Target Salvage and Overstock Stores

Hi y’all! Thanks to the Target queen, Aubrey Swan @aubreyswanblog and finding her post of Target Salvage Store Round-up | Aubrey Swan Blog.. I ran to all three of the stores she linked in Louisville. Her insta videos of her finds had me hooked. Two of the stores I found were Bargain Outlets, that kind of remind me of an Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, and the prices weren’t as cheap as I was hoping. The third store, Gimme A $5, was a TRUE salvage store. I’m talking empty warehouse with a bunch of metal rolling bins filled with junk. I say junk lovingly. Gimme a $5 does big restocks of the bins Saturday and Sunday and each item is $5. Monday everything is $3. Tuesday all items are $2, Wednesday & Thursday $1, and Friday everything in the damn store is 25 cents.

Now that I have gone myself, I have learned so, so much about the process and strange adventure of shopping here.

One. OBVIOUSLY Saturday and Sunday are the big restock days. There are apparently electronics and small appliances, all kinds of things. Think black Friday 2006 when flat screen tv’s were hitting Best Buy, and everyone was throwing elbows.. if you don’t get there before opening (people stand in line..a very long line) you aren’t getting anything Hearth & Hand, Threshold, and some other name brands unless you get VERY lucky on the other days.

Two.This is not just Target overstock at my store. Other items can be from Home Depot, Dollar General, Amazon and a bunch of other stores. They can be salvaged goods, returns etc. I am trying to look up the labels on price tags each time I go and see where all they are getting merch from.

THREE. There is some weird sh*t here. Like, a lot. Other than home décor, candy, random toiletries and house cleaning items (sunscreen, fabuloso, etc) the things I have seen that have shocked me have been: a mannequin head that looked like it had been split in half, returned butt plumper butt pads(?), some weird wigs..not halloween wigs, and not cute wigs for women..these were hard to explain, had no tag or brand and just there they sat among SPF 50 sunscreens WTF. LOL. But they have tons and tons of stuff.

FOUR. A LOT of the sh*t is broken became people are launching stuff from bin to bin, opening things like candles and mirrors and if they don’t want it throwing it back and stuff is getting smooshed and broken. The staff they look to try to go through it constantly, but there’s so much volume and so many people going through these bins. Many people resell this stuff in their flea market booths or ebay so they come there every single day.

FIVE. You HAVE to be willing to get down and dirty and DIG. If you are the fairy princess that doesn’t even like to “dig” at TJ Maxx, sister…this AIN’T FOR YOU. Do you hear me? This store IS NOT FOR YOU. I think I need to start wearing gloves. Maybe the kind that go all the way up to my shoulders. Last week when I went, there was a ton of Easter candy, baskets, Easter grass etc (I bought a ton of bunny baskets and donated) but some people had ripped bags and candy was sticky and gross in one of the bins. Also, it is still covid and lord knows where some of these other bargain hunters’ hands have been. I stop to sanitize every few bins I touch. Also, sizing doesn’t matter and the bins are chaos. In one bin you might have 50 rolls of wrapping paper, a bunch of tiny tiny tiny polly pocket sizes toys, a water gun, some random tissue paper, a whole bunch of garbage and ripped up styrofoam, and then 40 bottles of Fabuloso. LOL.

Six. I don’t know man.. Maybe the rest of the workers are nice but I have gotten yelled at not once, not twice, but three times for now knowing the *rules*. Like I am sorry, I am new here. I have thick skin so I don’t give a F, but if you have one in your town, maybe read some reviews or go to their Facebook page and read these sacred rules before going. There are these big ass IKEA blue tarp bags that you use to shop. Cool. (I spray sanitizer on mine, because well, you read about these yuck bins. I have made a few mistakes. It was a Saturday. An umbrella that had its original $3 store’s price tag still attached. They already scanned it and I paid, and was like “wait that is $3” and they yelled “EVERYTHING $5!!!!” Since it was a Saturday. Oh ok. Yikes. Next. The Ikea bag MUST be slid over to the cashier for them to count your items, no IFs, ANDs, or BUTs. I had these Edison bulb light bulbs ($1 day yay!) and didn’t want them to break, so I sat them on the table outside of my IKEA bag, and got absolutely SCOLDED. She said “ I TOLD YOU.. if you want to buy it.. I NEED to count it right here, not over there!” I was like “m’am I have never seen in you in my life..when did you tell me that?” Silence. Weird. Moving along. Finally, my first 25 cent item day Friday.. I came, I saw, I stocked the f up!!!! The $3 Target felt Easter bunny baskets were 25 cents, the $2, $3 bags of Target Easter grass were 25 cents a pop. I filled that IKEA bag to the brim. I wanted to load up and make Easter baskets to donate to those less fortunate. My final misstep was, that I didn’t know you could have a nifty $10 bag. On Friday, there is an option if you pay a flat $10 fee, you get a plastic bag, and fit as many items you want in it. I had to quickly calculate if I thought I could fit 40 items in there for $10, or, just have her count out my items and go with the 25 cents per item. I knew she wouldn’t ever allow me to dump them out, count my items, and then decide….so I went with the $10 bag. When I got home I was pumped to see I got 46 items squeezed in my large, extra thin, plastic bag they gave me- with holes in it, LOL.

I am not one of the fairy princesses that is scared to dig through trash and crap. I have a deck to decorate and no money, and no sense about me. I am not yet one of those that is standing in line like it’s golden ticket day at the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory, but after I get my groove, stop getting yelled at by the workers, who knows maybe I will be.

Here are my finds over the maybe 5 times I have visited:

These are the 48 count Target SPRITZ! brand Easter Eggs. $3 in store and I got these each for 25 cents. I purchased 3 additional bags I used for Easter baskets to donate so in total I got 288 plastic eggs for $1.50!!!!