Joanna Holman4d ago
Something I consider to be one of the great but under-discussed melbourne mysteries is what is going on with Arthur Daley’s on Swanston Street. They’ve occupied what must surely be valuable real estate for decades but every time I go in there there is few to no customers and there doesn’t seem to be much stock turnover. Much of the stock looks dated or poor quality. They’ve still got a big Christmas selection out. All up it’s got big back rooms vibes. What’s their secret to staying in business?
Show threadElizabeth  4d ago
@joannaholman There's lots of shitpost answers that are better than what I can cough up but basically: these are liquidators, their costs are very low except a few employees working minimum wage and acquiring discount inventory (none of which is really perishable so it can be left there for years) and reselling at a much higher (albeit lower than new) prices. If they own the space or have a long-term lease from years back, they don't need a whole lot of patronage. Maybe like 5-10 customers a day can keep the lights on. Sometimes a business isn't "successful" so much as "it pays the owner's bills" and that's all it needs to be.
Show threadElizabeth  4d ago

@joannaholman some (imo) fascinating details about how these stores work:

They sometimes buy just bulk stuff at auction like an entire written off trailer or trailers full of stuff where one of the parties just stiffed them.

They also get their stuff from storage units and stuff, you can buy an entire defaulted storage unit for like $500-1000 (in the US) or less, it's a bit of a gamble but like it can work out.

They also buy things from insurance companies who've written off the goods and are just selling them for whatever they can get for them, and there aren't often many bidders so you can get things really cheap.

Also they bid on returns from Amazon and eBay sellers, these often wind up at these shops. It can be a bit of a gamble, but a lot of returns are just "I didn't want it" or "I got the wrong item."

These places can often end up buying anything from a pallet full of lawn chairs, to a batch of extremely obsolete knockoff smartphones that never sold. Some wholesalers will sell the pallets direct, even.

Show threadJoanna Holman
@Elizafox thanks. That is interesting. Must be quite the weird job doing acquisitions for those stores
Mar 22 at 3:51amWeb
Show threadElizabeth  4d ago

@joannaholman I knew someone who did just that. You need a bullshit radar that's in tip-top shape. Because sometimes you might see a shiny storage unit that looks like it's full of rare collectables but then it turns out they're all Chinese knock-off figurines.

eBay and Amazon returns are always rolling the dice, sometimes you get a pallet and like 80% of the stuff works, sometimes you get a pallet with maybe 1-2 working items.