Behind the scenes

What actually happens on restock day

The store is closed, the truck is in the back, and the bins are empty. Here is what the crew is doing all day.

Every store closes for one full day a week. People assume we are resting. We are not.

That closed day is the hardest working day of the week, and it is the reason the ladder starts over at ten dollars the next morning.

The truck

Pallets come in sorted broadly by type — not by item. Nobody at the other end opened these and made a list. We are finding out what we bought at the same time you eventually will.

The crew breaks the pallets down and the sorting starts.

One category per bin

Food. Drinks. Cosmetics. Soft goods. Accessories. Phone and tablet cases. Books. Each category gets its own bin or bins, depending on how much came in and how big the store is.

This is not tidiness for its own sake. It is what makes a bin shoppable. A bin with a hair dryer, a paperback and a bag of chips in it is a bin nobody can search.

The rules the crew works to

Sealed stays sealedIf it is in its own packaging and you can see what it is, it goes in exactly as it came. We do not open it to check.
Plain brown boxes get openedIf nobody can tell what it is, it gets opened and the item goes in the bin with the empty box stood up beside it, so you can see what you are looking at.
Anything that looks used gets testedStraight to the testing station before it goes out on the floor. New and sealed items do not get opened to test.
Simple things get assembledA finished item sells. A bag of parts does not.
Not bin-simple? It goes to auctionToo many pieces, or it needs real assembly. Those get photographed and listed in the Facebook group instead.
Small on the bottom, big on topThe top layer is the whole sales pitch. It has to catch someone from across the aisle.

Then the doors open at nine

Full bins, everything ten dollars, and a crew that has been at it since early. Restock day opens an hour earlier than the rest of the week because that first couple of hours is when the best of the truck moves.

By the end of the week those same bins are a dollar. Then we lock the door and do the whole thing again.

Want to see it at its best? Come on your store’s restock day, right at opening. Find your store’s day →

Keep reading

Which day should you shop →Nothing goes to waste →What a bin store actually is →
Ready to go? Check your store’s price day and hours before you drive over. See all four stores →