On Sept. 15, outside of the Memorial Union, a swarm of URI students flooded around giant bins, and tables of clothing, shoes, accessories and bathing suits. Crosswynds Traders had come once again, bringing pieces of highly discounted clothes for students to buy.
Christine Woodbine, founder of Crosswynds, and URI alum created Crosswynds because she became a mother and she “wanted something to do on the side while still being a mom.”
While working in the Memorial Union as a catering director, Woodbine became versed in the world of vendor sales and pop-up shops. As a student, the position of catering director was a very hands-on, student-run position that was in charge of setting up vendors, hiring waiters for different events and helping pop-up shops sell their products.
While planning an event, one of the people she had hired as a waiter turned out to be a wholesaler. He worked for smaller brands selling their overstocked goods at a discounted price.
After graduating in 1982 and going on to have two children, she ran into the same man again on a plane. After speaking to him, she found out that he was wholesaling GAP products.
“You really should try it,” he said. “I will never forget it. I bought a bunch of GAP t-shirts, set up inside of the Union and sold them within two hours,” Woodbine says of her first bout of wholesaling.
After that, she was hooked and kept buying more and more products. She started off by going around to Rhode Island-area colleges and setting up shop wherever she could. At times, she would go to people’s homes and sell clothes at parties. The man that originally inspired her to start wholesaling eventually got bigger and bigger, and expanded the number of brands he sold from.
“So as he got bigger, I kind of got bigger,” Woodbine said.“He started getting clothes out from J. Crew, and American Eagle.”
How is Crosswynds able to sell their brand new, brand name clothing for inexpensive prices? The process of wholesaling is what allows Woodbine and many other wholesalers to make profit while still being able to keep the cost to their customers low.
The multi-step process of wholesaling includes “major companies who have excess, or past season, or marked out of stock or sample clothing,” Woodbine said.
The big companies sell their excess to people called “jobbers” who then have connections with wholesalers who will then sell the clothes at a discounted price. By buying in bulk, prices stay down, but quality will stay the same.
After a few years of having a mobile business, she opened her store on Boston Neck Road in Narragansett, and waited to see if URI students would go to her. The store itself sells a variety of boutique clothing items as well as merchandise for Narragansett and Bonnet Shores.
“I wanted something that not only students could get to, but also that the summer tourists could get to,” Woodbine said of her storefront.
In trying to keep the store known by URI students, Woodbine continues to bring her business to campus to try and show new students her local small business. While she loves coming back to URI, planning for a sale takes a lot of preparation.
Woodbine and her manager, also a URI graduate, will sit down together and discuss what to bring to the sales. “What will a student want,” she said. After all of her years of business, she learned what college students want. “Good quality jeans for a reasonable price, exercise clothes, and big, oversized zip-up hoodies,” Woodbine said.
“You have to start small and find your market,” Woodbine said of anyone trying to start a business.
Crosswynds Traders has found their market in URI students and continues to come back year after year.