The catch: you never know what you’re going to find one day to the next.
“It’s just stuff,” said Cody Penwell, owner of Nifty Thrifties Bargain Bins, 6845 Dayton Springfield Road in Enon. For the past month, Penwell has been buying truckloads of containers filled with unwanted merchandise from area retailers and re-selling it for pennies on the dollar.
“We have no idea what’s in it. It’s a mystery to us. It’s a mystery to them. It’s like the lottery,” Penwell said about the boxes of goods.
Penwell sells unopened “mystery” containers for $60 each to whomever wants them. The rest are poured into the store bins with all items priced at $10 starting on Saturdays. Prices are dropped each day until Wednesday when everything is $1. Between 3-5 p.m. Wednesdays, customers can fill a bag with whatever fits for $10 to clear out the merchandise.
The whole thing starts over the next week.
Nifty Thrifties is one of four bargain bin locations that have popped up in the Dayton area over the past several years, joining the Miami Valley Liquidation Center, 3555 Kettering Blvd. in Moraine, Bargain Bin Depot, 1248 N. Broad St. in Fairborn, and MVP Liquidation, 5511 Bigger Road in Kettering.
All of them run on the same format.
Bargain Bin Depot, for example, opens on Friday with all items priced at $6. That price is dropped to $5 on Saturday, $3 on Tuesday and $1 on Wednesday.
Bargain bin stores have taken off nationally since the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise of online shopping, according to organizations that track retail trends, with some estimating that there are up to 10,000 across the country.
According to the National Retail Federation, the total return rate for retail purchases last year was 14.5%, about $743 billion worth of merchandise. Online sales return percentage was higher at 17.6%, about $247 billion.
The bin stores give retailers a way to unload the returned merchandise without paying for warehousing and other costs.
Though they’re more common now, discount and bin stores are by no means new.
Boston-based department store Filene’s started Filene’s Basement in 1908 as a way to sell excess merchandise. Unsold goods were taken from the store’s main floors into the basement where an automatic markdown system was used to clear inventory.
Modern day stores such as TJ Maxx and HomeGoods sell brand name merchandise at discounted prices. And some large retailers offer their own version of discount shopping such as Nordstrom Rack and Macy’s Backstage.
But these stores tend to specialize in the types of goods sold, unlike the bin stores where shoppers can find virtually anything, from clothing and accessories to home décor and electronics.
Penwell himself started as a customer at bin stores before opening his own. He’s come across some big finds, including artwork, cell phones and an Apple Watch.
Finding the bin stores themselves can be a challenge to customers, and their no-frills approach isn’t for everyone.
The stores rely on sales volume and low overhead to keep prices down. Advertising is typically limited to social media platforms, and store signage rarely amounts to more than a flyer taped to a door and a store name written in grease pen on the windows.
But once they find them, many customers are hooked.
“I like coming in every Wednesday,” said Nicole Bock, an Enon resident who lives across the street from Nifty Thrifties Bargain Bins. “There’s always something different. Everything changes.”
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