Consignment stores are all about previously owned but still-valuable items getting a new lease on life, a second chance, if you will. Usually it’s what’s inside the store that’s passed on. But in the case of Sacks Consigned Designs, it’s the store itself that’s getting a second life.

More than 30 years after she opened Saks Thrift Ave, a Fayetteville consignment shop specializing in clothing for women and children, 80-year-old Judy Robinson felt the time was right to step away.

“She's been talking about retirement for about 10 years,” said Cherita Horne, who worked for Robinson at the store for about eight years.

Horne said there was no one in Robinson’s family who was interested in taking over the Raeford Road store. But like anyone passionate about extending the life of good clothing or anything else of value, Robinson couldn’t bear the prospect that the shop would simply close — or, in consignment/thrift-store talk, be discarded.

Enter Horne, who after a career in the property-management and marketing business, found a soulmate in Robinson and the modest-but-successful business she had built and nurtured.

“She had been after me for quite some time to take over the business,” Horne said, adding that she wasn’t completely sold on the idea at first.

In the end, however, Robinson’s persistence won out over Horne’s reluctance, and earlier this year Horne committed to take over the business, tweaking the name — it’s now Sacks 2.0 Consignments — and moving the shop from Raeford Road to The Shops at Boone Trail Center.

Though the floor space is about the same as the Raeford Road location, Horne said the taller ceilings (11 feet vs. 8) will give the new space a roomier feel.

One thing that will not change is the quality of merchandise the shop will offer, Horne said. 

While she has nothing against the donated items sold at thrift stores, Horne said consignment shops offer a middle ground between well-used and brand-new items.

“There is definitely a need for thrift shops and there are certain things that I go to the re-store warehouse for,” Horne said. “I'm very creative and I know a second-hand can of paint can do a lot for you.

“There are things that I shop specifically for in thrift or second-hand stores," Horne said. "With thrift stores, you're going to see clothes from many, many, many years ago. I am not a vintage shop. I specialize in high-end, current style labels; boutique labels that you won't even find in Macy’s,” she said.

“It's amazing what people have that they no longer use that is still viable,” Horne said.

For bargain hunters, it’s a great find. And for entrepreneurs like Horne, it’s a business model that continues to thrive, satisfying not only the need to make a living, but a passion to see nothing go to waste.

“That's one of my biggest things,” Horne told the Greater Fayetteville Business Journal on Tuesday.

“I hate to see anything go to waste,” she said. “Not everybody wants to invest that much in a wardrobe. God bless those that do and can and that realize it still has value and bring it to us so that we can enjoy that as well.”

Located at 3035 B Boone Trail Extension, Sacks 2.0 Consignments is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays and 10 a.m. to 5.p.m on Saturdays. Learn more at www.facebook.com/Sacks2.0.