Amazon Return Stores: A New Suburban Fad?
Online you can find just about anything these days. People can get anything from a pair of shoes to a lute on Amazon. But what if it just isn’t right? Where does it go?
Turns out it goes to a liquidation center. Amazon can’t resell items that have been opened or used, so it becomes some one else’s deal. These items then can end up on websites like liquidation.com, where they will just sell a whole box filled with returns for fractions of the price. I found a whole pallet of Smart Water going for $63.08 at its current bid. Which is not a lot considering, it’s 38 cents per unit (I couldn’t tell if it was package or bottle they counted in the 166 pieces) on the pallet at that price.
Honestly, these auctions seem sketchy, but watching YouTuber unbox some of these boxes, it doesn’t seem too bad. The items are generally in good condition, maybe not original packaging or its been damaged, but it still works really well. Though some items were missing or damaged, it wasn’t the vast majority of them. Though my question is, why would you buy a box if you aren’t planning on unboxing it for your followers? What purpose do these boxes hold?
I have recently found out about a store near my hometown that sells these Amazon returns. While I’ve never been my mom has gone, and it seems like you get to pick any random item and purchase it for $5. It could be worth $300, and they will sell it to you for $5. As their stock depletes in the week they’ll sell you more than one item for $5. It is a mad house on Saturdays when they open up. The inside only looks like neat rows of plastic bins you have to sift through, so it’s nothing spectacular (and my mom says they offer plastic gloves too). They seem to take the really “good” stuff and hid them in golden chests around the store for those who are serious about this store. It’s a game they play with these people, “We know what’s best, hidden it, and hope you don’t find it.”
I am interested in where they get their products from? Are they just a liquidation center that did it right and made it a store? Or do they buy large packages off of websites and just set it free in their bins for their customers? How does it really work? Their Facebook page was the only source of information I could try to find, they linked a website, but it was just an unused domain. And trying to find anything that wasn’t a give away or live video from weeks ago was annoying. Their About page was empty, so they’re just relying on the word of mouth and their posts to tell you what they’re about. They give you no info on why they are able to sell items at $5 despite their market value, but people love that I guess.
It just stands to show that I don’t care for suburban Facebook trends like this. It isn’t amazing or ground breaking store, it’s a little dumpy, but people eat it up if they can get their lotion and a new set of headphones for just $5. It doesn’t seem practical to get things like baby wipes and other essentials here, they don’t always carry it. Why would you spend your Saturday searching for a laptop that they probably don’t have and doesn’t even work? And after scrolling and scrolling through their page, I still had not found one piece of information about where they source their products. It seems like they don’t think their fanbase would care where they’re getting these products, but I do. Is it all safe for people to be handling? Do they vet everything that goes through their doors, especially the food products? This doesn’t seem like a great place to shop. To have an experience, it seems like fun maybe once or twice to go, but people line up every weekend and comment of every post like its their job.
