighting cast offs as well as a few items that I purchased brand new to use for a marketing photoshoot. One of those items was a 10×12 begonia color area rug that again was only used for a photoshoot. I purchased the new rug for $ 3,600. I personally rolled it up after the shoot, put it in my clean company cargo van and drove it over to VC a few days later. We unrolled it in the shop together to confirm the pristine condition. Karen told me they would get back to me a few days later with the pricing they would be listing all of the items I brought in for.
Well, weeks turned into months before I was given such information. I stopped in on several occasions during a three month time period to find some of the items had sold, but many of the items that I brought in were still unmarked for sale AND the brand new rug had been placed on top of a furniture item outside in their back outdoor sales areas exposed to incliment weather! I was mortified. I unrolled it to find it was soaking wet and had mold all over it!
When I approached Karen about the situation I was astonished by her attitude and response saying as a consigner they are not responsible for what happens to consignees items while in their possession. Now, I can understand that to be reasonable for accidental breakage by the hand of a client shopping them but certainly can not be true for their own negligence as the retail consigner by way of total negligence to put a wool rug in harm of rain! How completely reckless!
Needless to say… we went back and forth several times to no end. She had her husband call me later to tell me the same ridiculous policy. My response to them was simple… «Please have the rug professionally cleaned» it was my hope the mold could be removed. He refused. I insisted. He refused. I insisted. He said the most he would do was spread it out on his home deck to air it out. I stood firm and insisted on professional cleaning. I even went as far as suggesting that they should contact their retailers insurance provider, as that is exactly why we as business professionals carry insurance! Again, we went round and round. Another month passed and when I was called to come pick up the rug after they reluctantly agreed to have it cleaned, I was devastated to find that the rug was permanently damaged with huge grey mold spots all over it. They offered No apologies, No compensation, No nothing!
I remain incredibly disappointed by the lack of dedication towards customer service, as many other shoppers have also expressed on Unilocal.You would think the owners would do everything in their power to keep their clients wanting to patron them… Apparently that’s not the school of thought they subscribe to ~ shameful.

Extremely crowded store with a lot of items– you just might be able to find something.
Service was what brought one star– lady working at the store was not the nicest and was more occupied talking with her friend.
A lot of items are but hard to get to and since it’s so crowded, I was bit scared to knock stuff down while trying to look at the furniture. Some of the items were awesome while some pieces were falling apart– wobbly legs on stools, tables shaking side to side.
Worth a visit if you are looking for an unique item, but don’t expect any service.

This is a crowded place that has great items. Totally vintage. Hard to walk around. Many things were too expensive for me but lots of things were very cool. Some things were almost too vintage and hipster for me. I didn’t end up finding anything in my price range except for some cool vintage post cards which ended up being a good buy. The only problem other than the price was that the ladies working there were intimidating. They seemed pretty bitter, even when I was purchasing an item. That might just be who they are and it didn’t bother me too much. Don’t let that stop you from going here. Let your wallet stop you from going here. Expensive but you can find that one amazing treasure here so it’s a bit of a hunt, and it’s kind of fun. Biggest danger of the adventure: the parking. Overall a good store that is quite vintage. Don’t knock anything over, or suffer the wrath of the owners.

My friends and I were breakfasting at Claire’s this morning and decided to stop by Village Consignment, even though the last time I shopped there I was ignored and couldn’t get help.
Well this morning a blonde gray haired woman that is always there couldn’t be bothered to get a price for on a retro rusty chair, she said the owner was off today, and that was it. Not I’ll find out for you, can I call you back etc.
My friend got the same treatment.
Too bad, we have both shopped there before, won’t ever go back, and will be sure to mention how rude and unprofessional they are.

WOW — unbelievable customer service. I went to drop something off at the store. The moment I stepped into the store, there were 2 old ladies with sour looks on their faces walking around. One of them shot me a dirty look while the other did not even make eye contact.
At first I thought to myself, «oh whatever, probably just grumpy old ladies shopping». I am looking around for someone who works there to return the items to, and was just about to go in further when all of a sudden one of the ladies pipes up and says in the most bitterly cold tone, «you can put that there». Yep– no «hello, how are you?», no «hi», not even a smile or a nod. This is all registering very quickly in my brain that this crabby old lady actually works here and judging by her pretentious «the hell are you doing in this store» attitude, owns it. I kind of just look at her in disbelief with my eyebrows raised. I literally put down the item and say «Okkkkkkkkkkkkk» and turn to walk out. That’s when I can hear them making a rude comment about me. They didn’t even wait for me to leave to store before talking behind my back (literally), because these old ladies are straight up RUDE b-​tch-​s.
I don’t care how old you are, what store you own, or who you are, you just don’t treat another person that way, NAMELY YOUR FREAKING CUSTOMER. There’s a bunch of complaints about them for a very good reason.
It is almost as if they are purposefully trying to drive customers away and give themselves a bad name, because I can’t understand how someone managing a store could be that dumb, and that rude. What unpleasant, unpleasant people.
Shop somewhere else — you will get a better price AND your whole experience will be much more positive not dealing with these people. They get an F– in everything.

This place is a treasure chest of stuff for your house. You have to look around carefully but they most certainly have some neat stuff. The staff is very friendly and will provide you with interesting provenance on various items. If you’re into home décor this is definitely worth a stop.

I like this place. So many unique items that you can use in any home. The difficulty is that you might have to look in some of the most unsuspecting places to find a gem of a deal. I was able to find a piece that I love, but was told a different price than I was charged. :(it was only a few bucks… so nothing major… I would have spent it in gas trying to go back and get it adjusted so I let it be. Would definitely shop here again and will doubl-​check my receipt before getting too far.

I have been into this store many times. As the store goes it is packed full of stuff and there is a good mixture of furniture and decorative pieces. I would say that the prices aren’t very consistent. Some items are competitively priced while others seem a bit over-​priced, however its location probably has something to do with being overpriced.
The reason I am giving a bad review and will not patronizing this store ever again is because of the rude way my friend and I were treated. We wandered into the store around 12:30 on a Saturday and there were a few others in the store but no more than 4 other people. We shopped and chatted. We picked up 2 similar scarves, neither had a price. We then found a few other pieces we were interested in, one was a globe sphere. The globe was just a sphere as it was broken or removed fro the base. It was sitting in another item on the back porch and, like the scarves had NO price. Ironically enough, it was sitting on a table with a sign that read «additional discounts may be taken at register». We went to a friendly salesperson and she did not know the prices so she asked a heavy set, older, woman with salt/​pepper short hair sitting at the desk. The woman stated that the scarves were $ 10 each, but her answer about the globe piece was inaudible, so the other woman asked again. She got a little short and snapped back «$ 22.00″. I very casually asked if she would accept $ 15.00 cash for the piece to which she responded, „No way! You need to get up on a Saturday morning and go to garage sales if you want that!“ Now, I get it, she needs to make a profit. But she has a consignment store. People expect to negotiate when they go to a consignment/​thrift shop. She was just plain rude! It’s not like I offered her $ 2.00. My offer was more than fair and she could have countered, but she was full on rude. She could have just said,“No, I really can’t let it go for that.» No snarky response required.
Given her response to us, my friend and I walked out with nothing. We put the scarves back and the other pieces (large expensive pieces, btw) are no longer in consideration. That snotty sales person screwed herself out of an immediate $ 35.00 sale and possibly thousands more. Not very smart.
Given many of the other reviews I can’t understand why this lady does this for a living. She seems to hate her job. If you don’t want folks to negotiate prices you should get out off the consignment business. Do the world a favor.

I was intrigued when I drove by, so I stopped in. The room was filled with several employees, yet not one even acknowledged my presence. No hello, no «can I help you find anything?», nothing. I don’t like people hanging at my heels, but I don’t want to be invisible either. That didn’t put me in the spending mood, so I left. I’ll find other places to shop.

I have to agree with Rob… I just tried calling around to find something and I called at 9:10am and she answered the phone, hello in a tone like I was disturbing her. The conversation went worse from there.
Im looking to redecorate my entire brand new house with vintage… wont be getting in my car to go there.

This place is awesome. My wife and I found them last weekend while walking around Solana Beach with my wife. They are in the heart of the Design District and everything about this store is classy. Each item has a story to tell and the staff was friendly and laid back. I am not surprised to see other Unilocalers have found this place to be as cool as I did. We didn’t buy anything last weekend but will definately be back through the next time we’re looking for that perfect peice of furniture or flair for our house.

First off, this is the best consignment store I have found in the San Diego region by far. I always am able to pick up something at a far better price than I’d ever expect and typically it is a complete «find» and original. I’m not sure how they pick the items that they have placed expertly around the store but it sure seems to work. Flat out, I’ve saved 100s if not 1000s of $ here and always have been given attentive super friendly customer service.

I happened to be shopping at another favorite consignment store in Solana Beach (Antique Warehouse) and someone referred me to the Village Consignment Store just down the road. After finding a perfect desk, one of the workers (Gary) helped negotiate an acceptable price and close the deal. They have some great items and it’s a real cute store to browse (make sure you check the annex in the back). Both Gary and Karen (the owner) were a pleasure to deal with and I would take any negative reviews with a grain of salt (if you are respectful and honest you will certainly get that in return).

First off, I am not one to write bad reviews lightly as I certainly understand the ramifications of a bad review and try to give the benefit of the doubt on most occasions. Unfortunately, I had such a wretched experience with this business that I had to write this review.
First off, to be fair, this place has many good consignment items and you can really get some great values. I would say the items here are high end and mainly one of a kinds. However, if you want to give your business to someone who is friendly and reasonable, I would not step foot in this place. I don’t know about you but I like to patronize businesses who give decent service and realize that the customer deserves some semblance of respect. I can say unequivocally and without any question whatsoever, the woman (I think she is the owner) was the most rude woman I have ever come across in my 45 years of life. Rude and unreasonable is an understatement.
I won’t bore you with volumes of info but I brought some items to her shop for consignment, had to rent a truck to get it there and left the three items there after we agreed upon a selling price. I told her I had a matching headboard/​footboard to match the sideboard I had left and that I would bring the headboard as soon as I could. I had used the sideboard (antique) as a dresser for many years and the headborad was definitely a matching set. She said to certainly bring the matching head/​sideboard when I could and we would settle on an asking price for that too. To tell the truth on both sides, I did not bring the matching headboard for anbout 30 days but thankfully the sideboard hadn’t sold so no harm/​no foul. I went to the shop and told her I was going to get the headboard and bring it in. She emphatically and rudely said I could not and that I could bring it in a montyh and a half or so and that she had too much stuff. She said she didn’t remember me at all and miraculously has no recollection whatsoever of any conversation we had had on the phone (SHE CALLED ME ON MY CELL!!!). I understand her shop is small and there is not a lot of room so I suggested a compromise… maybe she could call me in a week or so and let me know if she sold a few things so I can bring in the headboard. After all, it WAS a set and either I would have to rent a truck again to move the sideboard out or risk selling the sideboard and still having the matching headboard not sold. She would have none of it, was completely unwilling for ANY compromise and essentially kicked me out of the shop. I tried to at least remind her of our initial conversations and hopefully spur on a recollection of our initial meeting and subsequent phone call SHE made to me but she essentially yelled over me like a child and made up some concocted story that it must have been someone else (a guy, and I had never even seen or spoken to any guy there) I spoke to, not her.
Ok.maybe I am boring you with the details but I was so taken back by the complete rudeness of this woman that I hope that anyone reading this considers NOT giving her any business. I am basically one of the most easy going persons there is but this woman ruffled my feathers and her inability to find any common ground or use any reasonability whatsoever was extremely disconcerting. She semed a little short the first day I was there but I gave it her the benefit of the doubt as everyone has a bad day here and there. BUT, after the last experience, I had to share it with others.
Oh.and one more thing. If they sell your item, you don’t get your check for well over a month (it is in the contract but seems odd) and they don’t even call you when you sell an item… you have to call them periodically and see if it sold. Now this might be the norm as I am not an expert in consignment business but I thought that if they sold one of your items, they would at least email you or something to let you know. All in all, horrendous customer service!!! Great stuff… rude owner.

I stumbled upon this place by accident, and was so pleasantly surprised! This is a hidden gem of really nice antique furniture, outdoor patio furniture and accessories including pottery, even plants, as well as other home goods like rugs, tablecloths, paintings, picture frames, candle holders, and dishes. Everything is reasonably priced — in some cases, a bargain even! Come shop here and you’ll find treasures that will make your home look so much better than some cheap particle board made table from Ikea.

i haven’t bought anything, but i consign with them, and they are so nice and helpful. they were super laid back about the whole thing. The only thing i would have changed was that everything is priced based on what the owner wants to sell it for. The people at the store aren’t the ones who price it, so there isn’t consistency as far as expensive/​cheap.

I’ve always browsed here, lot of interesting pieces and the prices are very reasonable. Since I recently moved I had them sell some excess furniture that didn’t work in the new house. Very easy to deal with, very responsive, contract is very simple and clear (deal memo might be a better name for it). Everything they take is good quality in good shape, just depends if you find the right thing when you’re there. Everything is there for only 60 days max., so you can’t be indecisive.

SCORE! I found some sweeet mid century patio chairs (4 for $ 200). I met with the owner and she is fabulous! I love people that really and truely care about what they do. She gave me a recommendation for a powder coating place she uses. I totally dig people that just love to make old things look beautiful and this is her specialty. The store is crammed with a beautiful collection of old restored goodies. I highly recommend just stopping in to browse a little. Don’t forget to sneak out back and peek in the nearby garage which is hiding a few more pretties.