Consignment Queens

thelist WOMEN TO WATCH

CONSIGNMENT QUEENS:

Renee Dietzel AND Janet Acker

They bicker like sisters or spouses, but these best friends have built a successfulconsignment business and pay it forward by supporting other local businesses and nonprofits.

The Chic Boutique founders,

Renee Dietzel and Janet Acker, met 14 years ago in the halls of Lake Sybelia Elementary School while enrolling their children. It was Janet’s first day in Orlando as she had moved from Houston.

Fast forward a few years and the friends decided to open a consignment shop together. “I said let’s do something where we want to go to work. I want to love it and have fun at it,” Renee says.

“With my background [in fashion merchandising] at Neiman Marcus Houston and working in small boutiques in Texas, I told Renee I wanted it set up like a boutique, unlike other consignment shops. It’s organized by sections with different designers on pop-up. Everything is clean and organized. It was important to me that it looked fresh all the time,” Janet adds. A testament to that is sometimes people will walk in and request something in a different size. “And we laugh because it doesn’t work like that,” they say.

With a lot of other thrift stores and consignment shops in town, location was key. Renee has a real estate license and used tools to target their desired demographic. “We had looked all over Orlando, but we were down in Audubon Park; it was a rainy Sunday, and the cars were just going by. We looked in this place — it needed a lot of love to make it what we wanted but we were determined the location was worth it. We’re near Baldwin Park, downtown Orlando and Winter Park,” Renee explains.

They had just one month to collect inventory before opening and drove around town picking up items from people’s doorsteps — something they are still willing to do. Chic Boutique Orlando opened in 2010 and offers an upscale selection of women’s apparel, handbags, shoes, sunglasses and jewelry. Its ever-changing inventory includes designers such as Chanel, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Chloe, Dolce & Gabbana, Christian Louboutin, David Yurman, Gucci, Dior, Pucci and numerous other preferred labels. They also accept items

from stores like Chico’s and J. Crew and have a fun line of affordable accessories.

They admit they’ve made many mistakes along the way but something they have done right is supporting their community. “We really embrace our neighborhood. You have to support them to support you. Our dry cleaners are four doors down to the right; my dog gets groomed at the groomer, and goes to the vet across the street. We are also patrons of the restaurants in our strip,” Renee says. They even recommend other consignments shops if they don’t have what a customer is looking for. “Orlando is a big town and every consignment store carries different inventory; we need to support each other,” Janet adds.

But what they love most is supporting nonprofits by donating unsold items to organizations such as BASE Camp Children’s Cancer Foundation, Coalition for the Homeless, House of Hope, Women’s Resource Center, Health Care Center for the Homeless, Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health, One Purse, and more. “We are always open to new charities. Just give us a call,” Janet says.

The “Lucy and Ethel” of consigning love what they do every day and it really shows. “Never in a million years did I think it would be this successful. We have won the best consignment award from several publications and our popularity has really grown with all age groups,” Renee says.

Chic Boutique Orlando

2818 Corrine Dr., Orlando 32803 407-286-2949 | chicboutiqueorlando.com

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