Maximizing Joy as Lilise Designer Resale Expands Consignment Business
Minimum waste, maximum joy. That’s the motto Elyssa Alfieri has used to guide her business since she acquired it nine years ago. You can feel the energy walking through the front door of Lilise Designer Resale on Main Street — from the colorful racks of shirts and dresses to the vintage artwork on the walls.
“I feel like I needed this place when I was a kid,” she said. “I don't think that clothing is as superficial as people want it to be. If I’m in a good outfit, I'm a better person... I'm more willing to have a conversation with a stranger at this door.”
With designer, vintage, secondhand, and new clothing and accessories, the “slow fashion” store has become a staple of the downtown shopping scene. LDR was named Best Small Business in Concord in 2024 and Elyssa pays it forward by donating unsold items to a nonprofit thrift store.
But, success hasn’t come easily. Elyssa funded the purchase of the business on her own, avoiding outside support because of negative experiences with national banks.
She felt like her “non-traditional” business didn’t matter to funders, who had preconceived ideas about what a secondhand business looked like.
"When I was looking for financing previously, banks weren’t really interested in me because I was a smaller business with smaller revenues, more risk," Elyssa said.
All Needles, No Haystack
LDR has a more curated environment — “all needles, no haystack,” Elyssa often says — where customers feel like they’re shopping in any of the other boutiques in Concord.
The consignment model works like this: first, consignors drop off up to 25 items at LDR. Then, Elyssa and her team sort the items and let consignors know what’s accepted for sale. LDR prices the items and puts them on the sales floor for 60 days. Consignors receive 40% of each item sold and have the option to pick up their unsold items or have them donated to charity.
“It’s like being Robin Hood for clothing,” she laughed.
Second-hand shopping is increasingly popular as younger generations find their way to local stores and resale apps flourish. Two out of three young people shopped second-hand in 2024 (10 percent higher than average consumers), and one of the top reasons is that "it's better for the planet," according to a ThredUp Resale Report.
A Growth Opportunity Inspired by Antique Markets
As the economy changed over the last few years and Elyssa struggled with burnout, she knew something had to change.
In 2025, she applied to the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, which required her to outline a growth opportunity for LDR.
Inspired by the business model of antique stores that rent booths to multiple sellers, Elyssa wondered whether she could transform the basement of LDR into similar rental space.
“I started writing up that application and I was like, man, this is really feasible,” she said.
She was so excited that she began looking for funding and ended up on our website. Immediately, she could tell that the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund would be more flexible and supportive as a lender.
Elyssa applied for the Goldman Sachs program and a business loan on the same day — and got both.
Last summer, she renovated the basement at LDR, installing 21 booths and adding security cameras. She also put together kits for each renter with hangers, tags, bins, a tagging gun, and business cards they can use to market their booth.
When she launched the opportunity to her regular consignors, they quickly snapped up the weekly booth rentals. By fall, two-thirds of the booths were rented.
A Loan Worth More Than Dollars
Elyssa sees many benefits for LDR: getting customers to shop longer by adding another floor of merchandise, creating more word-of-mouth advertising, and decreasing the wait list for consignors, which is currently over 150 people.
Renters, for their part, get more control over their pricing and marketing, plus a higher cut of the sales (66 percent instead of 40 percent).
Ashley Jerackas has been renting a booth at LDR since last summer.
“I like shopping here so much that I’ve accumulated stuff that I just don’t wear a lot,” she said. “It’s nice to be able to bring it back here to see it go to a new home of somebody else who will love it.”
Most importantly, the expansion helped Elyssa grow as an entrepreneur and ensure a sustainable future for the business.
“It’s allowed me to loosen my grip on everything single thing that happens here and to turn things over to others,” she said.
In the same way Elyssa values the affirming community she’s created in Concord, she sees her loan as more than dollars.
“This is like the well wishes of the community,” she said. “It’s been a nice way of feeling supported by the community.”
Numbers That Tell the Story
We support local small businesses because of the greater impact they have on communities. They are the source of jobs and often are central gathering places that provide much more than goods and services.
Businesses like Lilise Designer Resale are the heart of their communities. Investing in them brings returns that go far beyond their economic impact.
21
new booth rentals
500
increase in sales space by square feet
3
employees before Community Loan Fund loan
5
employees after loan
9%
growth annually, on average, for U.S. second-hand apparel market *
68%
younger generations who shopped second-hand apparel in 2024**
*(GlobalData Market Sizing, 2025)
** ThredUp Resale Report
It makes me feel good to know that the Community Loan Fund is out there looking for the right small businesses to put the right money with — it feels like an extra pat on the back from our neighborhood.