Sur La Table is adopting the Patagonia playbook with its new resale site

If you can’t afford to spend hundreds of dollars on a copper pot from Sur La Table, the cookware retailer now offers another option: It’s launching a resale site where the same item could cost as much as 70% less. After fashion retailers embraced brand-owned resale, it’s starting to show up in more categories, from toys to bikes. Sur La Table is the first in cookware with its new platform, called Second Servings, which lets people buy and sell secondhand versions of everything that it carries, from sauté pans to espresso machines. Affordability is one of the motivations, says CEO Dan Goldman. “Resale is all about helping bridge the existing gap between consumers who love to cook and haven’t necessarily had access to the premium cooking products,” he says. Goldman says he doesn’t expect the resale site to cannibalize the retailer’s new sales; instead, he believes it will bring in younger, budget-conscious customers the company wants to introduce to its products for the first time. “We want to build lifelong relationships with those consumers,” he says. Goldman, who joined Sur La Table last year, previously helped launch resale programs at the North Face and Gap, where he says he sa…