04 Sep 2024 25 years truly

By Colleen Holt

After a quarter of a century in business, Cinda Montgomery and her team at Yours Truly in Conway have built a phenomenal consignment store with a legacy of love and empowerment that you can feel each time you step inside.

In anticipation of the anniversary, the store recently expanded into an adjoining space that became available next to the business. In conjunction with a complete remodel, Yours Truly opened 2,000 square feet for a children’s department and added 5,000 square feet for a new section—a home and holiday decor area.

The remodel included new paint and shelving, shopping areas that are connected for easy access, and a connected sales and intake system across the different specialty areas. The home and holiday decor area is dedicated to Montgomery’s mother, Judy, who taught her “that it’s okay to piddle around as a way to relax and energize.”

“It’s been a lot of work to do all of it by our 25-year anniversary on Oct. 1, but we made it happen. It was a huge team effort,” the founder said. “S. Truett Cathy [founder of Chick-fil-A] said, ‘If we get better, our customers will demand that we get bigger.’ I love this quote.”

This sentiment explains what has happened over 25 years at Yours Truly. “When we decided to improve everything, we did and gave it our all, the customers started asking for us to expand and get bigger. We’ve done that with our storewide remodel and expansion into more shopping space.”

The store is totally consignment, with new and gently used brand-name clothing for men, women and children. The home section includes small, decorative items that are in perfect condition and fit with the current decor trends. The store also features some boutique overstock items that are favorites among shoppers. Through their system of pricing and markdowns for items that do not sell, the store turns over items quickly.

Yours Truly may be run by Montgomery and her team of employees, but the ownership is largely in the hands of those who consign and those who shop. This is how Yours Truly is different—Montgomery said she has worked to build a feeling of community. The store can help consignors by allowing them to consign items they no longer need, and, in return, they can help shoppers by offering them quality items at a discounted cost.

“What I love the most about being a business owner is the connection with the community,” Montgomery said. “Without our customers and the consignors, there is no business. So it is truly ‘our’ store. We aren’t trying to draw attention to or market the business. We want people to feel it each time they enter our doors.”

The idea is for the customers to spread the word to their friends and family about what they love at Yours Truly. “We want each person to have a great experience when they shop or consign in the store,” she said. “We want them to know that we care, that we are here to help and that we do appreciate the business. This is how we make a difference.”

The owner continually encourages her team members to put love into action, however that may look. This winning strategy could include a smile or a kind word, spending extra time with a customer, or an act of kindness such as comping a purchase for a customer who might be a little low on cash that day. Yours Truly is also active with a variety of local community nonprofit organizations, and the team works behind the scenes to help fill needs around the community as they appear.

“We want to give it our very best, and we want to watch for opportunities to go above and beyond,” Montgomery said. “We teach our team awareness, and empower them to step out and do kind things. We can all use a little more kindness. It does make a difference in someone’s day. I always want to stay interested in the business, investing in growing our people, more than I am about being bigger or selling more items.”

Montgomery said Yours Truly is the largest consignment shop in the South and attracts visitors from more than just Arkansas. “I chose Faulkner County because it was in Central Arkansas, and we wanted people from all over to shop with us, and they do,” she said. “It’s that ‘wow’ moment when people tell me how far they drove and that they come any time they travel through Arkansas.”

By investing not only in a business but also in the community and the people who live nearby, Yours Truly has built what Montgomery calls “a legacy of love.”

“I believed that if we gave a good quality product, a good price and excellent customer service, that we’d have a competitive edge. I’ve continually asked myself, ‘How can I make this better?’ I think at this 25-year mark for me, I can confidently say it’s better than it’s ever been.”