How Jim Rowe filled his shopping desert with Costco returns

Jim Rowe has always been an entrepreneur. Since 2002, he and his wife have built a sizable restaurant chain with a total of nine locations throughout Washington. Then COVID-19 hit and, like so many others, everything stopped. Luckily, Jim wasn’t one to sit still.

After working a few side jobs, he now runs what he calls a “mini Costco” offering the best products in Ellensburg, a city of 20,000. So if Jim is sitting, he’s actually on a starter yacht that he bought with a resale win. In fact, when I met Jim via Zoom to learn more about his resale journey, he was on a yacht with a view of Seattle’s Space Needle.

major milestones

• 2002: Start your restaurant career. He eventually opened nine stores with his wife.
  COVID-19 (2020): Restaurants are closed. Turning to a Side Job to Fund Her Daughter’s College
• 2020-2021: Garbage removal businesses provide inventory that can be resold. Convert warehouse into Home Again used furniture
• 2021: Discover B-Stock via Shannon Jean. First win at a Costco auction; Earn $3,500 in one day through Facebook Live sales
• 2024: Moving to an old tow truck store with no marketing at all. First month sales $60,000
• 2025: Relocating The Bargain Shop to a 6,000-square-foot former Sears location.
• Current: Spent ~$700,000 through B-Stock and expanded nationally through eBay, Whatnot, and TikTok.

Turn trash removal into college tuition

As his daughter begins her first year at Boise State, Jim has committed to starting a new side job every year to help fund college, proving that building and selling a business doesn’t have to be as difficult as people think.

“The first side business I started was a junk removal business. I soon learned from customer number three that people were giving me items that were still good and resaleable, so my profit margins on junk removal jobs would be much higher.”

A small used furniture store followed, then a storage unit auction, and then restaurant equipment from his own warehouse. He was buying faster than he was selling, and his wife noticed.

“I was really good at selling used restaurant equipment, so I started buying more equipment. My wife said, ‘I thought we were going to sell everything,’ but I ended up buying and selling more stuff.”

How to return the pallet

Eventually, at X, Jim met Shannon Jean, a seasoned resale expert and founder of the reseller Mastermind community. When he reached out and mentioned his niche in used restaurant equipment, Shannon directed him to B-Stock. That night, he logged in.

First B-Stock win of many

One of the first listings he saw was a Costco auction for a garden shed. It was a much-needed storage unit for the coffee shop I was building for my daughter (another one of my side jobs). It was selling for about $1,600.

“I thought, ‘Okay, worst case scenario, I’ll bid $1,600, and if I win, I’ll buy the warehouse.’”

Well, he bid and won for less and discovered that the auction included two additional warehouses. He sold it, and just like that, he was ahead of the game.

Armed with a few more auction wins — furniture, exercise equipment, more returned items — and some social media attention, Jim held an outdoor sale right outside the warehouse door. He broadcasted live on Facebook. His wife demonstrated the sofa. They earned $3,500 in one day.

“I looked at her that day and said, ‘Isn’t this a lot better than running a restaurant?’ And she said, ‘Yeah.’ And I said, ‘I’m going to keep doing this.’”

The next day, Jim was already moving into renting an old tow truck shop. Today, he continues to grow and today almost 90% of everything he does is still on B-Stock.

A frenzy was born in Ellensburg.

Curiosity captured people’s hearts. All it takes is a red ‘For Sale’ sign and Jim already has customers pulling up to the side of the road to see what his bargain store has to offer.

“I didn’t really think about it. I thought, ‘I’ll sell what I have in this warehouse, and when I want to sell some product, I’ll open the door.’ Well, the customers decided they wanted more than that.”

Jim’s will be open Wednesday through Saturday for the next six months. In the first month alone, he generated $60,000 in sales.

market testing

Simply rolling things down the side of the sidewalk and watching pallets unload from trucks created a whole different kind of enthusiasm. All of this was in pursuit of, as Jim put it, “a crazy good deal.”

“We sold crazy stuff right out of the gate. We sold greenhouses, chicken coops, saunas, tons of furniture. We bought it through B-Stock.”

Create a space people want to visit

“It’s starting to take off because shopping opportunities were pretty limited. It’s a shopping desert in Ellensburg, Washington, and here’s a new opportunity to have fun.”

If the weather is reaching single digits and you’re still getting customers in the door, you need to do something.

“Women would just come in and pick up the bins… It was the most interesting thing, because they would stand around the bins and talk to each other and show off their clothes and buy a lot of things.”

Lessons learned along the way

Jim shares one of the earliest lessons he learned from his encounter with Shannon. The idea is to start by purchasing what you need. For Jim it was a Costco garden shed and fortunately his business was profitable from day one. But that doesn’t mean it’s always been smooth sailing. (Pun intended.)

“If you’ve ever bought a pallet, delivery dates can be tricky because you don’t know what to expect.”

The more business Jim does, the more he wants to know about the products he buys. At this point in his journey, he knows which suppliers are less gambling, especially how reliable their product assortment is.

“When you spend as much money as I do and get as many orders as I do, you’re going to face some challenges. You can either step back and let B-Stock help you, or you can be a problem solver and overcome the problem, which is generally what I’ve done.”

The benefit lies in solving the problem

Across X and Facebook, you can find Jim mentoring passionate newbies to the business. He also joined Shannon’s reseller Mastermind group.

“Don’t be overwhelmed by the auction game,” he emphasizes. Do the math to buy, figure out how you’re going to sell your product, and then get ready for some serious problem solving. Because not everything is shiny and new all the time.

“The profit is in problem solving. In the restaurant business, that’s another skill you learn: to overcome problems quickly. Even at the table, you overcome problems and help your guests.”

Value of Lifelong Customers

Another lesson from the restaurant business that stuck was hospitality. “We’re trying to make friends quickly.” This is what he likes to say. It starts with a great greeting, an experience they will remember, and great service that sometimes goes beyond their doorstep.

Jim told a story about an elderly couple who came in and bought a freezer without any way to take it home. Jim and his son not only provided a delivery service, but they also removed the door from the frame to fit the new freezer in and take the old one out.

“Once I understand the lifetime value of a customer, it’s not the $80 freezer that I care about. I want to help them, I want them to come back, and I want them to refer their friends and family to us.”

location, location, location

Bargain Shop has found a new home in a 6,000-square-foot former Sears building. A huge upgrade from the previous retail store. “Some people say we look like a little Costco because 85 percent of our products come from Costco,” he jokes.

His customers can find deals while purchasing everyday essentials like paper products, water, groceries, and even pet supplies. Some of the items Jim sees as a grassroots way to get people into the store without making any money.

“Now the (old) Sears store doesn’t have as much traffic, which hurt us a little bit, but once you’re in the store, it’s definitely a better shopping experience.”

That said, Jim has discovered that location can be a growth factor, with many of Facebook Marketplace’s largest sales coming from the Seattle market.

“Once or twice a week I get in my car and deliver to people’s homes because my market isn’t big enough for what I’m trying to achieve. I just have bigger goals. I’m looking to buy a $700,000 yacht and I’ve had to spread my wings to make it happen.”

Looking at my luggage

We asked Jim what he thought about the future of his business. He had to say this:

“I’m not trying to make it a hobby. If I’m going to do this, I want to pursue it and expand on something.”

Social Media as a Growth Catalyst

“My plan is to expand across the country using other sites like eBay, Poshmark, and TikTok. The more I do social media, the more products I sell, or the more people who log in and watch me sell in real time.”

In fact, his Whatnot show was almost a success. ~ degree fast. He warns that if you sell 200 pairs of shoes per show, you can keep your inventory flowing better!

Reinterpretation of traditional offline stores

Already, Jim is thinking differently about offline. The current space is purpose-built to accommodate real-time sales and order fulfillment. There’s also talk of a potential podcast and YouTube channel.

“What we’re doing with our stores now is turning them into large online stores, so most of the products we have in our stores are listed online, on sites like eBay, our own website, TikTok or Whatnot.”

Interested in more of what Jim has to say? Follow @resellerrowe for inspiration on starting your own reseller business.

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