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