Just Between Friends of Gainesville, the state’s largest children’s pop-up resale event, brought families, educators and community partners together for a multiday consignment sale in Alachua featuring discounted children’s clothing, toys and baby items.
The event, which ran April 15-19, allowed local families to sell gently used children’s items in a large-scale temporary retail setting, with unsold goods often donated to local partners. Organizers say the event helps reduce waste while giving shoppers access to high-quality items.
Kimberly Huffman, 43, who helps plan events for Just Between Friends Gainesville, said the resale model meets a need for families navigating the cost of raising young children.
“It just makes sense to go secondhand, especially with young children who outgrow things,” Huffman said.
For shoppers, the sale offered a way to compare a wide range of items in one place, often at significantly lower prices than traditional retail stores.
Parker Minchew, 30, a pediatric nurse and mother, said the sale offers a practical way to shop for children’s items.
“I was looking for a toilet [training potty] at Target for $34 or $35, and here I can buy it for $8,” Minchew said.
She said the ability to see and compare items in person also helps her make more confident purchasing decisions, particularly as a parent navigating which products are actually worth buying.
For educators, the sale offers low-cost classroom materials. Jayme Tate, 38, a preschool owner, said she returns to the twice-yearly event regularly to purchase supplies for her students.
“Every year, we come and buy new toys or refreshers for the kids’ classrooms,” Tate said.
She said she finds high quality classroom items like furniture and learning materials that would otherwise be expensive to purchase new. At Thursday’s sale, she identified a wooden table and chairs set for classroom learning priced around $20, compared with similar commercial sets that can cost up to $200.
Behind the scenes, the scale of the event requires extensive planning and coordination to transform large indoor spaces into an organized retail environment.
Preparing the space requires significant physical and logistical effort, according to Morgan Starling, 32, an events manager with Just Between Friends.
“It takes a lot of hard work,” she said. “We lay down flooring, set up racks and tables.”
Starling said she spends much of her time working on the sales floor, where she interacts with shoppers and helps them find items at affordable prices. She said those interactions, particularly with first-time attendees, are what make the sometimes fast-paced work meaningful.
The event also serves as a platform for community outreach, including partnerships focused on child safety and injury prevention.
Jordyn Zyngier, 26, a pediatric trauma injury prevention and outreach coordinator at UF Health Shands, said her team works with Just Between Friends to provide car seat checks and safety education to families attending the sale.
“A huge initiative is promoting child passenger safety,” she said.
Zyngier said the partnership also helps first-time caregivers who might not otherwise have access to safety resources.
Families who participate in car seat checks at the event can receive incentives, including waived entry fees and gift certificates to encourage safer practices and increase awareness of available programs.
As the sale continued through the weekend, organizers expected more families to attend, with a final half-price clearance day Sunday. Huffman said the closing days often draw returning shoppers and bargain seekers before unsold items are picked up by consignors or donated.