Debbie McDaniel of Revente and Sid & Nancy
Star Profile
Story and Photo by John Temple Ligon

Debbie McDaniel

Revente, the consignment shop on Saluda Avenue in Five Points, began 16 years ago. Sid & Nancy, an invested inventory shop a few doors up Saluda from Revente, began a little over a year ago. Both shops are owned and operated by Debbie McDaniel.

McDaniel was born in Greenville at Donaldson Air Force Base Hospital where her father was assigned. He left the Air Force when McDaniel was two and enrolled in civil engineering at Clemson.

McDaniel's mother worked as an executive assistant, and her father matriculated through the five- year academic program and graduated in 1959. While in Clemson, McDaniel attended John C. Calhoun Elementary School.

Her father took a job with Champion Paper Mills in Canton, Ohio, then he moved the family back to Greenville a couple years later to take a position with Piedmont Engineers and Architects. Meanwhile, McDaniel gained a younger brother and a younger sister.

In Greenville, McDaniel attended Stone Elementary School, Northwood Junior High School, and Wade Hampton High School, where she took all the art courses available.

With her art background, McDaniel enrolled at USC's Columbia campus with an art degree on her mind, but she switched to early childhood education. Her degree four years later was in early childhood education, but after a short stint at Perrin Thomas School, she redirected herself to a career in retail.

She worked in a pants shop at Dutch Square and moved over to the Dutch Square location of Britton's next. After a few more assignments in small shops, McDaniel got in with Bonwit's at Richland Fashion Mall developed by the Australian firm Hooker Barnes.

Following the closure at Bonwit's, McDaniel worked in shops on Devine Street while she plotted her move into independence and debt.

In 1991, she borrowed $3,000 from NationsBank and another $2,000 from her mother to start Revente. Fortunately for McDaniels and her banker Ann Wilson, she was profitable her first year.

McDaniel began with the residential pages in the Columbia phone book, where she fingered her friends and found the mailing addresses for a massive postcard mailout. In the postcard she described how her consignment shop worked and volunteered to pick up the consigned goods for sale.

To quote from McDaniels' current customer handout, which is little different from her first postcard mailout missive: "All items must be in current style, no more than two years old. Boutique and designer labels are the most sought after by our customers, so we do not accept inexpensive or discount store labels. All items must be clean, pressed, and on hangers. Items not meeting this criteria will immediately be donated to charity! Shoes must be in good condition (no scuffs, worn heels, etc.) and placed in a shopping bag with your name attached - no shoeboxes, please. You will earn 40% of the listed selling price..."

Revente keeps the goods on sale for eight weeks, usually discounting 50% for the last week.

A few doors up Saluda sits Sid & Nancy, as in the late Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols punk rock band and his girlfriend.

Her No. 1 assistant, Heather Craig, has been with McDaniel for several years, and she works both Revente and Sid & Nancy cash registers.

McDaniel keeps up on the latest trends in consignment shops through her national organization, the National Association of Retail Thrift Stores, and its Website, www.narts.org. Another big help is the national group known as TGTBT, which is Too Good To Be True.

Her husband is artist Ralph Waldrop, a regional muralist whose work is all over South Carolina, including the west side of Jillian's on Gervais Street.

With Waldrop, McDaniel has two step daughters: Leah, 32, an Air Force officer in New Mexico, and Lara Suzon, 33, a PhD in space physics pursuing research while teaching at the University of Illinois.

McDaniel and her husband live with their two dogs on South Edisto, which is near George Little's construction office and Joab Dick's Hangar Apartments.