Sur La Table has entered the resale game with Second Servings, a new peer-to-peer marketplace for kitchenware, home goods, and dining products.

The Fast Five crew debates whether the marketplace is a smart, low-lift opportunity or simply a distraction that won't generate enough traffic to move the needle. And after taking a closer look at the platform, Ben Miller raises another interesting question: is this really a peer-to-peer marketplace, or a new way for Sur La Table to sell discounted and returned merchandise?

▶️ Watch the full Fast Five episode here: https://youtu.be/NXUUmuwrX2Q

Headline number three, Surla Tab has launched a peer to peer resale marketplace.

I can't wait to talk about this.

And it's called Second Servings.

Partnering with resale technology platform Archive to let customers sell used kitchenware, home goods and dining products directly to other shoppers.

Ken is a peer to peer resale marketplace, a smart play for a kitchenware retailer or do you think it is a distraction for a brand that's only a few years removed from bankruptcy?

I'll split the difference, Chris.

I'll say it's smart, but it's limited.

Okay.

Okay.

So meaning, you know, a lot of these peer to peer marketplaces and many times, you know, if you just look back over the years, you'll see headlines of different folks doing it.

It's the kind of thing where it's a natural bolt on, right?

You've got enthusiasts of whatever the sector are, they're already interacting with your brand, with your stores.

There's a resale marketplace, a secondary marketplace out there, you know about now you get someone that can come in and fulfill and essentially do the work for you in terms of, you know, running the platform and the buyers and the sellers.

And so for someone like Srila Tab, you know, it's a logical bolt on, it's good margin in a sense because you don't really assume any of the costs.

And so it's essentially a commission type business.

So it doesn't, you know, it doesn't cost you much.

It shouldn't be that much of a distraction for the employees.

But the counter to that is, you know, how, how big are these things in the end and how many of them really do accrete, you know, significant value?

I would imagine sort of the, the uptake and the usage of this would be, would be quite limited.

I don't know what their expectations would be obviously, but you, you're, you're down to a subset of a subset of a subset.

When you get folks that are engaging in the secondary market, folks that are willing to use you versus eBay or some other established platforms and then you know, the subset of the transactions that actually happen.

So when you do that sort of chain, I think it's a logical kind of high margin bolt on.

But I question, you know, if it'll actually move the needle in terms of the bottom line.

So you think it's like, it's like an okay thing to do.

Like it's like it shouldn't be that big of a distraction, but you just wonder how big the pie is.

That's your take here.

Yeah, basically it's not wrong to do it and it shouldn't cost a lot from them in terms of resources but.

But, you know, doubts on whether it'll move the needle.

Yeah.

Ben, do you agree with that?

Yeah, I agree completely.

I, I sort of want to love it more than I do.

I think resale is going to be really big.

You know, is one of my big predictions for this year, that resale will genuinely start to scale.

And this feels very niche.

I agree with everything.

As Ken has said, it looks like the supplier that they're working with has brought, you know, a really nice solution that creates a relatively light lift and therefore light distraction for suitab.

The problem, of course, is getting people onto the platform and that will ultimately fall to solitab, that will fall to their CRM, their mailings, their use of their.

You only have so many bullets as we know, to be able to fire at your customers, to be.

And then the chamber is empty.

And if they're going to be using them to encourage them to get onto the resale platform, they're not selling them full price.

So that's where I worry that the distraction will come in.

There's no doubt that cookware, in fact premium cookware, there is a resale market for it.

There are a lot of listings on ebay.

I do worry about the distraction here though.

Yeah, the ebay points, really interesting too because I actually, I mean, I'm going to go a little bit stronger.

I think this is a total waste of time.

Yeah.

As my Gen Z kids would say, don't be a hater.

I'm a total hater on this and I have been over the long term, the resale sites, I just don't understand.

I understand the model, I understand the excitement around them.

Operationally, I think they're a disaster and they're not going to work.

And over the Long term I just don't understand how they can profit from the SKU intensity management that's required.

So when I hear Sir La Tab and I hear the really the home furnishings or home areas and I think of the skew intensity that's involved in operating it, I just, I don't see a future for it.

I don't think it's going to work.

Yeah and the other point I would bring up too because I think the interesting thing here is in the very same week Urban came out and said that nuuly is driving significant comps for them which is their basically effort to do the same thing.

But apparel resale is very different from the resale that we're talking about here with sir the Todd because you're talking about reselling branded manufactured items like KitchenAid Breville.

I was on their site yesterday.

So that's just basically like so the top you're trying to become Facebook Marketplace or ebay.

So like it's going to become a traffic game and a traffic battle to win that game.

But Ben, let's give you the last word here and then let's move on.

Yeah, I think it's just one thing that I'd be keeping an eye on.

So to like yourself, I've been onto this site and I've had a look at the products currently for sale.

Now they've had a seller only period to try and get merchandise on the site.

There is very few independent peer to peer sellers on there.

The majority of product currently on there is returns damaged items, open box items from solitab.

So is this a peer to peer marketplace or is this a way for them to sell off production at a discounted rate but actually keep the customer within their own ecosystem?

If that's the play and they can generate some scale and a bit of margin out of it, I've probably got less of an issue.

I'm more worried about how do you get the volume of genuine peer to peer secondhand players on an ongoing basis.