A new retail outlet store boasting prices 30 to 90 percent below other stores opened Monday in Hixson.
Known as Discovery Outlet, the 12,700-square-foot store in the Northtowne Center (next to Staples and near Hobby Lobby) features a variety of overstock and surplus merchandise and foods the local owners have bought and are reselling at below conventional prices. Similar to Big Lots, the new store offers hundreds of different items, ranging from men's and women's clothing and shoes to tools, home goods, housewares and even some food items.
"Everything we sell we buy at a deal so we may not have the same product tomorrow that we have here today," said Jim Post, the store owner who joined with a pair of e-commerce vendors in Cleveland, Tenn. to create the new store concept. "We sell brand name, quality merchandise - lots of shoes, fashion and home goods - but we also sell tools, food and anything that we can buy at a discount and pass along the savings to our customers."
Post said the new store, which is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day but Sunday, "is designed to be neat, clean, nice and friendly environment" and offer an ever-changing array of merchandise. The company owners will store much of the discounted merchandise they buy from manufacturers, suppliers and closed out retailers at a warehouse in Cleveland.
"The ownership is entirely local," Post said.
The store is staffed by a dozen workers "and we've been very pleased with the first day so far," Post said Monday.
If successful, Post said the owners are considering opening other such outlet stores.
"Even though other brick-and-mortar stores have closed, shoppers are still looking for a good deal and they still want to see and touch what they are buying to make sure they are getting a good deal," Post said.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340.