Home Discount Warehouses - legit?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I live in Clearwater FL - pretty suburban, not too industrial.

We’ve had three “home discount warehouses” open in the last year nearvy. All of them call a variety of household items (fans, sinks, appliances, and many, many tools). The tools and appliances are all name brand - most new in box) - Dewald, Milwaukee, Ryobi, though the have a number of bins of opened/loose tools including power tools, and in others the boxes are opened but all the manuals and stuff are included. Tons and tons of tools. There’s also a lot of riff-raff stuff (small lots of flooring of all types, a lot of loose hardware, etc).

One of them is just down the street, and I’m on their text updates. They get several new trucks a week, and I am shocked by the pure volume of materials they get.

The owner said pretty much all of the stock comes from big box stores like Home Depot and Lowes, and other online retailers. He indicated they liquidate any returned items that are not returned NIB, but also anything they pull off the shelf at a warehouse or distribution center for an order that gets cancelled, and that is where their NIB items come from. All of the NIB stuff is 40-50% off retail, and if a given item is on currently on sale at a retailer they will charge 50% of the marked down price if you bring an ad or active sale link.

So - is this stuff legit? I’ve seem them unload seemingly brand new pallets of DeWalt tools. I have a Ryobi Expand-It lawn tool set - the gas powerhead is 10 years old and I seem to need to replace the carb every 2-3 years to keep it running. It’s an old, polluting 2-cycle so I took a chance at buying a 40V boxed powerhead that from here that works with all of the OEM attachments, and it seems to be authentic (manuals and packaging match other stuff I have) and it works fine.

The 40V 5 amp/hr battery with Smart charger alone is close to $400 at Home Depot, and I got these plus the powerhead for $125. It’s been working fine for several weeks, the batteries charge well and run long (and they have tons of batteries and chargers on the shelves, sold separately.

It’s just hard for to believe that some of this stuff gets liquidated, unopened, by the palette. There’s a warranty risk, as anything that’s been opened only has a 30 day store warranty, but they said the new/boxed stuff will be covered by the normal manufacturer’s warranty.

FWIW - some of the palettes seem to have been shipped from Mexico and South America. I’m just wondering if these stores are carrying authentic brand items (and perhaps if they are, if they have been “diverted” from the factories).

Anyone have insight? I’ve bought a few Hunter fans and a light fixtures as well and they all seem to be the same items in the stores, even with SKU markings.

–Joe

2

I’ll start by saying I have never seen a store like this (I live in California, if that makes any difference). And I have no actual knowledge of what is going on (which won’t discourage me from commenting).

One thing (at least) that doesn’t make sense to me is that the big box stores are willing to re-stock items that were returned to them NIB but not to re-shelve items that were taken from a warehouse and then never sent out (the order was cancelled). And are there that many of those, that they would have pallets full of them? I don’t know what else could be going on, other than wholesale theft or something else criminal, but it smells to me.

It’s also puzzling that there would be three of them in one area opening in such a short time. Are there none of the big box stores in the area, which I would expect would be suffering noticeable loss of business due to these practices?

With the manufacturer’s warranty, you have to be able to prove where and when you bought it. Especially for store brands, like Ryobi, are they going to honor that if you bought it from some no-name outlet? If the items are knockoffs and not genuine, of course, good luck to any buyers who do try to invoke the warranty.

3

There are perfectly legitimate stores that use this model. I don’t have understand what you think is wrong with it. Big box stores often have to discount opened items. There are plenty of other reasons products of all kinds are unsold or overstocked and moved down the discount chain of retailers.

4

Well, they do use handwritten receipts, so you have to wonder. Have not tried a warranty claim on anything. Has not needed it. And there are, believe it our not, two HDs and two Lowes within 5 miles of either side of this place. As well as a Northern Tools and Harbor Freight. Here’s their FB page (which has more content than their website). The other two stores are a little further away from me so I don’t go often, but same concept. Got a Weber Genesis II Grill at one of them a few years ago - it was selling for $1499 at HD, and I paid $800. It had been opened, but all the parts were there and it looks indicate to the floor displays at HD (and is the best grill I’ve ever had).

5

It’s just the volume of it. And the number of them that seem to have sprung up. And that they get entire pallets of the same tool (Dewalt, etc.) Most of it unopened boxes.

6

That’s not that weird.

This is kind of weird:

https://groceryclearancecenter.com/

7

Those have been around for decades. Also in that category were the bakery outlet stores. (Day old bread stores when i was growing up)

8

Sure, but thinking that a home discount warehouse was weird doesn’t even pale in comparison to the weirdness that a salvage grocery sounds like.

9

I think the weirdest discount place I’ve seen is a place where the USPS sends unclaimed mail, and you literally buy items that are still wrapped for mailing and it’s basically a blind bag where you spend more money the bigger the box is.

I wonder why the USPS is selling unclaimed mail.

10

I think probably the weirdest store along these lines has to be this one:

Unclaimed Baggage | The Nation’s Top Lost Luggage Store

Not only is it unclaimed airline luggage, but it’s got a surprising level of branding and marketing surrounding it. Curated collections, a logo, etc…

11

NPR’s Planet Money podcast did an episode on return centers. In the store they looked at, most of the “good stuff” was picked over very quickly by people looking to flip the items on eBay.