(Photo: Erin Nicole Brown)

Your store simulates a clothing swap. How does that work?
I put customers’ items into color-coded categories: $5 red tags for costume jewelry and brands like H&M; $15 yellow for the Zara realm; $25 purple for, say, Theory or J. Crew; and $150-or-less blue for designer stuff like Burberry. You get store credit for what you trade, or you can just shop normally. I accept practically anything that doesn’t have stains, rips, or odors.

Are there some items that just don’t sell?
Frog-shaped rain boots: They had bulging eyeballs at the toes. We keep a Goodwill pile for stuff like that.

And the store is profitable?
Well, the idea is to get investors for the website. And I can also fall back on savings from my four years working at Barclays.

Very different work environments, I’m guessing.
Yeah, if someone was being nice to me on the trading floor, it was probably because they wanted a good price on a bond. Here, there’s a genuine sense of camaraderie.

Interview by Jessica Silvester.

Related:

• Archive: “Ask Shop Clerk”
• Table of Contents: Dec 10, 2012 issue of New York | Subscribe!