# Grocery store liquidation - what to stock up on? Need answer fast **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 15, 2017, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-liquidation-what-to-stock-up-on-need-answer-fast/789007 "2017-06-15T03:18:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-liquidation-what-to-stock-up-on-need-answer-fast/789007/41 "2017-06-15T19:55:39Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > It seems to me that the really good merchandise could be put on a truck and sent back to the distributor or wholesaler for more money than selling it at fifty or more percent off. I would think this would be especially true for high-value electronics. Keep in mind: 1. The liquidator is trying to minimize overall cost and maximize overall sales. They probably don’t have the time, energy, or manpower to do a micro-level cost-benefit analysis on each SKU in inventory. 2. The liquidator owns all the merchandise; if the original buyer (say, Borders or Circuit City) had an easy-returns arrangement with the wholesaler/distributor, it no longer applies. (The arrangement was probably for credit towards future purchases anyway!) So trying to sell it back would be difficult, hence costly, and would certainly be at much worse terms than the product was sold originally – now the wholesaler/distributor has to sell it again at the standard discount! I was a manager at a Borders that went through liquidation. The guy who ran our liquidation – and it was one guy for a $4 million store, with a nicotine-stained moustache and a flip-phone, one step up from a carney or telemarketer – gave some attention to a few high-end/high-demand inventory (or fixtures), but only insofar as displaying them prominently to sell them as quickly as possible before the discounts dropped. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2017, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-liquidation-what-to-stock-up-on-need-answer-fast/789007/42 "2017-06-16T04:37:45Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > I’m surprised that no one’s yet told you to get potatoes. 🙂 My husband and I once spent a long car ride arguing over the exact nature of a Giffen good. (I was right.) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2017, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-liquidation-what-to-stock-up-on-need-answer-fast/789007/43 "2017-06-16T05:48:28Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > That’s because you’re looking at it wrong… I know that 40% equals 40%. > > But, 6 months from now when someone says “we’re out of detergent” I can brag that I have more in the garage and I saved 40%… wasn’t that a wise thing to do… lets get some steaks to celebrate!" After all, if I had to run out then I’d have to spend $25 for a new jug… but I don’t have to so there is $25 dollars… plus I saved $10 dollars so we’ve got $35 extra! > > It is sort of the same “special” math you do when you calculate if you came out ahead in Vegas. 😃 But the money you’d be celebrating having saved could instead be spent on steaks right now. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2017, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-liquidation-what-to-stock-up-on-need-answer-fast/789007/44 "2017-06-16T13:57:19Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Or you could just buy 30 bars of soap, since soap doesn’t go bad and you’ll use it within a year, and you’re saving $12 you would have spent anyway, too. It doesn’t really matter either way. I’m still using Irish Spring that I bought in 2011 to take with me when I moved to China. Proportionally the amount of money that my company spent on containers moving them back and forth across the Pacific is probably more than the value of the soap. I still have some hot pepper sauce and some canned chiles as a result of that “prepper” purchase, and some deodorant, too, I think. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2017, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-liquidation-what-to-stock-up-on-need-answer-fast/789007/45 "2017-06-16T14:16:47Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > I’m surprised that no one’s yet told you to get potatoes. As I read the thread title and username, I thought “potatoes…nah they’d go bad…boxed potatoes…yum, boxed potatoes!!” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2017, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-liquidation-what-to-stock-up-on-need-answer-fast/789007/46 "2017-06-16T14:30:37Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > I’m still using Irish Spring that I bought in 2011 to take with me when I moved to China. Proportionally the amount of money that my company spent on containers moving them back and forth across the Pacific is probably more than the value of the soap. While I understand you, we’re doing math based on the assumption that somebody uses 3 bars of soap in a month, therefore, in 10 months will have used 30 bars. Obviously, this example does not apply to you and would not be a good purchase. Pick whatever low-cost, non-perishable item you use multiples of in a month for your own example. And, yes, if you have to ship shit around, you can account for that, too. I personally would just buy stuff that I actually need and use, and not care about expensive vs inexpensive items, as most likely my truly “need” items that are used constantly are going to be low-to-mid-priced ones, like pantry staples and cleaning supplies. I can easily rack up a couple hundred dollars worth of those items at 40% off and actually use them and justify them vs. big ticket items, which are more likely to be on my “want” but not “need” side. ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2017, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-liquidation-what-to-stock-up-on-need-answer-fast/789007/47 "2017-06-17T07:07:03Z")
Purchase dry goods that are highly discounted, and then donate to a local food bank. You get a tax write off, the food bank gets lots and lots of paper towels and feminine hygiene products. Sure, you’re not actually saving money, but everyone in happy at the end. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2017, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-liquidation-what-to-stock-up-on-need-answer-fast/789007/48 "2017-06-17T12:00:04Z")
Our grocery store has a closeout/whatever area.\* Just a couple months ago a whole lot of stuff appeared there. Not just on the shelves but stacked up in carts. Later I overheard one employee ask another if all this stuff was from the store that was shut down who confirmed it. Some of the stuff is still there. Wonder when they’ll finally just toss it. Anyway … they _do_ move stuff from a closing grocery store to another. But the OP involved a whole chain shutting down so not much of an option. - I browse it but rarely find anything worthwhile, even at a discount. In this case, though, _Mrs. FtG_ bought a bunch of canned stuff for her soups. ---
**Author:** ![igor\_frankensteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/839c29/32.png) [@igor\_frankensteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/igor_frankensteen)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2017, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-liquidation-what-to-stock-up-on-need-answer-fast/789007/49 "2017-06-17T12:16:06Z")
With all such seeming “deals,” it’s a matter of knowing what you really use, knowing what is perishable, and knowing what it really sells for. I rarely bother to go to Going Out Of Business sales anymore, because as a couple of people already said above, most of them are essentially fake. The most valuable and least perishable merchandise that the store USED TO sell, was already returned for partial credit to it’s source vendor. Only returned items with damage were left. And having to dig through the TONS of garbage that the professional liquidators trucked in, to find the rare actual bargain, wasn’t worth the cost to me in time and exhaustion. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/grocery-store-liquidation-what-to-stock-up-on-need-answer-fast/789007.md?page=2)