The Rookie Mama
I’ve rekindled that old lost love for our local surplus and salvage store.
Mainers, you know the jingle.
But my relationship with our town’s local discount shop had been an oscillating one.
And not just because you can buy oscillating fans next to the carpets next to the dog leashes next to the snow pants in said warehouse space.
I have had a years-long aversion for shopping inside stores, namely stores with erratic inventory that require any sort of rifling through of goods.
I became a mama precisely around the dawn of curbside grocery pick-up, a sort of kismet convenience so appreciated that couldn’t have come at a better time, and so I’ve been spoiled in that regard.
Just like that, no more had I the patience nor time for browsing aisles, scouring deals, feeling stifled by the marketing of clutter-some items I just didn’t need.
Online grocery shopping with the painless advantage of pickup without leaving the vehicle is an undeniable luxury – one that keeps me on budget and no longer requires me to lug two shopping carts down all the aisles as I excuse myself to every single shopper ever because I’m taking up all the lanes, only to end each excursion with a double-down Tetris round as I meticulously pack every item back into the cart, then again into the vehicle.
In those days, I ended each grocery shopping run like a flushed, wild-haired Supermarket Sweep contestant, and who had time for that?
No, sir; I’ll keep my curbside pickup just fine.
But back to our local salvage store.
For years, I was less and less enticed to stop in and shop because of its unpredictable merchandise, although I couldn’t help but acknowledge the prices were right, and always had been, no matter the product.
I have family and friends who love their local discount store for this very reason.
Oh what fun for the knitters of my family to browse the skeins upon skeins of yarn galore.
What a glorious feeling for friends who score the name-brand clothing deals. They are the patient ones, and they deserve all the bargains.
Until recently, I only perused this store strictly day after Christmas, because it was a near guarantee I’d find significantly marked down holiday wrapping paper well ahead of budget and next Noel season.
But as of late, fellow mama friends have nudged me along with encouraging assurance that I could score fantastic bargains on school snack hauls – Now that’s a hard one to pass up.
And what hauls I’ve since made off with, indeed.
My family and I recently embarked on a road trip that necessitated road snacks, and I found treats a’plenty at the salvage store for a deal.
Some of the snacks were bigger hits than others; some had mixed reviews, but all cost very little.
So, why are salvage store prices so low anyway?
Often products are nearing their expiration date, dented, damaged, or overstocked.
My favorite finds have been snacks or other food items that may include a promotion for a limited time offer of a movie or other deal that has since expired, but the food item at hand is still perfectly fine.
Items publicizing expired promotional ads such as these won’t be found on traditional retail shelves, so are re-sold for a fraction to the salvage shop.
Food items ranging from dented cans of tomato sauce to frozen foods still safe for consumption but marked beyond a stamped date are also often included in these finds.
As well, company product roll-outs that don’t quite catch on as hoped and produced en masse are often found – I’m looking at you, Hostess SnoBall-flavored coffee pods.
High hopes for sure, but no go.
I can’t stress enough that shopping salvage stores truly requires patience.
I’ve visited mine before with all the intentions of a fabulous snack haul only to return home dismayed with shopping bags empty.
But most recently on a particular shopping trip, I lucked out and walked down a random aisle – a road less traveled, you might say – and was face to face with rows upon rows of name-brand boots.
Garden boots.
I needed garden boots to replace my eleven-year-old beloved purple wellies that had spent more than their fair share deeply embedded in garden muck as my kids and I ran amok.
So beloved were the boots that cracks had formed in various areas, and I’d every intention of duct taping the cracks this year to squeeze out one more garden summer in their faded purple beauty.
And here I was, facing gorgeous replacement boots, a higher-end brand in a dusty rose color, just my size, dreamily comfortable, for an incredible fraction of the cost.
Perhaps the company merely had overshot their expected sales and so sold their overstock to this warehouse.
The world may never know.
But in that moment, these boots were not only made for walkin,’ but made for me.
That’s the satisfaction of shopping salvage in a moment just right.
Had I waited another day, I may have missed the opportunity altogether, and stubbornly spent one more summer in fancy duct-taped glamorous wellies.
So shop salvage with pride.
If you don’t find the knitting skeins you seek, there’s probably a dented stewed tomato can or two waiting for you.
And if you’re very lucky, you can score a fantastic snack haul for your kiddos and super fancy footwear to boot.
And that’s spinning no yarn.
– Michelle Cote lives in southern Maine with her husband and four sons, and enjoys camping, distance running, biking, gardening, road trips to new regions, arts and crafts, soccer, and singing to musical showtunes – often several or more at the same time! <
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