Zac: Okay, take two of Brent Yeager, built by Liquidation. Brent, do me a favor, recap who you are, where things were last time versus today. I know last time we talked about mystery boxes. Today our goal is to kind of chat more about bin stores, but the last time we talked to you, you had one bin store and one grocery store, and today things are different. BRENT: Today things are different. We today we have one bin store. We closed the discount grocery because our bin store is so big, we combined the grocery into one location. So we still do discount grocery, except it's a smaller section now, which does sell. It sells quick. You know, we Zac: Yeah. BRENT: have a whole section of just grocery. Zac: Okay, so grocery store at Ben's door, you combine the two, you're still doing everything, now just in one building. What made you combine them and get a bigger space versus just kind of staying where you were before? BRENT: Well, my bin store that I was in was we were in that location for five years. It was so busy that the fire marshals, the town, the mayor came to me and b multiple times and they basically said, Listen, you can't operate here. It's i it's not it's not working. I said, Well We're busy. I mean, we were busy, you know, every single day it was busy. You know, on a Saturday for our restock day, we'd have four hundred people in line, three, four hundred people waiting to come in our store. But the problem was the maximum occupancy. You know, we only were allowed a hundred and fifty people in our location. And we would we would max out in the first five, you know, five, ten minutes of being there. So the fire marshals came in, the mayor came in, we went to multiple meetings, they said, Listen, I understand you're running a business, we want You here, but we we can't have this. So I had multiple, multiple complaints from the neighbors, and it just got out of control where it was to the point where it was either we had you know the the cops are coming every day and they're they're shutting they they're they're giving people tickets, they're it was just a headache. So what we did was we decided, you know what, let's move, we have to move to a bigger location. If we want to grow, we have to move to another location. We have no choice, you know, three, four hundred people. people is cool in line, you know, and we're profitable. We've been extremely profitable, but if the if the city where I live doesn't want us doing this here, we have to move to another location. So that's what we do. We moved to something that was double the square footage, triple the amount of parking. Our sales numbers have increased drastically. you know, we're doing we're doing almost double than what we did down at my other location. now Zac: wow. BRENT: the reason why we had to close a discount grocery, you know, we were locked in for five years in a in a lease that our lease was up over a year ago. We've been we've been month to month at that location ever since. But we were locked in, our our rent was very cheap. So once we moved to this new location, which is in a plaza, it's next to Target, it's next to Coles, Ashley Furniture, you know, my neighbors my neighbors as Marshals, you know, now that we're in that plaza, we're in that we're in that national brand image where our rent tripled. So we had no choice but to combine it just to be able to afford it, you know, it just didn't make any sense to have two locations where we're paying double rent. We bet you know, between the two combined, we had still had double the amount of square footage that we between the two locations of the grocery and the bin store, you know? So Zac: Yeah. BRENT: So that's why we combined and like Yep. Zac: So now get to combine both customers at the same time. Are you in the same city you were in before, or did that city lose out on on you guys? BRENT: we're still in the same technically we're in the same county, but we're not in the city now, we're in the town. So the way that our you know the city is all small businesses, but when you get to the town, that's where the national chains are. It's kind of it's such a small town, there's only twenty thousand people here, city and town combined. So once you get up to what we call is Route thirty where my store is, that's where all the national brands are, you know, Walmart, Target, all the fast food chains are up here. So it's technically Amsterdam, New York still, but it's it's a three minute drive from my other store. So it's not bad. Zac: So it's not it wouldn't like a big deal for your customers to find you. That's BRENT: no, I mean i it was actually very simple, you know. But what helped Zac: Yeah. BRENT: was I use smart marketing. So the the neighbors that didn't like me my old location, I put billboards in front of their businesses. And and the now when you come into the city of Amsterdam, all you see is my giant face. Zac: Yeah. BRENT: so and it says now open at my new location. So as soon as you come into the city of Amsterdam and you ha to get through to go to the town, you have to pass my billboards. Yeah. It's right in their face. Zac: Got a just right in their face. That's awesome. I love that. I saw the billboard, looks awesome. BRENT: I got a I have more. There there it's just that one. You you only seen one of I didn't post the other ones. Zac: you've got five. BRENT: I have I have three right now. Zac: that's that is fantastic. BRENT: Yeah. Zac: So share with us a little bit. I remember talking to you when you had found the building you wanted to move into, but give us the breakdown of from the the time you found the building, negotiated the lease, moved into the new building, how long all of that took, how long were you closed for? How much did it cost you to go from, you know, two small build build two smaller buildings to one big to one big one? And it's in the Tell us the stuff you didn't realize when you moved. The hit not the hidden cost, but the cost that like shocked you or like surprised you. You didn't think of it when you when you signed the lease. BRENT: Well when I When I was looking for storefronts in my in my town city, you know, there's not many there's nothing around here. You know, in order to get a s square footage what you want, you know, big enough to do what I needed, you know, you're looking at the big lots is, you know, the thirty six thousand square foot storefronts, you're looking at, you know, the I w I'm in a old Joanne Fabrics. You know, you're looking at those buildings where the like I said, the rent is double. But now that you're dealing with, you know, national their national tenants that you're next to, you know, there's a lot more requirements that I didn't realize. You know, they they do f you know, it ain't l like working with Joe Schmoe that's renting a building from New York City, you know, that my my landlord was Zac: Yeah. BRENT: from New York City, I never met him once. You know, great guy, just never met him once. You know, and, you know, I kinda he sent me a paper lease so in the mail, I signed it, sent it back, wired him the money, we're golden. Here it was I had to have lawyers involved. I had to pay for a lawyer. I had to, you know, they wanted My security deposit wasn't first months and last month's rent here. It was three months rent plus a security deposit that's held in escrow for five years. You know, so that was a little different. And then when I when I finally got the opportunity and it took me took me about probably about six to seven months to finally get the building that I wanted. Once I finally got it, I went through it took It took about four months just to be able to pretty much close on it. Once I closed on it, and mind you I didn't buy, I just leased it. Once I finally closed, I got the building. It took me an additional three months just to open. Now me not realizing when when I'm in a smaller building You know, if I'm running, you know, on average I would run eight to ten truckloads a week through my store, you know, now I have to do fifteen because I have to you know, Zac: Wow. BRENT: my so in order to move, instead of, you know b overhead was extremely high be be from the you know, the signage, they didn't approve my sign. My sign that I had, I just had a eighteen foot sign box. They didn't approve it, so I had to go out and spend another ten thousand dollars on a sign. A real sign. It looks exactly like the Walmart sign. You know, it's it's channel lettering. So that that was an over you know, that was a huge cost too that I didn't realize once I signed they fully sent me the paperwork and I already put my notice in because I I knew I had the building, so now it's kinda locked in where three months rent plus security, you know, plus the signage, you know, I built all brand new bins. I wanted to do it differently, so that you know, that costs about thirteen to fourteen thousand just for bins. then the shelving 'cause you had to fill the place. you know, without inventory With moving expenses, just moving expenses, because I had to hire a couple movers. I was about a hundred about a hundred and twenty five thousand just coming into the building without buying product. That's, you know, with rent, that's with building bins, you know, that without buying my product, I was probably about a hundred and twenty five, a hundred and thirty thousand just getting in. You know, I had to do electrical as well Zac: Just getting into the building getting open. BRENT: because I took the building as is. Zac: Yeah. BRENT: you know, they did want a lot more money for it because it you know, they wanted it to go to a national tenant, but they did give the little guy the opportunity, you know, and Zac: Yeah. BRENT: I was willing to meet their terms, you know. Zac: Yeah. D were you able to negotiate any kind of rent abatement or just 'cause of the cost of build out. A lot of times you can negotiate, you know, a month's free rent or you negotiate a little bit off of the rent every month. Were you able to do any of that because you took the building as is? BRENT: I ended getting two months rent free, but it was kind of weird the way that they again it was I had to deal with l their lawyers and stuff. The way they worded it was a little different. You know, it was two months rent-free or whatever comes first, whether if you open if you open before those two months, you're not getting rent-free. There was way it was worded. You know, me I hired I hired a lawyer. She said, sign here, sign here, you're good. You know, and I didn't really pay attention to that. I just I was like, Yeah, two months, Zac: No, for sure. BRENT: two months, you know, whatever. We'll we'll take our time. But then those two months came up, three two months turned into three months, and it was, wow. I'm kind of sitting here like, you know, I I'm paying employees, you know, my my labor was because we're we're stocking a store, you know, that was double the square footage. It took us a month just to get it. We had to get it it took us a solid 30 days just to get it right because it is a grand opening, want to make sure everything is in place. So I'm still, you know, my labor used to be seven thousand six to seven thousand dollars a week. You know, I was still paying four thousand dollars a week, not even being open. Because I still have my manager, my couple managers that are on salary and you know, the employees that all my employees, I still needed to give them hours because it's I don't want them to find something else, you know. Zac: For sure. Yeah, all that carries over. People don't realize and cause you had to shut down your other business for a little bit. You couldn't operate both of them because you only have so many employees and so much time in the day. You gotta shut down what's making money for a month or two to open up what you hope makes more money. Now you mentioned obviously it's way bigger. You went from seven or eight trucks a week to fifteen trucks a week in the news BRENT: Mm-hmm. Zac: store. Really quick, because we've talked off-camera before. But break down your store because you have a unique model. Most bin stores, and that's what I know you market it as is a bin store. Most bin stores, they they throw the crap in the bins. It it's falling prices. Yours is a little unique from what I understand. BRENT: Yes. Zac: You don't just do straight Amazon. You I watch it and I'm like, it's wild because I see the pictures people post later on. I got this TV, this iPad for $12. And it goes against like anything it goes against everything like I believe to a certain degree. Like I hate seeing iPads go for twelve bucks, but you have a model that works for you and you know, the math works in your head and that's what matters, you're making money. but you have a unique model, so share with it so we can ask some follow up questions 'cause you sell TVs for twelve bucks and it's crazy to see. BRENT: Yeah. Well it's a little different. But so the way that I do it, I don't I don't necessarily dislike Amazon, but I'm not the biggest fan of it. You know, I do sell it to my customers. I do buy a load of Amazon every single week. but I only buy FC. You know, I do sell L PN, I do you know, sell a ton of FC, but I only buy FC for my store. That's the only Amazon load I'm saying I buy. if I'm gonna pinch I'll buy a you know a coffin load here and there, but I'm not an Amazon fan. you know there's other programs out there that have a lot better color. You know, when when there's color in the bins, it it it it's just eye-catching. It drags the people in. You know, Target, Walmart, things like that are You know, you're not getting a lot of brown boxes. So one thing that I do, you know, I do run Amazon every single week. I run a full truckload of Amazon FC through my bins. But the way now this this industry or this, you know, running a bin store is it's a strategic mathematical equation, right? So if you're taking FC, which you're paying a dollar a unit for, and say a program like I don't know, Walmart high piece count, which you're paying anywhere from, you know, roughly about four and a half to five dollars a unit on, depending on where you're located. You know me, I'm in upstate New York, it ships from Kentucky. I'm paying five closer to five dollars a unit 'cause my shipping's outrageous. So what I do is I layer my bin, my bins, all f I have 50 bins. I layer all 50 bins with a truckload of FC. I pull all the food, put the grocery on shelves, sell the grocery a little different too. now and then I drop a Walmart high piece count load on top of full load. So I run two full loads through my bins. Then what I do is I have a ton of shelving. So I take Walmart GM loads and target loads and I put them on the shelves. Now I'm only I'm only buying My Walmart, I'm about four and a quarter landed per unit. So I'm selling most of my items at twelve dollars on my shelves. You know, I could the only reason I'm putting them on shelves is they're way too big to go in bins. They're way too big. You know, they're they're air fryers and things like that, you know, and grills and all that. But I'm only paying four and a quarter landed, so I'm still selling it for twelve dollars. Now I do have a way of doing things where you know, if I get an item, not necessarily in my Amazon, not in my Amazon, not in my Walmart high piece, but strictly just my Walmart GM and my target GM. If I get an item that's three hundred dollar retail, I put a hundred dollar sticker on it. Now you know and I know now in these loads, you're not getting many items that are a hundred bucks, you know, over a hundred dollar, usually a hundred and fifty dollar retailer more. You're not here and there you'll get an FC load that has you know maybe five, six, ten iPads in it or something, but you're not getting a lot of that. so realistically, like last. Last week we only had 33 items. We call it the red dot. We've smacked a big red sticker on it. And we sell them. We had 33 items we sold for $100. But the rest of it, it's all about volume. So I'm selling everything else. I'm starting at $12. I do $12, 10, $7, 5, 3, 1. So it still goes down. So I'm making most of my money on my $12 day. You know, I'm selling items that like blackstone grills, TVs, I'm selling, you know, anything that comes in, I'm selling for twelve dollars most of the time. And what I I use my t yes, I can get more money for the iPads and the TVs and you know, things like that, and the phones, but I'm only paying four dollars and twenty-five cents. And the you know what I always tell people is why are you married to the product? Why? Stop being married to it. Just move on to the next load, move volume, and here's the thing. Now you went from one truckload a week to two to three to four to ten. And a vendor, a bigger vendor, would rather, you know, they me, I'll work with anybody. You'll work with anybody. We love our customers, we Zac: Yeah. BRENT: love our people. But there are bigger vendors out there that would rather work with, you know, the B stocks and the liquidities, you know, and things like that, that they rather work with the guys that are moving ten, fifteen truckloads a week versus the one guy that's moving one truck a month. You know? And When when you're when you're just you're just flipping volume at that point, it's a it's all about not holding on to the product. Just let it go. Stop being married to it. If you're making five bucks, you're making five bucks. It's five more dollars you had in your pocket yesterday. You get what I'm saying? So my mindset is a little different. I move in extreme volume. I don't I don't hold on to any product. if I get you know, right now I am sitting in front of probably three hundred cell phones that I've gotten off of one load, It's no joke. I'll show you a picture later. But I'm literally sitting in front of three hundred cellphones right now. But what I do is, you know, I paid four and a quarter landed f per unit. I'm gonna take those out. You know, last week I think I put out ten or fifteen of and I'll sprinkle out from now till whenever, you know, and but they just they never stop. I have I have enough cellphones for the next two years, you know, and and Zac: Yeah. BRENT: Because I if I get ten more, I'll put aside. Ten more, I aside, and I just keep putting more out and more out every single week. and it just it brings more people to your store. You know, I do get customers that show up at, you know, we open at eleven o'clock in the morning and for our restock day, and they show up the night before. You know, the line there there's usually 150 people here by six AM. And we don't open to eleven. Zac: Wow. BRENT: You know, and it's It's because they think they're going to get that iPhone. They think they're going to get that TV for $12. They might. I mean, but chances are they've already waited, you know, six, seven, eight hours in their car. You know, twelve sometimes these people wait twelve hours. They've already waited that long. They're going, they're going to come in and spend money now. They're going to. Zac: A hundred percent. BRENT: They're already here, you know, and but they know what it is. My customer, I built a customer base, what they know what it is, you know. They know if you're one of the first ones through the door, chances are you're going to get the good stuff, you know? Chances are. So that's why we it's a volume game to me. It's not about how much I can make at the end of the it's not about how much I can make in my, you know, off one item. It's about how much I can make at the end of the month off of everything I sold. That's the way I operate. You know, so I move in volume. That's you know, last week we did ten truckloads through the store. This week which probably gonna be right now I have nine coming and I again one of my guys just matched me, don't forget you bought a target load. I need to be paid for that. So that you know, that's a double stack target. So I'm gonna have more. But you know, we're just we're just gonna burn it through the store and it w everything sells. Everything sells here. We're grateful, you know? Zac: That's crazy. so you start at twelve. That so that includes the shelf items. You don't like the shelf items all everything bins plus shelves are part of that falling price point. You don't like keep the shelves at twelve and everything else in the bins falls, or you're saying the shelves also. So if TV doesn't sell for twelve dollars on Friday or the opening day it falls to ten. Wow. Okay. What percentage of BRENT: Like it would be ten dollars on Sunday. Yep. It all but everything the thing is Zac: your product do you think sells at that twelve dollar price point? And is it mostly the Walmart Target stuff selling at twelve? And then later in the week, like that's why you still keep the small bin items. That stuff sells, you know, for your seven five three one and they just they they come in they swipe your shelves early. BRENT: So on day one, usually 70 f anywhere from 75 to 100% of my product, sorry, what I spend on my product is paid for by day one. 75 to 100, Zac: well. BRENT: depending on what's going on in my town, you know, but normally by day two, a hundred percent of my product costs has been paid for. by ten dollar day. Now I have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Monday usually covers Monday and Tuesday usually covers my overhead, my employees, my rent, and then Wednesday and Thursday are usually my my profit days, usually. Now like I said, it's f Saturday and Sunday just cover my my initial product cost for the week usually. So I'm selling I'm selling a chunk of it, but it's mostly in volume. Zac: So you're open six days a week. Is that that's accurate, right? Twelve twelve, ten, seven, five, three, one. BRENT: Yep. Yep. Yep. Zac: Yeah. so I've talked to a lot of people. We've got a small bin store, completely different model. and our reasoning b behind it's different than yours. But what's your reasoning, what's your thought process b behind being open six days a week? Because that gap between ten and ten and twelve is not that big. If there's items out there that people will pay ten for, chances are they'll pay they'll pay the twelve and then also at the end you've got that dollar day. what's your thought process behind being open six days versus getting rid of some of those middle days and being open, say, three or even four days we can save in that labor cost? BRENT: Well so my store's a different animal compared you know, to some. I mean there there are stores that are probably busier than mine, you know, but I've realized that when I c if I close a day, you know, I used to be open probably about about three, four years ago. We were open five days. And it actually helped because I needed that two days to process, you know, and get get the bins refilled for the following day. now we only have one. you know, but what I realized is if I If I'm going to if I do, you know, the amount of sales that I'm losing by closing that day, it just doesn't make sense for us to close that it to close. We're we're doing enough sales that it's profitable to have the employees here. It it's extremely profitable just to have those employees here that extra day for us. plus it, I mean it kind of it gives my it gives the people that surround me extra money. You know, it's kind of I'd rather make sure the people around me are taken care of as well. So Zac: Everybody's paid for, everybody's BRENT: Yeah. Yeah, they are, you know and Zac: everybody's making a piece of this. That's fair. So you guys you're operating seven days a week. Because you you've got that one Yeah, but you staff is running for sure. Staff is running. BRENT: Yeah. I mean not me personally. I am grateful that you know, I don't have to, but yeah. We're we're over here seven days a week. My manager sometimes works seven days a week. she's here six. but normally you know, if something happens where you know, we happened last week we had two trucks come in. Our normally our delivery days we only accept deliveries on Fridays 'cause the only day we're closed. You know, but we do have a Zac: Got it. BRENT: warehouse and you know, unfortunately Tuesday and Wednesday loads came in this week, so my manager couldn't take a day off. She had to come in, you know. And I got called to come in and work. So you know. Zac: So are you is it all under one build you said warehouse. Is that warehouse attached to your building or is that a separate warehouse? Okay. Just to like overflow and to unload stuff. BRENT: Yeah, it's attached to it. We just have a small warehouse in the back where we hold right now there's three there's two and a half truckloads back there right now. You know. Zac: Got it. Okay. So you're moving a lot of volume through the store. Are you having are there any week weeks where you have had difficulty getting enough product to fill I mean, I know it's fairly new, but are you struggling at all getting the product you need on time every single week? BRENT: No, not at all. You know, i and you know, I do hear a lot of people say, you know, it's hard to get product and things like that, but it's because they haven't taken the time to build the relationships where, you know, I have guys that, you know, have been around for a while that will prior t prioritize me over somebody else. You know, it's a relationship thing. They'll say, Hey Brent, I say, Hey, you know, I really need a load from my store this week. they'll say, I got you, no no problem. You know, they'll make sure I have my load over somebody else. If th we built it's a relationship game, you know, and that's exactly what it is. You know, but the thing is too, I I do take so much volume with some con a bunch of a few contract holders where I have no issues getting the I'm grateful that I have no issues getting the product that I need for my store. You know, I always have an excess of product as well. that I'm able to sell, you know, weekly on my you know, my liquidation side. My liquidation trucking side. Zac: Got it. Are you buying for exactly what you need for the week or do you have product set aside as backup in case for you in case you didn't get something next week? BRENT: So for instance, right now I have five truckloads that I've already paid for sitting in Walmart's 3PL for me for next week. I also today I'm buying two target loads for next week. So I'm always a week ahead of time. I always plan it out where, you know, my Walmart high piece, I I just paid for one this morning that's gonna land hopefully by Friday next week. It might be sooner, but I try to plan it for Friday. So I'm always a week ahead of time. I know a lot some people can't do that. You know, I used to be at that point where I I couldn't order a week ahead of time. I had to order on a Monday and have it here on a Friday, so I completely understand, but you know, and it's Thanks. So right now I'm grateful that I am a week ahead of time every single week. And if you can do that, I do suggest, you know, linking up with suppliers that do you know, there are suppliers out there that I do have I do work with one of the biggest vendors in the United States and I'm on thirty-day terms with them. You know, and they're y you know, getting in and building those relationships, it it can be very helpful. You know, it's not all about just moving volume, it's building that relationship and having these conversations with them. You know y you might have something that falls in a place like that where you're not struggling to be able to grab your load on Monday. Hopefully it ships on Tuesday so you have it for Wednesday, you know? So you can open on Friday or however you do it, you know. Zac: No, there's ton of guys that and I get it to a to a point. There's you know, not everybody has stacked up enough cash to be able to buy a week or two ahead. But if you're gonna get into the bin store business and you don't have the capital to buy a week or two ahead, my suggestion is not I can't tell you how many customers, I'm sure you have the wholesale side also, are calling up on a Wednesday going, Hey, I need a truck to deliver on Thursday or Friday or my bin store can't open. And now you've put all the pressure on me to deliver a load in a time frame that's very difficult. there's a lot of product on the market, but most product for the bin store world is is picked up Monday or Tuesday. You know, most people are buying and shipping their product earlier in the week. I've got a lot of guys that we actually were shipping out a load today for a a broker whose customer needs it tomorrow. They waited until Wednesday to wire their money for a load they need the next day. and so You talking about supplier relationships and that's a that's a real fast way, in my opinion, at least for me, to to stress a supplier relationship when you put all the pressure on your vendor to deliver you a load in a very short time period versus giving them a lot of time to find what you need. so yeah, that's why I ask. V a lot more people, we're seeing that a lot more. I don't know on the on your wholesale side if you're seeing it, but I'm seeing it a lot more. Where guys are waiting till the absolute last second to pay for product, which tells me they don't have the money to pay for it, right? They're waiting for those sales to come in from Monday, from Tuesday to hit on Wednesday to pay me for the product they need to start all over again on Friday. Which scares me a little bit because it's not one guy, right? It's used to be it was one guy that was a pain that waited till the last second, and now I'm seeing. The majority of our customers are waiting until the last minute to pay for the product that they need for this week, which tells me that they're not making as much money as they used to make. Obviously, the product costs have gone up in the last few few years. The quality is trending downward. It's less, I mean, there's less quality like high piece count loads on the market. and that was kind of my next question was what are you feeling about to answer the question before? what are your customers like? But then what is your feeling overall on the bin store market today? Obviously yours is a different breed how you do yours. The majority of people that operate a bin store are still dumping Amazon product into a bin and starting, you know, between eight and twelve dollars. BRENT: I d I mean, you know, I have a lot of customers that, you know, they're load they're week to week. We load week to week, you know, and they're gotta pick up on a Monday, gotta have it here by Wednesday, you know it And it's you know, they always complain, we're not making money, you know, we're we're we're making money, but we're just skimming by. And Like it comes back to it's it's a mathematical equation on how to run these stores. You can't just dump product and expect to make money. You cannot. You not anymore. I mean, you know, back when I started, back when you started, you could take an LPN load that you got delivered to your door for ten grand and dump it and double your money. Now you can't. You have to blend. You have to figure out a way to make money. And whether that's you know, if you don't have enough traffic coming to your store, that's pulling those high dollar items. You have to You know, you have to be able to cover that load in some strategic way. You know, it's pivoting. It's and now I do see a lot of customers that, like I said, you know, they're load to load. They're they say they're not making money. You know, and I always tell people, right now, I wouldn't go into the bin store business unless you have enough capital to back you to lose money because you are going to lose money. You know, you might have a week where you lose I've had weeks where I've lost 20%. Twenty grand. You know, it is that's the business. What are you gonna do? You can't, you know, I always tell people, don't go in unless you have a you know, enough capital to back yourself for at least a month. At least. At least a month. You know, you have to have something to fall back on. You have to. Zac: Yeah. so you don't recommend people open a bin store in twenty twenty six is what it sounds like. I I strongly you BRENT: No, I'm not saying I'm not saying Zac: don't I cause I don't. I think it's a terrible business to get into. You like it. BRENT: I think it's a great business. I think opening I love the boots business. I mean people call Zac: You like it. BRENT: people call dinosaurs. Zac: For the BRENT: I mean, they are the dinosaurs. You know, they are becoming dinosaurs where, you know, they're around, but they're not you know I mean, they're going extinct, I guess. You know, they're like dinosaurs are going extinct. You're not gonna you don't see much anymore. It's you know, I went from having five in my town to just me. You know, in my in not my town, my area, just me. You know, there is one that actually orders f he just ordered from our sales girl this week, you know, and it was she he pay and here's the thing, just kind of what you just said. He paid on Friday at the end of the day, our bank closes at five, he paid at four. He w he called our our sales girl today and said, Hey, if you don't deliver that load today, which is Wednesday, I'm canceling. I said, Absolutely not. You you're not canceling. It's already Already scheduled to deliver tomorrow. But you know, he paid at the end of the day Friday, expected it there by Wednesday. You know, when it's a direct ship load, it I mean it's literally coming direct on a drop trailer. It's impossible. It's almost impossible. You know, there's there's just nothing you can do. so what I was getting at is, you know, the bin star stores are becoming Extinct. I love them. I don't think that I'm not saying don't open a bin store in 2026, but one fine build your relationship first. Find your find your suppliers first. Don't lock yourself into one supplier or two suppliers or five suppliers. I have I probably have a hundred suppliers. I mean I have relationships with people in you know the liquidation truckload groups that I can say, Hey, can I have this? Can I buy this load off you? You know, I know they're legit, I know they're not gonna screw me, I they're not gonna take my money and run. you know, so one build your I'm not saying do not open a bin store in 2026. I'm saying open a bin store in 2026 if you have the tools behind you. Don't do it if you don't have the tools behind you and you haven't done your research first. You know, I see a lot of people that do try to open and then within a couple months they're just done. They ran out of money. They didn't take the time to find the suppliers and it's kind of on them. I mean it took me years to get to the point that I I'm at right now to be able to have those relationships with people. And just like you, I'm sure it took you forever to to be able to find those guys that you can trust sending, you know, your weekly you know, bin money to, you know? Zac: Yeah. Yeah. And you hit y you kinda hit the nail on the head and I don't think I think the problem with bin stores and why there was such a boom is it was such an easy it is an easy business to start. For the most part, there is very little upfront cost. I can open we did and we I don't know if we ever made the video or what, but we we started a video of opening a bin store in thirty days for less than twenty thousand dollars. And it's doable. And think that's why so many bin stores popped open. originally it was such an easy concept back when product costs were were low. you just as long as you had a building that was open and you could build bins and you could fill them with product, you could have a bin store. And today, just the way the market is, you know, you have to have a little bit more common sense and a little bit you to know how to run and operate a business. And most people that opened up bin stores didn't understand how to operate a business. I also think that today's economy is a little bit different, right? For the most part, bin product isn't usually it's not stuff you need, it's just stuff you want. And it's like it's a little gluttonous, in my opinion, when you watch these people come in. It's cause it's the same people every week, right? And you have some resellers that are, you BRENT: Mm. Zac: know, different, but for the most part, it's the same people every week. And when you ask, I always I love to find out what they're doing. Because I love talking to other resellers, but then you you have the you have the a lot of the people They just buy it for themselves. And like you're in here every week and you're spending hundreds of hundreds of dollars a week and you're buying just it's crap. There's no like what I can't walk through my bins today and find something that I like, I need that, I would wait in line for. That's just I can't do it. so I think today there's just less disposable income for people and that's why a lot of people are struggling because like a bin store for the most part, it's not necessities. Most people aren't Filling their bins with toilet paper and health and beauty products, they're filling their bins with consumer crap. And because that's what it is. At the end of the day, it's just it's just stuff, right? And today, most people don't have that extra income to waste their money on stuff. so I mean the times are just different. I don't recommend starting in a bin store. If I'm getting into liquidation, a bin store is not where I would start. Maybe down the road if you want some supplemental income. You've got obviously with the wholesale side plus the bins, you've got it's a two-way street, right? You've got the wholesale side and you've got the bins. So you get to leverage your relationships with suppliers and it benefits you on both sides, right? Because you have the relationships with the suppliers where you're moving the wholesale product from you, you guarantee yourself these bin loads. If you had one or the other and not both, do you think you'd have the same amount of success? And I know for a fact that I wouldn't if I wouldn't be able to run my bin store if I didn't have my wholesale side. Number one, I wouldn't have the relationship with the suppliers to get the product that I'm using at the cost I'm BRENT: What? Zac: getting it for. And then two, I wouldn't have a place to like get rid of my leftovers, which is another problem. You would I don't know, you might not be surprised, but I'm always surprised when I get a phone call and we just got a load yesterday. I got a load of I buy people's filler trucks all the time. Like their filler or their leftovers, right? Because a lot of people don't they just they scrape their bins, they throw them in a pouch and they call it leftover. They don't do anything else with it. And you can pick up these loads for under five hundred dollars, which just baffles me that they'll sell them that cheap because there's still a lot of good stuff in there. But to wrap all that up, I think most bin stores have failed because they don't know how to run a business. I think the economy, at least where we're at, you know, it's tough for people. People don't have that extra money to go out and blow it on. I don't even know. I don't look in my bins too hard, but I can't find I can't find too much stuff that I'm like, gotta have it. but I don't I don't like stuff either. I rambled. I don't know where I went with that, but I was on a rant. and a lot BRENT: I mean it's okay. I I I think that the Zac: of it sh it's the gluttony. I don't know this might I don't know if you agree and you might not agree because customers, you know, might watch. BRENT: I mean I agree. I mean I do agree in some sense. Zac: But I call the I call my bins the troughs, right? 'Cause that's what you know, they're just it's almost like troughs and they're just like you watch on a s on a opening day, it's just like I don't know, it's just crazy to me. It's just more, more, more, more, more, more stuff. And BRENT: I think it's a I I mean, I I don't know how to explain this, but like I get people that come here every day. It's the same people like y I get Zac: Yeah. BRENT: a gr you know, I'll get thirty people that the same thirty people, you know, it's like their daily routine, you know, and it's like and I almost think, is this a sickness? You know, it it is this like what are you doing? You know, don't you like Zac: What does your house look like? BRENT: Yeah, and like, you know, you're spending a hundred dollars, two hundred dollars a day here. It's like, what you know, why aren't you working? W why aren't you at your job? How did you get time off? I know you have a good job because I you know, I know where you work. How do you get time off to be here every day, you know? And it I think it's just You know, they're hooked. They're they're it's just something that's triggers in their mind that they're they're hooked. They feel like they need to be there. You know, Saturday's here, they feel like they need to be here. And I don't mind it. I appreciate it, you know. Thanks for showing up. But Zac: Yeah. BRENT: like you said, there's nothing in my store that's going to make a twelve dollar iPhone, twelve dollar TV, whatever. It ain't making me wait in line. I'm not doing that. You know, maybe it's because I was explaining this to my employee the other day, 'cause she actually she doesn't work Saturday. Saturdays. So she waits in line. You know, she comes every Saturday and she waits in line. She gets here at six AM. You know, and I said, why? She says, Brent, you got t you got TVs for twelve bucks. I go, maybe it's you know, I don't I don't see it that way because me and you have access to the product. You know, we can buy Zac: Yeah. BRENT: the you know, we can buy this stuff daily. You know, these people a lot of these customers, they can't, you know, and a lot of people can't afford it, you know. They can't afford to go out and buy a brand new iPhone. They can't afford to go out and buy a right now in this day and age, you know, they're struggling to you know, they need a toaster for their house, they need an air fryer, but they just can't some people just can't afford it. They need clothes for their kids, just can't afford it right now. So they will wait to be able to come here and get the best deal possible. You know? So I think that's more of the tr why they come is because they know they need it. They can't afford to go to it to right now because of the you know the world. They can't afford to go to the big box chain and pay, you know ten, fifteen dollars for a t shirt, you know, twenty, thirty dollars for or forty dollars for a pair of jeans, but they can come to my store and buy their clothing for six bucks. You know, we do six dollar clothing. Six five four six six five four three two one every single day. You know, it it declines. Same thing with our food. You know, they g a lot of people can't afford to go to grocery stores right now. You know, my grocery bill is four hundred dollars a week. It's just four of us, Zac: Yeah. BRENT: which is insane. But I'm a big boy. You know, I eat you know and It's a little absurd, four hundred dollars a week, but that's only five, six bags. But now you come here, you s if you spend three hundred dollars on groceries, I mean, that's that's like getting that's like getting six hundred dollars in groceries at the grocery store, you know? Zac: Yeah. BRENT: But we also run ours like a bin model. It's ran five five four three two one. So, you know, you Zac: no. BRENT: come into my store, you get a case of twelve pack of monster, you know, for five dollars on Saturday. You're not getting that anywhere. Or a box of, you know, snack bat the snack chips, which are I think I might be mistaken, but I think they're like twenty, thirty bucks on Amazon, you know? Zac: Yeah. BRENT: So things like that. You know, the proteins and Zac: No, it's definitely place for people to save money. We have we had a lady and it we don't get this as very often, but we late she was like super thankful. She comes every Sunday, which Sunday's our two dollar day. We do we do eight four two. and she was just so thankful, you know, she was getting cr toys for Christmas for her grandkids, so she couldn't afford any other way. And she's grateful that we were open and doing what we were doing. And, you know, normally I don't get those I don't get those people. Normally people You know, why is this four dollars? This isn't worth four. You should sell it to me today for two. Like, you know, I get a lot of and I don't know, the last few months have been worse and worse, but I've gotten a lot of negativity, I don't know, from our discount shoppers. Like it's already cheap. Like it is, you know, where where are you gonna find a a karaoke speaker for eight bucks? You're not. BRENT: You're not. Zac: these people it's like they want even more when they get this discounted price, they want even more sometimes. And you know, yeah, it's you know BRENT: I see it. You know I could what? Zac: Go ahead. BRENT: I was gonna say every every Saturday I go out in front of my line, you know, and I my line of people that are the people that are in line, the customers, I get on my megaphone and I say I tell the pricing. I say, if you're new, welcome. If you're not, you know the rules, I ain't gonna tell you don't act like a child and come in and shop. You know? Because they do get crazy. They fight, they argue, you know, it gets nuts. I have four last week I had five security officers. This week I have are this week coming out I'll have four. usually it's a average of four to five security officers every Saturday morning. But you know, I tell them the rules and I tell them the price of the bins is $12. If you don't want it, don't buy it. If you don't think it's worth it, don't buy it. It's on you to spend your harder money. I I don't, you know, it's I always tell them if you there's n I'm not negotiating. This is the price. If you don't want it, don't buy it. And I always make live videos. I'm sure you've seen my videos, and I always say like Dipers for you I'll have like a pack of diapers and I'll say twelve dollars. If you can get it for any cheaper, prove to me you can get it cheaper and I'll match the price. But it's not gonna happen. That's what I Zac: Yeah. BRENT: always say. You know, and that's what clicks in their mind. They're like, this dude is right. What am I getting where am I getting pampers for twelve dollars? It's not happening. It's not happening. Zac: No, you're not, you're not getting it anywhere. And even if you like could get it for the same price, you don't walk in a Walmart and ask for a discount. That's what baffles me. They always talk about how much they love the stores and how much they appreciate, like, and then they complain about the price and they want it cheaper. And I'm like, this is why these small discount stores close down, is you want to keep badgering and keep getting that price down. That's as cheap as we can sell it. We can't aff like it's not worth it BRENT: No, I can't afford to go any lower. Zac: to us to sell it any cheaper. Any cheaper and I'll just close the store and do something else. I don't need the store. But those same people that like complain about I want it cheaper, this the first people that line up going, no, why did you guys have to close? And you know, I'm I BRENT: Mm. You know. Zac: know a lot of people are feeling that I've had a lot of smaller discount stores like that we operate BRENT: Yeah, w what I did notice Zac: and I don't know how these guys are doing it. on a BRENT: What I did say to you the other day over Messenger, we were talking about, you know, the way that sometimes some customers act. You know, I have, you know, long I have I can't even count right now. I'm looking at the camera, I can't even count. I don't know, probably twenty, twenty foot sections double sided of gondolas going straight down, you know, and they're always full of product. But now on Saturday, after the first two hours, it looks like a bomb went off. You know, there's there's target all over the floor, there's broken lamps, there's target my I love target decor. My favorite product and I always make videos about it 'cause I love it. It's so clean. You know, but they'll be you they'll have lamps, they'll have the Target decor on the ground, the p the the the fake trees, it's just garbage every bedding everywhere. And I'm like and I always say, you know, how can you do this here to us, but you won't do it at Walmart or Sam's Club or Target. You'll you'll go there and keep it respectful, but you you will not respect what we're actually what we're doing. We're giving you we don't have to do this. We do it because one, we want to, we like it. It's it's a profitable business, it's our business, but we don't have to we could sell this stuff for you know, if a we could sell it for half a retail. We don't need to sell it for twelve dollars. You know, some customers have zero respect where you know they they destroy my place. Every Saturday it takes they they have to stay here for two hours after just picking up the place to get it Zac: Put it there. BRENT: at least a little decent for Sunday. And then Sunday's the same problem, you know, it's they're destroying Zac: Yeah. BRENT: it and even with the security you know we have security walking around don't do that pick it up don't open boxes over the bins you know it's just you can't you can't control everybody it's not all the customers a lot of my customers are phenomenal but some of them just don't care and have zero respect for the the discount stores you know zero respect Zac: Yeah, and the w and it's always the ones that, you know, the bad apples always even though there's fewer of them, they outweigh the the good apples. And it's you know, it's it's unfortunate, but you bring up a point to get back to the business side of things and, you know, get off our rant of why customers are difficult, even though that's I could go on I could complain about BRENT: Yeah. Some are difficult, yeah. Yeah. Zac: people. That's like one of my favorite pastimes. I love to complain about people and we've got a lot of stories. I what I wanted to do the other day I saw this TikTok and it was this reenactment of I don't know, somebody was reenacting how a customer acted. I'm like, what a great concept. I think we should do that several times a week. We should reenact like how customers and our bin store act with our staff, reenact it, post a TikTok and see, you know, people maybe they'll get the point across. Like, BRENT: You gave me a good idea, I like that. Zac: this is how you act. And I hate to be an you know an asshole, but like we're people too. Our c are our our employees are people. They have to clean up after you guys. But It brings me to the point that I don't think people consider customers or people opening a bin store. How much how much product do you think gets destroyed by customers while they're shopping? That is ends up being unsellable because I mean we had these brand new tooth flossers, you know like the mouth flossers, whatever. They were brand new. They weren't returns, they were literally there was just tons of them brand new. And people were opening them up, looking at them, throwing them back in the bins like this was new before you touched it. And now it's open box and it looks damaged. And more than likely now this $8 item won't sell until $2 day because you destroyed the box. Now we have the same policy everybody else does. We don't let them open I don't let them open anything in the bins. that's the rule. I don't allow them to test anything they they buy. I don't I tell them I don't care. Like I'm sorry, you will get something at some point that is broken. I'm not letting you test it. If I gotta let you test it and guarantee stuff at eight bucks, gotta guarantee a two hundred dollar karaoke machine I'm selling for eight, I won't sell it at eight anymore. I'm gonna make BRENT: Yeah. Zac: sure I plug all in. I'll get a hundred dollars apiece for Someone else will pay a hundred. but we don't let them plug in or open, even though they still open. We still wind up with so much. 'Cause you can't control that. Our store's a lot smaller. We probably start our day with a hundred people, which I think our max capacity is eighty, technically, so we're always breaking that rule. but you can't control a hundred people. I don't know how you can I mean, we don't do security. I I'm too cheap for that. Like we keep it we keep it BRENT: We have to. It's the thing, is we have no choice. Zac: bare minimum. Yeah, I mean we also don't sell iPhones for twelve dollars, right? So BRENT: Yeah. But we also the big thing we do is we we have three eight foot testing stations in the back of the store. I always tell people on my Zac: Okay. BRENT: announcements in the morning, it's their responsibility to test the items before they buy it. If it doesn't work, don't buy it. I mean if if you if you don't test your product, that's not my problem. That's not my problem at all. The testing stations are here, use them. And if you get caught opening boxes over the bins and be asked to leave and not, welcome back. You know, but we still do get the same thing. You know, we put a lot of FC out, all its brand new products, people are ripping it open. Now it's not brand new, the parts Parts are in one bin, parts are in a different bin. Now you lost money. I'm going through. I sell, I I pick up, we have four twenty fenty-five-foot roll-offs. I think they're 25 foot roll-offs a week of garbage. Four of them. Every single week. Zac: Yeah. BRENT: It's out of control. And that's just, you know, broken. It's just broken, missing parts, you know, boxes. I mean, it's also a lot of stuff from unloading the trucks as well, you know, like a lot of Zac: Yeah. BRENT: the Gaylords and things like that that we use. But it's usually and we, you know, we pack it in there, we pack it all down. I my employees go in there and jump on it and you know, try to maximize space. You know, we're going through Zac: Mm-hmm. BRENT: four roll-offs a week, which is out of control because of the amount of garbage, you know, and it always makes me think, I always want to ask people, what do you do with your garbage? Because, you know, I know there's stores out there that are moving volume like mine, but are they spending, you know, two thousand dollars a week on garbage as well? You know, I I'm curious what they're doing. You know, how are they th you know waste where where are they what are they doing with their waste? You know, it doesn't make I know they're selling the product. Zac: We get a lot of like you should get a bailer for the cardboard. And we've looked at getting a baler. One, I don't my biggest reason for the no bailer is I don't trust my employees enough to give them a machine that would crush their arm. Like, love death. They're not all the brightest bulbs in the box, so I don't want the responsibility of having a baler. we also have to you're responsible f I don't know where the where the cardboard goes and we don't produce enough I mean any more When we were doing when we were processing, we we went through more than that. But I've been told to bail her. I mean, one guy was like, 'cause I I I take pictures of my trash every now and then 'cause for whatever reason, it always gets a lot of traction online. you can somebody was like, You can burn the cardboard. And I'm like, I'm not dragging it to my house and then like I don't have the time. I'd love to do that and save the dumpster bill. Our dump used to used to take cardboard for free. As long as there was no plastic wrap or tape on it. the I don't know, the trash bill. I don't know a better way to do it. 'Cause like you outweigh the time. There might be a better BRENT: Yeah, it's out of control. It's out of control, you know. There's no way around it. Yeah, we tried. Zac: way, but it c it takes more time to do it. And BRENT: yeah. Zac: it's like I'd rather just the easiest thing I can do is just throw it in the dumpster and move on. BRENT: Well, I thought about getting a bailer, you know, I was gonna buy one a long time ago, but then I'm sitting here and I'm like, Well, I they're not gonna pick it up if it's wet. So I'm gonna lose real estate inside my building. You know, floor space, just Zac: For trash. BRENT: having, you know, bales and then you gotta worry about you know, we all have mice in this industry. You know, I'm I'm in an older building, I have mice here and there, you know, it's they're gonna get in the cardboard, it's gonna it's gonna be disgusting, you know? So the biggest thing is I don't h buy a bailer because I don't wanna take up floor space. Every inch of floor space here is taken up. You know, we're using it. We're making money on that floor space. So it's kind of we're I mean, we're kind of giving or taking. We're losing money on the garbage but we're giving up f you know, to give up floor space. I don't know. So you have to keep it all inside just to be able to so it's not wet, you know? If they're bailed, I'm saying. Zac: Yeah. The wet cardboard's not fun. in the slightest. We've done a lot of that. but I c we're at fifty three minutes. I always tell people and you know this, that I try to keep around an hour. We've all got stuff to do and people's attention span online when they're watching this is just like I know mine is from TikTok. I just I scroll past thirty second videos all the time. So I try to wrap up within that hour. We've got a few minutes left. But you've obviously built a massive bin store that I think number one, the amount of customers I see in your store every week is outrageous. a lot of people are gonna want to know how you're doing this. and I'm I'm gonna I'm I'm doing all of the editing myself. So I'm gonna try to throw in some edits of your of your crowds because they're they're just they remind me of the like right after COVID days where, you know, those lines were everybody's store. But Nowadays it seems like traffic is drying up for people. Your traffic doesn't seem to be drying up. What are some tips that you would give smaller stores that don't necessarily can't afford to do what you're doing with the iPhones and the TVs and stuff like that at that scale? But what are some tips you would give some people just starting out if they're just starting out or if they're, you know, two years in and they're struggling and they're debating closing up because they can't get the traffic in? BRENT: Market. Market, market, market. You don't need to pay for advertising. Facebook is free. I I don't pay for any sponsored ads. I mean I used to a long time ago. You know, I used to You know, I make a hundred bucks in a you know, in a week or two weeks on like a you know, me making up my own video. You know, what I don't know what you call that, but you know, I get paid by Facebook, you know? So I would take that that hundred Zac: You're monetized. BRENT: yeah, I take that couple ho that hundred bucks I made in two weeks and put it on advertising, you know, so I wasn't spending any money, but I realized for me it doesn't work. I don't put money into advertising. I mean, I know guys that put a thousand dollars a week on it. I think you don't need to. Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, it's free. You know, and the biggest thing, if people don't know that you exist, they're not gonna come. You just need to it's advertising, just marketing hard and being consistent too. So the biggest thing is, you know, if you're saying you're gonna be there from 11 to 6, Monday through Friday, be there from 11 to 6. Don't close, you know, unless it's a major holiday or something, you know, family thing comes up or something. You know, you let your customers know ahead of time. It's like it's your it's your business, it's your livelihood, be consistent. is key. You know, it's not I could put I've had my most profitable weeks have been just running FC. You know, a couple weeks back we did a customer appreciation weekend. I only ran FC through my store and it cost me 15 grand for the weekend product cost, which is nothing compared to what I usually spend. And it was the most profitable week. You know I didn't put out iPhones, I didn't put out you know TVs and all that. It's I've gained a I've gained a following through just marketing and That you know my customers show up because they still know that even I dropped my bin price that day to seven dollars, you know, but they still know they're going to get d good stuff for seven dollars that day. They knew they were going to, and it like I said, it all comes down to just I could say marketing. Market, market, market your business and That that's it. I mean if you can't if you're not good at marketing, pay s pay a friend or don't pay your friends. Your friends should never getting be getting paid from you. But right, you know your friends should be your friends. Ask them to help you out with some videos and you know, market. Market the company. That's it. I mean, what do you think? I w I would just say marketing. I see all your videos and I think they're phenomenal. You know? I watch your I watch your videos, you know, and I love it. Yeah. Zac: Yeah, I mean it's just getting no one knows who you are. Yeah. No one knows who you are, right? And I mean, we have videos and I had a social media girl and I I just I ended up letting her go because AI is a great thing. I know some people don't like AI, but I love AI. BRENT: It's free. Zac: and we would work really hard on a video and you know it'd get posted one time. And I'm like, repost it. Like, wait two weeks, repost the thing. And she's like, Why? It like people already seen it. Like 600 people saw the video. There's 300 million plus people in this country, and 600 of them saw our video. And of those 600, I'd say over half of them probably already knew who we were. So no one knows who you are unless you tell them who you are. And until you get the word out, and everybody knows, like, your job of marketing's not done. One post a day about your business isn't gonna do it. You know, I love what you said. Don't hire your friends because it just I've made that mistake too many times trying to be helpful. but use your friends to share. If you have friends, they should be sharing some of your posts. They should be getting the word about your business. Like, but no, getting the word out every which way you can. Get unique about it. Don't just post on your Facebook page. Blow up all of the local marketplace groups. Be annoying with it. Because who are you annoying? The people who want to know about you, don't get annoyed that you're posting. Like those are your customers. BRENT: Exactly. Zac: Those people are excited that you're posting more. So post more. They love it. I love the billboards. You know, I've yet I don't know too many people doing the billboard thing, but in a smaller town, why not? Like it can't cost you BRENT: That's that's thing, you know. Zac: that much. They see it. Yeah. You BRENT: Yeah. Zac: know, I mean, we did BRENT: People always say to me, How are you so busy? It's because and I'm in a very, very small town. I think twenty thousand people is like nothing compared to, Zac: Yeah. BRENT: you know, when you go to New York City, I mean we're four out four and a half about four hours from New York City, you know, twenty thousand people here. The next town over has probably fifty, sixty thousand, you know, and then it just keeps climbing as you get closer to the city. But you know, you don't need a hundred thousand people in your town. You you get him say you don't need a hundred thousand people. If you could do it you know, you could do it with twenty thousand people. as long as you build the relationships not only in liquidation but build the relationships with the community your community you're building a community you know the people that trust you they shop from you because they trust you and they like you as a person You know, they will go to the n instead of going to the next bin store over, they're gonna come to you because they like you. You might not have better product than the guy down the road. You might not be able to afford the better product like that guy down the road, but they like you as a person. They like who you are, they like your content, you know. I mean I would shop with you, Zach, just because I like your apartment cont you know, content. This stuff with the apartment stuff you I like that. You know, if you were in my town, I'd go to you just because I like Zac: Yeah. Yeah. No, I just did a video with somebody and she she's doing live selling and she's the brand. I told her that you're the brand. Like you're selling other people's brands. We're all selling other people's stuff. Like, but you are the brand and you you can't always fix the product that you have in the store. You only have so much of a budget to buy what you can put out. You can only afford so much stuff. But you what you can make up the difference on is how you treat your customers when they come in the store, how your store looks. You know, I'm very big on I want our store to look clean, feel clean, and be open. A lot of been stores, they get real tight and they don't it's not a lot of spots to move because people are so concerned about putting more product out. And I just I like the nice open, clean feel. our we have a greeter at the door. Every person that walks in the door is is greeted, is explained we explain how it works. They say thank you on the way out. Like you can't always control what you're selling in this business. You get what you get, but you can control how the customer feels and they're getting BRENT: A hundred percent. Zac: cheap stuff, right? So like they're going if you give them a good experience, they're going to go out and tell their friends. And that's what you want. I love it when someone goes, look who I brought. I brought my you know my my two friends with me today. That's the best form of advertising you can possibly do. Is is word of mouth. And so whatever you can do to l get your customers to spread the word that are already there, you've got a hundred people online. That's your advertising right there. Give them something to give to a friend. We we give out we used to give out little cards that we'd give the customer to get they could give to a friend, hey, it's a half off an item or whatever. people like to share a good experience. They also like to share a bad experience, they love sharing a bad experience. and you know what? BRENT: Yeah, I wanna miss. Zac: Sometimes I don't care, you know, if you don't like me and you have a bad experience in my store 'cause you were the asshole and I called you out for being an asshole, please post me on Facebook. Like I will gladly take asshole runs bin store in Georgia. Like, I'll take it. 'Cause my bin store will be BRENT: You know, what I'm what I'm gonna do Zac: that much busier the next week. BRENT: I I I saw a guy on TikTok who owns he wo owns a restaurant and he was sitting there going through his reviews and he he was blowing up on TikTok because he's only talking his content is talking him talking about how bad his business is. He's talking about the bad reviews. You know, and now he's busier than ever because people want to find out, is it really that bad? You know, it's like the pizza Dave Portnoy. People go to those pizza places that he rates a six just to see is it really that bad? You know, and Zac: Yeah. BRENT: then once they're through the door, they're gonna be like they might have they most likely will have a hopefully have a great experience where they're like, Holy shit, that was actually good, you know? And now they're spending money become regular customers. The one thing too, I well last thing I wanna say is you know, a lot of I see a lot of bin store owners complaining about the resellers. Why? Zac: Mm-hmm. BRENT: Those people are there every single week filling your pockets. You know, they're giving you money to they're giving you money. Yeah, it they why do I don't understand why a lot of bin store owners don't like those resellers. You know, why? Because they come in, you know, they wait in line, they come in, they're the first ones there to grab all the good stuff. I my model is if you're mad the next guy's getting better stuff than you get there before them. Be faster. Like I I I don't know what to tell you. I love resellers because those are what's paying my the resellers are what pay my bills. You know, I mean all my customers, you know, help me pay my bills, but the resellers are the most consistent people here every single week making sure I can get paid. You know? They are some of them most are s most of them are the most pain in the ass, but like, you know, they do complain the most, but you know, they are here every single week supporting my small business, you know? Zac: Yep. They're consistent and li I I hear the complaints you hear and it I understand to a degree it's like the resellers that come in, it it'll bother me sometimes when they come in and they don't they only buy the good stuff and they never go spend the money in the like the crappier bins or whatever. Like I it'll get under your skin a little bit 'cause it's like I get it. You're here every week. I love it. I've got ladies that that spend the night in the parking lot and they only buy the stuff they can make money on. And that's their deal. You know, at the end of the day Someone needs to buy that for eight bucks or twelve bucks or whatever it is. And they're the ones they still spend. They sent sp they spend several hundred dollars. And at the end of the day, why does it matter that they got in first, got the good stuff? Someone in the first 10 minutes is getting all of the good stuff. And then you're buying what's the remainder. Like that, no matter no matter if they're there or not, someone's gonna get it. So I don't know. Enjoy your resellers if you have them. Because when your your regular consumers don't come in because the first of the month and the and the you know, the last week of the or the middle two weeks of the month when then no one's getting paid, the resellers are still coming in. Regardless of paychecks, regardless of whatever, rents be and due, the resellers are coming in because they're depending on you for their livelihood also. Get to know your reseller. Maybe you can do more deals outside of the bin store with them. A lot of them, if you talk to them, we had a guy and he was he came in every week to to buy our 3D printer ink. We would get, you know, three or four pieces a week of three D printer ink. And I mean, I didn't know, but like he we got had a conversation, he explained to me what he was doing. And I just so happened a palette came in the week the week after of 3D printer ink. And so who did I call? I just I called that guy up, said, Hey, listen, I can't dump this in my store. No one will buy it. Do you want it for the bin price? And it went away. So don't shun your resellers. Get to know people. Walk your store and talk to people. You never know. You never know who's walking around your store. I think one of the biggest benefits to having retail, and I'm not the biggest fan of retail, is you don't know who's gonna come into your store. I've gotten to talk to a ton of people that have it's been really bene we've bought we've actually we've bought a building from a customer that went to our store, and that's the only way I would have ever met them and gotten the deal is because I'm sitting around or I'm walking around, I'm talking to people, I'm finding out what they do. You never know. That right there, you have the biggest opportunity. every weekend to connect with people at local in your area and take advantage of it and especially the resellers because you just never know when you need them. BRENT: Absolutely. Absolutely. I met a woman last w a couple weeks ago in my store. I didn't know she's been coming to my store well, I didn't meet her last week, but she's been coming to store for about five years and a couple weeks ago actually had the opportunity to like really talk to her and find out what she does for a living. And she just she wasn't with her kids, wasn't with her friends, you know, she's by herself and we just end up having a conversation. I found out she owns a high end clothing a clothing brand. And I'm like, what is it? She sends me her Facebook, I look or her she sends me her her website. I look at I'm like, Man, these clothes this jacket's three hundred something dollars. This is higher end stuff. She goes, Yeah, Brand. I actually I want to liquidate. She goes, you know, we have a hundred thousand units at this location. I want to liquidate. What do you think's fair? I said a dollar a unit? She goes, come get it. I'm you know, and it's I'm like, ooh. So she gave me some samples. I actually have some samples here, and I'm I gave some away to some people, you know, and they're like sports coats, they're really nice slacks and you know, golf shirts, golf pants, and I'm like, wow, for a dollar a unit, I'm sure pretty sure I could either sell these in my store for six dollars. dollars a unit and still make five Zac: Yeah. BRENT: a unit or I can sell them on the wholesale market and make a lot more money you know I mean in volume you know sell them for a dollar Zac: For sure. Yeah. BRENT: dollar fifty two dollars a unit but you know it's it is a you're right it is about you know learn those customers definitely learn those customers because that one customer could potentially change your wallet for sure you know never know Zac: Yeah, you never know when that guy Yeah, exactly. Don't assume just 'cause they're in your store buying stuff that you're the wealthiest person or the most well off in the room. Like you never know who's walking around your store with deeper pockets than you have or more inventory than you have. I mean, like to your point with the with the you'd be surprised how many people walk in that the resellers they've got product to sell, they've got warehouses full of stuff just like you do. And they just some people just like to shop like that. They like to come into the store, pick little stuff out, and they flip it on eBay. but yeah, don't shun your resellers. I think that's you know we're all resellers at the end of the day, we're just on different levels. We're not even different levels necessarily, we're just doing different models. So you're a reseller just like they are. Don't shun them. Invite them in, get to know them. You'll be very surprised at who you meet for sure. BRENT: Mm-hmm. You're right. You're right. Zac: But I think that's a perfect way to end it. We're at a mi an hour and ten, and I always I appreciate you coming on for the second time. I know last time we had to do mystery boxes this time a little bit more of a bin a bin model. I know you're busy, you've got the last day. It's Wednesday, it's two dollar day over there. So I'm sure you've got a crowd or three. tomorrow's dollar day. Tomorrow's Thursday. BRENT: Three wait. Yeah, three dollar day tomorrow is dollar day. So Yeah. Zac: Yep. But I'll let you get to that. I appreciate it. I'm sure we'll talk later.