In 1985, while in my final year at NIU, I was beginning to wonder exactly what I was going to do with my life. I had a major in journalism, a minor in advertising, no game plan, no strategy, and no desire to work at a traditional 9-5 job.
While trying to figure this out, I heard about a company in Downtown, Chicago that was going out of business. They were a wholesale dancewear distributor incorporated in the 1960’s, and after many years they found themselves in a difficult overstock situation. The building was filled top to bottom with consumer goods, and the company needed to liquidate quickly. I met with the owner who was retiring to Florida, and on a handshake we made an agreement that would change my life forever.
Although I had no idea what was going to happen, I bought their entire excess inventory with money I had been saving since childhood. I rented a U-Haul truck and moved the inventory from an old multi story building back to my parents house, where the living room was converted into a make shift warehouse. With a little confidence and a lot of faith I managed to graduate college, liquidate everything within a few months, invest the profits into more wholesale merchandise, and begin building this company. Today we sell all categories of surplus, overstock, excess and closeout merchandise.
Some of our categories include closeout toys, closeout housewares, closeout giftware, furniture closeouts, excess sporting goods, overstock glassware, surplus housewares, overstock apparel, closeout pet products, and excess lawn and garden merchandise.
Although there have been speed bumps (and a few collisions) along the way. We grew from a living room, to a small storefront, to a 2,700 square foot garage, to a 7,000 square foot space, then 10,000 square feet, then 30,000 square feet, and today we occupy more than 100,000 square feet of space. We are one of the most respected surplus liquidators in the industry.
Thanks to our excellent customer and vendor relationships, in 2019 we will celebrate being 34 years in business.
-Jay Lazar, President
Everything you just read is 100% true.
My name is Jay Lazar and I founded this company 34 years ago. My story above is true and although breif, that is pretty much exactly the way it all happened. The only constant through all the years was change, and the velocity of change has increased most recently with Amazon taking such a strong position, and traditional retail fighting to find its way. I have no way of telling where closeouts will go from here, but as long as companies continue to overbuy or make purchasing mistakes, I believe there will be closeout opportunities.
Buying closeouts is the foundation of our business.
Part of being an excess inventory liquidator means we are on the lookout for exciting wholesale deals We spend everyday looking for wholesale novelty merchandise, Halloween closeouts, closeout Christmas merchandise, wholesale home décor, closeout toys, overstock apparel, retail liquidation merchandise, wholesale bulk merchandise, and other overstock items for sale. Our business model relies on our ability to consistently offer our customers great closeouts on dog supplies, bulk craft closeouts, overstock clothing, online dollar store items, and other wholesale products for resale.
Where do we get these deals?
One of the best things we have going for us is our great reputation. We have been buying wholesale products for resale for more than 30 years. Our vendors know we always pay quickly and new suppliers are always reaching out to us with their wholesale closeouts, bulk items for sale, liquidation pallets, wholesale online deals, cheap bulk products, wholesale pet products, sporting goods overstocks, and other pallet liquidations.
What is a closeout sale?
There are many different reasons for something to be a closeout or overstock. Most often, products are introduced to the wrong market or they are introduced at the wrong price or the wrong time, leading to disappointing sales. A closeout company like ours steps in to buy in bulk at a liquidation sale, and we put the product for sale at reduced pricing. Very often we buy discontinued apparel at deep discounts because fashion changes often and what was a good seller last season may no longer sell this season. We find sporting goods closeouts often because they are slow moving inventory outside of the summer months. We get Halloween closeouts or overstock Christmas products often because these categories are Seasonal. But we are always buying wholesale liquidation merchandise for one reason or another.
Merchandise USA is a wholesale liquidator specializing in closeouts and overstocks.
