Do they not have consignment stores in the UK?

BF and I were discussing this as I just picked up a second/part time job here in the US working in a furniture consignment store. The one I work in is more like a boutique with redone furniture, art and jewelry etc. BF seems completely perplexed by the idea that people bring their furniture in to our store for us to sell it for them, and then take half of the price. He just does not understand why people would not sell their stuff themselves and take all of the price. He is an accountant, so that may be part of it. Thoughts?

They have a few, but mainly every charity has a shop.  Most of those positions are unpaid.

Do you think the idea of a consignment shop without an attached charity go over? I love redoing furniture and have always wanted my own shop. Plus I do like the consignment thing. But then, it's very popular where I live in the US.

Not 'consignment' specifically, but upcycling is very trendy over here at the moment. I can think of three upcycling boutique-y shops within about a 10-minute radius of where I live that have popped up recently (in the past year+). Basically, they buy old stuff at car boot sales or auctions, do it up or "re-use" it and resell it, putting a '"vintage" spin on it.

The downside to that is that because the concept is so trendy at the moment, it may be something that won't last long.

I love looking around those shops, but honestly I'm much more likely to go to the auctions myself and pay rock-bottom prices! But not everyone is like me and I think the shops do well around here from the holiday-maker trade. So I suppose it would depend on the location of your shop - whether or not there's likely to be good traffic of the sort of people who like that type of thing and who have the money to spend.

Do you think the idea of a consignment shop without an attached charity go over? I love redoing furniture and have always wanted my own shop. Plus I do like the consignment thing. But then, it's very popular where I live in the US.

There are little boutiques and shops that do the sort of thing you're talking about, although I don't think very many of them do it on consignment.  Rather, they're usually tagged as a vintage shop or design shop. 

Though, that said, I think if there is a local person that makes items (jewellery, crocheting, furniture, etc.), a boutique might have an arrangement with the person and sell the items in a sort of consignment situation, rather than the usual consignment scenario of someone just trying to get rid of a bunch of their old stuff.  If that makes any sense?

x-posted with chary: I'd be an auction lady myself! 

Yeah, we have a dress agency/consignment shop down the street from us.  I like having it nearby, and have been able to offload some stuff and make some money back.  It's also located next door to a charity shop, so if I do go to the consignment shop, I try to make sure I have a bag for the charity shop to keep the karma levels nice and even   But actually, our consignment shop will donate whatever hasn't sold in a few months anyway, so at some point, it will go to charity.

I'm more of a high street shopper (gap, banana, etc) so usually I just try to donate straight to the charity shop as the consignment doesn't want anything that's not a fairly expensive label to begin with.  which is fair enough!  I've got some designer stuff, but I mostly want to keep it!

There is a high-end clothing consignment shop in Bath, but I agree with everyone else that charity shops and auction houses are so abundant, that I'm not sure there's a huge market for consignment shops in the UK.