Serving a Global Clientele With a Local Business in the Rockies

Consignment shops used to take in old clothing from people cleaning out their closets and sell it to neighbors in search of bargains. It doesn't add up in a town of 1,100 people in the Colorado Rockies. There are more than 8,000 consignors in the database of Holy Toledo, a shop in a Presbyterian church in Minturn. Heather Schultz is the owner of the business.

It's still important that Holy Toledo is south of I 70, which is about halfway between Vail and Beaver Creek. Visitors to those resorts sometimes make a pilgrimage to Holy Toledo, where they can find parkas, sweaters, dresses, cowboy boots, and many other items. Buyers often become suppliers, packing items for sale on their next trip or shipping goods to the store when they return home. The snowball effect is there. We have been open for two decades, and we do very little marketing.