The Rise of Mom and Pop Liquidation Stores, and How to Vet What You're Buying
On ASD Market Week’s Retail Revelations podcast, Damian Polak explains why bin stores boomed after COVID and how he vets suppliers before buying.
On ASD Market Week's Retail Revelations podcast, Damian Polak broke down two sides of the same coin, why independent liquidation stores have exploded since COVID, and why buying liquidation inventory safely requires more caution than most newcomers realize. Watch the full episode →
THE TREND
Why the Bin Store Boom Started During COVID
Damian traces the wave of independent liquidation and bin stores directly back to two things happening at once during the pandemic. Commercial real estate got cheap, with landlords desperate to fill empty space rather than let it sit vacant, and online returns spiked as shopping shifted online, leaving big box retailers with more reverse logistics volume than they were equipped to process.
Most retailers, in his telling, simply weren't built for returns to begin with. Distribution centers are designed to move product forward, out to stores and customers, not to sort, grade, and reprice what comes back. That gap created dirt cheap return truckloads, which gave small entrepreneurs in towns without a Target or Costco nearby a real opportunity, a 5,000 to 10,000 square foot store stocked with return merchandise, offering both a treasure hunt experience and inventory nobody else nearby was selling.
THE APPEAL
A Business Model Built on Variety, Not Repetition
Damian draws a clear line between traditional retail and this new wave of liquidation stores. A conventional retailer wants the same SKU in stock for a year straight. A mom and pop liquidation store wants the opposite, three, four, maybe ten units of something, then something completely different next week. That constant variety is what makes the treasure hunt experience work, and it's part of why he believes this model still has significant room to grow.
THE RISK
Why Vetting Suppliers Isn't Optional
The flip side of easy access to inventory is that liquidation remains, in Damian's words, a wild west industry. He's dealt with counterfeit health and beauty products that looked legitimate until he ordered the same item from official retailers to compare. He's run into 3PL disputes where it wasn't clear who legally owned the goods being sold, the brand, the 3PL owed unpaid storage fees, or someone else entirely.
His rule is simple, work only with trusted, vetted sources. For larger deals, that often means physically flying out to see goods in person, or sending someone he trusts to verify and document the inventory before any money changes hands. He won't move forward without a clear paper trail either, if a supplier won't provide an invoice, that's an immediate red flag. It might cost a little extra time or money upfront, but it protects everyone downstream who eventually buys that inventory from him.
