I still have to be able to pay the bills at the end of the day.”

Sherri Collins | Other Mothers owner

IF YOU GO

What: Other Mothers

When: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays

Where: 12851 W. Bell Road, Suite 108

Information: othermothersaz.com

By Jason Stone
Mail | X: @thestonecave

Sherri Collins was only 21 years old when she came up with the perfect plan on how to take her infant son to work.

The Arizona native and Greenway High School graduate was a single mom in 1981, so the idea to open a modest, 500-square-foot boutique to sell second-hand clothes in north Phoenix allowed her to watch her 5-month-old son, Nicholas, as she ran the store.

Collins eventually moved the first Other Mothers store to a bigger location and then opened three others across the Valley, including one in Surprise.

But the Surprise store that has been a staple for young mothers, bargain hunters and people looking to mix up their wardrobe for more than 20 years is now on life support.

The Surprise store at 12851 W. Bell Road, Suite 108, was in danger of closing at the end of the year because of a variety of factors — competition from online platforms such as Amazon, too much inventory, the rising overall costs of doing business and the rapid rise in the state’s minimum wage.

The growing fad of thrift stores across the Valley isn’t helping matters either.

“We just had a really bad year last year,” said Collins, who is now 65. “I was using my lines of credit, my credit cards, every single month last year or two.

“So, finally, I said, ‘That’s it, I’m not gonna do it. It’s not working.’”

To prepare her loyal customers for the worst, at the end of December she posted a dire message on Facebook that warned anybody with store credit should come in immediately to use it.

“I need to be honest with you,” Collins wrote to her followers. “We are struggling.”

The message got passed around online in the weeks that followed as loyal shoppers used social media to rally West Valley residents to help save the store. It has resulted in almost too many donations the store can handle. Shelves behind the trade counter that were empty last week now are packed with dozens of white trash bags full of donated items, mostly clothes.

Gennie Wasden, a Surprise mother of three young children who shops at the store regularly, said she usually trades in her clothes to buy more. But after she saw a post on the Surprise Mommies Facebook group that the store was struggling, she went into action.

“We decided that instead of going to Goodwill we were going to donate here,” said Wasden, a mother of a three-month old as well as kids who are 1 and 5.

Wasden brought in mostly female baby clothes from sizes 0 to 5 that her children outgrew and a collection of books.

Collins has been running major sales to help push the large inventory of items through for a cash infusion. The recent sales push has allowed Collins to pay all her bills for the month — and given her some hope for survival.

“We’re not down and out yet, but we’re fragile,” Collins said.

Wage woes

After other factors forced Collins to close the other three Other Mothers locations over the years, she put all her focus into the Surprise store, its most profitable.

It was doing well for a long time, but the owner said one factor helped change all that — the rise in minimum wage.

When Collins first opened her store in Surprise in the early 2000s, Arizona’s minimum wage of $5.15 per hour allowed her to hire teenagers and stay-at-home moms to help with the labor.

But the Arizona Fair Wages and Healthy Families Act, which aims to keep wages on pace with cost of living increases, brought gradual increases over the years. Collins was able to sustain it until it grew to $14.70 last year. Then on Jan. 1, the minimum wage across the state went up another 40 cents an hour.

Collins used to employ up to 20 people at one time. Now, she has pared it down to about a dozen through attrition since she can’t afford to hire replacements.

“I’ve had to do pretty much the same job with less employees,” Collins said. “I’ve been asking the girls to do more.”

The store also cut its hours from 11 each day to eight on weekdays and limited hours on the weekends.

Economic changes have also led to people buying fewer clothes at her store these days, Collins said. Instead, a large percentage of customers are using their credit slips to purchase them or just wanting to sell clothes.

“I haven’t been able to raise the clothing product that much because they get it overseas now and on Amazon and wherever,” Collins said. “And there are lots of thrift stores now that there didn’t used to be.”

As part of a plan to survive, Collins is working on devising a new business plan with her son, who was the baby who was with her when she started it all 45 years ago.

They are working on developing an app and move to a model that processes trade-ins faster and gets shoppers in and out in 20 to 30 minutes.

To do this, Collins plans to be more selective on what the store buys because of its over-inventory problem.

“We’re looking for the bright, the best, the better brands, that kind of thing — and get them paid so they can spend their credit right then,” Collins said. “That way, we’re not wasting time. It’s just gonna be a quicker process.”

The packed store has caused disorganized messes on the floors, but Collins said she is determined to get everything organized again.

“I didn’t want to stop buying from the customers because that was our whole concept, but I’m just getting too much merchandise,” Collins said. “We just started having a lot more sellers than buyers.”

Overwhelming support

Collins said she never realized until the recent social media push that she didn’t realize how much the community loved her store. The reaction on Surprise community Facebook pages and those devoted to mothers in the city has been passionate.

“Your store helped me and my children get through some difficult times,” Candy Martinez wrote on the social media site. “Your business was worth the 40-minute drive across the Valley to Surprise where I continue to shop and find great deals.”

LoLo Buegeler wrote on Facebook that hearing the store may close permanently hit her harder than she expected.

“That place wasn’t just a resale shop — it was a lifeline,” Buegeler wrote.

Daija Ebert also tried to rally supporters on Facebook.

“If we all chip in, we can make a difference,” she wrote. “If they can overcome they may get through this scary time and keep things going to continue to provide to the community.”

Collins has called the community support “unbelievable.

“People are coming in, and they’re crying, and they’re telling me how the store made it so they could clothe their kids when they were single parents and this and that,” Collins said. “I’m hearing stories all day long.

“But at the same time, I still have to be able to pay the bills at the end of the day.”

Jason Stone
Senior News Editor | Surprise

jstone@iniusa.com

Meet Jason
Jason Stone joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2019, after a distinguished three decade media career that included stops at the Arizona Republic, iHeart Media/Clear Channel and Beckett Sports Card magazine. He remembers when airports sold newspapers.

Community: He is a big supporter of the Valley's original sports team: The Phoenix Suns.

Education: Northern Arizona University with a BS in broadcast journalism and a minor in sports coaching.

Random Fact: The capital of Nebraska is Lincoln.

Hobbies: Surfing, backgammon and men who aren't afraid to cry.