Susan Myers started buying liquidated merchandise pallets when she was looking for extra income to help pay for her daughter’s wedding about a year and a half ago. After being invited into a pallet group, Susan started watching auction videos and videos on the types of merchandise being sold on pallets, according to her daughter Rebecca.
Susan then wanted to purchase a tool pallet and resell some of it, keeping some pallet items for use in their own household. Susan’s husband James told her to “Go for it”
“One pallet started turning into two, two turned into five and then the basement was cluttered,” says Rebecca.
James, who was a self employed building contractor until 18 years ago when he fell and shattered his wrist, is his wife’s silent partner in the operation.
“It got to a point the house was getting so cluttered and I looked at her one day and said, “Make it a business or get out, cause I can’t live with the clutter” and that’s when the conversation about making this a business started,” says James.
With James and Susan both working full time jobs, James teaches at GCC in the Human Services Program and Susan is a merchandiser at Nabisco, the couple carved out time during their day to move the business forward by searching for a business space outside of their home.
“It took us a while,” says Susan.
The big issue was finding a place that did not require a lot of work and that was affordable.
In December they found a reasonably priced space on the third floor at 56 Harvester. After being in their new space for only three months, the Myers family realized they had too much stuff for the 3rd floor space.
“We were getting in more items that were selling way faster than other things, and we were running out of sales floor to hold everything out where people could just browse like a normal store,” says daughter Rebecca, who helps out by putting out and pricing merchandise at the store when she is not working her full time job at a dairy farm..
Things were getting really cramped and Myers Merchandise decided to look into the first floor space that used to be the location of the Harvester 56 theatre stage. The location is next to Attic to Basement and Vintage.
“It took a month to take it apart using crow bars to demolish the walls, pulling down the aluminum studs, taking the stage apart was difficult. Piece by piece, the stage was drilled into the floor,” says Rebecca.
Susan and James spent quite a few late nights at their newly created first floor space at 56 Harvester.
“The people here are really fantastic, they really partnered with us and really found a space for our needs,” says Susan.
James says he loved working for himself 18 years ago and he says the business was his wife’s dream and her idea.
“As we got older, we decided to do something where we could not only build something for us, but build something that we could makes decisions to engage with the community and give back to the community in ways we feel are meaningful and this allows us to do this,” says James.
The Myers go pallet shopping once a week or a few times a month. The pallet shopping process takes about 12 hours. The family uses their personal vehicles to transport the items to their storefront.
“Its fun to do,” says Rebecca.
“You get to see all these really cool items and its kind of turned into something that both of my parents are passionate about.”
The store does not keep the same stock for long, as they always have new items coming in such as gaming monitors, expensive grills, electronics, light fixtures, tools, furniture, weighted blankets, clothing, toys and odds and ends that you would not expect to find in a store such as this.
Rebecca says things that are not fit to sell are not out on the floor. If things are broken, they exchange them for something that is the same that works, or they get a full refund.
“It turned from something like, oh this is fun, this is for us, but the community can also benefit from higher priced items that are brand new or like new that are being sold at 60-70% off retail, especially people doing home renovations or new home owners, you can’t find that stuff for cheaper.”
With the addition of Myers Merchandise, there is now a row of first floor shops at 56 Harvester. The shops play off of each other when assisting customers who come in to browse.
“We try to be like, oh if we don’t have this, they have this next door, we bounce back off each other, its not really a competition because we all offer very different things. Its more like a community, supporting other business owners.”
Myers Merchandise Facebook page is always available and updated each day with new items. Any questions about items, customers can message the page and Susan will respond.
(20+) Myers Merchandise | Facebook
Susan will now devote more time to her growing business after deciding to go part time at her full time job last week.
“Its funny, because opportunity just kept opening every step of the way. Everything just seemed to fall into our path, this is what we should be doing. We want to provide quality merchandise at a discount price that anyone can afford,” says Susan.
Myers Merchandise hours are:
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday-2pm-6pm
Saturday 10am-4pm
Closed Sunday -Tuesday
