Co-owner Paul Sagowitz, in front of the bins at Bin Hub, oversees daily operations. | Stephanie Claytor, LkldNow

Bin Hub Lakeland offers bargain hunters a new place to shop. 

Located at 1100 Griffin Road, the store offers receptacles full of leftover items from major retailers. 

The store, owned by Jason Northington, Jonathan Weiner and Paul Sagowitz, opened Dec. 2.

“It’s been fantastic. Everybody has been amazing,” Marketing Manager Erica Boffo said. 

Each day, everything in the bins is sold for the same price. For example, on Friday, everything in the bins is sold for $9 a piece. Every day thereafter, the price of items found in the bins drops by $2 so that by Tuesday, each item found in the bins is $1, according to its Facebook page. Boffo said you can find almost anything in the bins. 

“We have Apple watches, grills, books, household appliances, cameras, phones. One owner says we have about 30,000 things that come through our door,” Boffo said. 

The owners use a broker to purchase the overstock products in bulk, Boffo explained. 

“You never know what’s in the bins. We open our shipments and just drop them in the bins, everything mixed together. Every week is new fresh inventory from a new shipment,” Boffo said.

The store, open Friday through Tuesday, has an occupancy limit of 150 shoppers, according to Boffo. 

“We have a line every day. We have people start lining up to be the first in line,” Boffo said. “People like to have nice things for a price that they can afford.” 

The store is open from 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. and then from 3-6:30 p.m. During the afternoon, it closes to bring in new inventory. 

“Our biggest critique is the children hours,” said Boffo, explaining that children are not allowed in the store on Tuesdays and between 10:30-noon and 3:00-3:40 on Fridays and Saturdays because of a safety hazard. 

Shoppers are asked to bring an IKEA bag or purchase one inside the store for $4. 

The store prohibits shoppers from bringing in non-IKEA bags, purses, strollers and infant car seats.

Bin stores like Bin Hub are a hot business trend right now, fueled by shoppers posting their finds on Tik Tok and Facebook. Northington and Weiner opened Swan City Wholesale, also in Lakeland, several years ago. A website offering a directory of bin stores in Florida can be found here. (Bin Hub is not yet listed on it.)

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Stephanie Claytor has been a broadcast and digital journalist in Lakeland since 2016, covering Polk County for Bay News 9 and currently free-lancing for LkldNow. She is an author of travel and children's books.

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