Wholesaler makes a good fit for flea market vendors

Continuing a family tradition of service to retail customers, Scott McMillin and his wife, Michelle, have shaped their company by specializing in smaller retail customers, from independent mom-and-pop stores to flea market vendors.

Michelle and Scott’s Wholesale Imports employs a staff of ten at its Tennessee headquarters.

Scott McMillin has a long history as a distributor. “My background is in the import and wholesale businesses,” he says. “My father owned the Memphis Import Company, and I grew up in the business. My wife and I started Wholesale Imports, which become Michelle and Scott’s Wholesale Imports, in 1989.”

One of the factors that makes his company especially useful to a flea market vendor, says McMillin, is the range of product he offers. “We have about 6,000 active skus (stock keeping units) at any one time and they are mostly ladies fashion accessories of one type or another,” he says. That includes fashion jewelry, hair accessories, and handbags, for example, although the company Web site features products ranging from watches to toys.

That wide range of items — and a constantly changing assortment — means that a dealer can source a lot of different things through the company. “They can get a large variety of stuff from us without having to buy a large quantity of any one thing,” McMillin says. “We have quick turnaround, so they can order often and don’t have to stock as much stuff at one time. We put new items in all the time, so they can keep a variety in their merchandise.”

In order to make it easy to browse all those items, the company has put a lot of thought into its Web site, of which McMillin is the webmaster. “I have always been a computer geek, so we did digital catalogs and a Web site early on, but the Web business didn’t become really important until about five or six years ago,” he says, looking at how the site has evolved. “Now around half of our business comes from the Web site.” The company can be found online at wholesaleimport.com.

McMillin says that dealers buying small quantities are very much welcome. “We cater to the smaller end of the customer spectrum. We have a lot of customers, and each one of those customers typically only buys a couple of hundred dollars worth of stuff at a time. That fits the flea market vendor model very well.” The minimum purchase amount is $75.00 per order., according to the company Web site. A point-based volume discount system is available.

“We just try to make our website as easy to use as possible and price the merchandise as cheaply as possible.” — Scott McMillin, co-owner.

For more information, please contact:

Michelle and Scott’s Wholesale Imports
Address: 4957 Summer Ave, Memphis, Tenn. 38122
Tel Number: 901-767-0838
Fax Number: 901-843-2498
E-mail: scott@wholesaleimport.com
Web site: www.wholesaleimport.com