America has a huge returns problem, and Howard Rosenberg’s B-Stock is eagerly cashing on the billions in unwanted goods that land back at places like Target, Walmart and Macy’s
to sift through the inventory of America’s rejects. It’s mid-December and the holiday shopping spree is at a fevered pitch, but inside this 120,000-square-foot warehouse on the outskirts of Phoenix, a hodgepodge collection of returned items sits in rows of boxes stacked 10 feet tall. Twenty-eight-pound bags of dog food, brownie mix, toys and weighted blankets are lined up alongside vacuums, sporting goods and patio furniture.
“We are giving products second, third or fourth lives. Instead of it going to a landfill, it will get sold to someone.” Of course, this is basically making the best of a bad situation–liquidating product means the retailer bought wrong and risks losing money on the item. But it’s a common problem, which is why more than 50 of the nation’s largest retailers and manufacturers, including Amazon, Target, Walmart, Macy’s, Home Depot, Best Buy, Unilever and Whirlpool, are customers. Last year, sellers liquidated 78 million items on the platform.
Howard Rosenberg, 53, sits atop a pallet of unsold boxed brownie mix at a third-party warehouse in Phoenix. The amount of merchandise, like the mixes, that his company, B-Stock, auctions off jumped by an average 174% for each of the past three years.
To help retailers get the best price, B-Stock tinkers with things like whether to sell stuff together or separately, how big a lot should be, how long an auction should run, what pictures to use and what day it should close. It also helps leverage the power of brands–trusted retailers can command a 15% premium–with separate marketplaces for each customer.
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