10/22/2025
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Kerstin Block started in 1974 with 400 square feet and clothing racks made from old bicycle wheels.
Her store, Buffalo Exchange, near the University of Arizona in Tucson, was different than the thrift stores at which Block had spent so much of her free time. Rather than take piles of donations and display vast quantities of merchandise, Block ran a curated boutique. She paid for clothes with cash and trade, and took only the good stuff.
Customers marched up to the Buffalo Exchange buy counter where an associate would assess them and hand back most of them. They weren’t interested in volume. Just the gems.
Many sellers took this personally. Some broke down in tears. Others argued and tried to make a case that their clothes deserved more.
Block taught her employees how to handle it: Be honest, be respectful, be direct. Despite bruised egos, the buyers and sellers returned. Block expanded the business slowly.
In her first year, the store did a reported $30,000 in sales. Today, Buffalo Exchange has more than 40 stores and the company says annual sales hover near $100 million.
“I was addicted to shopping for used stuff and bargains,” Block, who died Aug. 29 at the age of 83, told Inc. magazine in 2012, “and I figured maybe I was not the only person.”
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