Monroe’s Big Box Outlet saving product from landfill for shelves

As the level of consumerism rises in the United States, the level of consumer waste rises right along with it. One Monroe store is seeking to reduce that waste by offering new merchandise recovered from a variety of major department stores, saving it from ending up in a landfill.

Monroe’s Big Box Outlet Store, located in the industrial area near the Rock Church, offers a wide variety of new merchandise, including furniture, home décor, women’s and men’s clothing, toys, seasonal items, kitchen appliances, cleaning products and food.

Open since December 2012, Big Box is managed by longtime Monroe resident Mick Weed, who runs the store with help from his sons, Casey and Corey, and his wife, Gayle.

Big Box offers an ever-changing selection of items, sometimes sourced straight from the manufacturer and other times recovered from department stores that don’t resell customer returns.   

“Depending on how we buy it and who we buy it from, our prices are generally 20 to 70 percent lower than traditional retail,” Weed said.

Big Box Outlet Store is a Canada-based chain with 12 retail locations in Canada and three in the United States. The U.S. side is a separate company, however, it is owned by the same partnership in Canada. The Big Box business model is based on a concept called “reverse logistics,” which is the practice of reclaiming unwanted or excess items and reselling them at a discounted rate.

According to the National Retail Federation, 8 percent of all merchandise sold in the U.S. was returned in 2015, much of which was likely discarded. Oftentimes, major department store and chains from around the country do not restock customer returns, Weed said, meaning that even new, undamaged items get tossed into landfills.

This becomes even more prominent around the holidays, Weed said.

“This time of year so many people buy things and they give things, and they’re buying things and giving things that people don’t want,” Weed said. “So then you get all this stuff coming back.”

Because of contract stipulations, Big Box is not able to specify exactly which retailers it obtains merchandise from. Sometimes, he said, it’s a matter of buyer remorse leading to a customer return, while other times, there could be an issue with the item.

Some stores don’t offer dressing rooms, so clothing gets purchased and returned, because the customer didn’t like the way it ended up looking once they tried it on.

New, undamaged items like that often end up for sale at Big Box.

In the grocery department, it can be a matter of outdated packaging, Weed said. An example might be during Super Bowl season, grocery stores may purchase items with promotional Super Bowl advertisements and offers. Once the Super Bowl is over, the remaining products are less desirable to retailers due to the outdated packaging. Or manufacturers might feature special offers, like a coupon on the packaging that expires long before the product is out of date.

“The retailers don’t want it on their shelves, even though the product is perfectly good,” Weed said. “So then I buy it at a discount and can offer it to our customers.”

In addition to repurposing returned items and selling excess goods, Weed also sources items directly from manufacturers. Much of the clothing acquired by the store is purchased directly from distributers that might be faced with excess product due to overruns, he said.

Many of the store’s contracts stipulate that Big Box must agree to accept shipments sight unseen, without the ability to pick and choose certain items. New shipments can be an adventure, Weed said.

“We’re always getting new things in, it’s kind of like Christmas,” he said. “The employees are always excited when things come in.”

Weed and his wife, Gayle, have lived in Monroe for 32 years. He chose Monroe for Big Box because it is near his home and he wanted to support the city. Over the years Weed has been an active member of the community as a church elder, soccer coach and basketball coach at the Monroe Boys & Girls Club. In September, he served the community as the primary sponsor of the Monroe Police Department’s Wings and Wheels event, a new fundraiser that raised money for Special Olympics. 

Weed encourages everyone to come and experience Big Box, as it has changed extensively in the last six months. Currently, furniture is one of the store’s largest offerings, along with an expanded clothing boutique featuring apparel for adults and kids.

The company is expanding, having just opened a new store in Marysville.

For more information on Monroe’s Big Box Outlet Store, visit facebook.com/MonroeBigBoxClearance.