A chain of stores that re-sells unwanted Amazon orders has set its sights on a long-vacant anchor spot at a Henrico shopping center.
Where Ya Bin has taken over a portion of a former Food Lion at Quioccasin Station Shopping Center, near Regency in western Henrico. The 18,000-square-foot store plans to open this fall, according to CEO Mitch Earnest.
Where Ya Bin is a relatively new retailer that buys shipments of customer returns and overstocked products from online sellers every week, and uses those products to stock its locations.
Each store has 100 to 120, 8-foot-by-4-foot bins filled with electronics, small appliances, clothes, beauty products and other items.
Where Ya Bin pitches itself as a “value-conscious” retail experience. All items in a given store are priced at $14 on Friday, and then every day the price per item falls until it hits 25 cents on Thursday. The pricing model is intended to clear out the stores’ inventories on a weekly schedule before the next wave of goods arrives.
“The truckloads shipped to our stores are categorized as ‘general merchandise,’ meaning the exact contents are unknown until they are dumped into bins at the store,” Earnest said in an email. “At the end of the week, we clean our bins and restock them with a completely new product mix from the previous week.”
The stores don’t accept cash, which Where Ya Bin says is intended to make the check-out process more efficient. The stores accept credit and debit cards as well as Google Pay and Apple Pay, per the company’s website.
Where Ya Bin’s inventory is sourced from multiple online retailers, though the majority of items come from Amazon, Earnest said.
The first Where Ya Bin opened in Columbia, South Carolina, in September 2022. The Ohio-based company currently has eight stores in five states. The upcoming Henrico location is expected to be the first in Virginia, Earnest said.
For its entry into the Richmond market, Where Ya Bin has leased about half of the Quioccasin Station space formerly occupied by Food Lion, which the grocery chain departed more than a decade ago.
Pam Strieffler and Ian Webster of CBRE handled lease negotiations on behalf of the tenant. Michael Morris of Commonwealth Commercial represented the landlord.
Other tenants in the shopping center include restaurant and music venue The Tin Pan, gymnastics center Core Kids Academy and tutoring center Kumon, among others.
A chain of stores that re-sells unwanted Amazon orders has set its sights on a long-vacant anchor spot at a Henrico shopping center.
Where Ya Bin has taken over a portion of a former Food Lion at Quioccasin Station Shopping Center, near Regency in western Henrico. The 18,000-square-foot store plans to open this fall, according to CEO Mitch Earnest.
Where Ya Bin is a relatively new retailer that buys shipments of customer returns and overstocked products from online sellers every week, and uses those products to stock its locations.
Each store has 100 to 120, 8-foot-by-4-foot bins filled with electronics, small appliances, clothes, beauty products and other items.
Where Ya Bin pitches itself as a “value-conscious” retail experience. All items in a given store are priced at $14 on Friday, and then every day the price per item falls until it hits 25 cents on Thursday. The pricing model is intended to clear out the stores’ inventories on a weekly schedule before the next wave of goods arrives.
“The truckloads shipped to our stores are categorized as ‘general merchandise,’ meaning the exact contents are unknown until they are dumped into bins at the store,” Earnest said in an email. “At the end of the week, we clean our bins and restock them with a completely new product mix from the previous week.”
The stores don’t accept cash, which Where Ya Bin says is intended to make the check-out process more efficient. The stores accept credit and debit cards as well as Google Pay and Apple Pay, per the company’s website.
Where Ya Bin’s inventory is sourced from multiple online retailers, though the majority of items come from Amazon, Earnest said.
The first Where Ya Bin opened in Columbia, South Carolina, in September 2022. The Ohio-based company currently has eight stores in five states. The upcoming Henrico location is expected to be the first in Virginia, Earnest said.
For its entry into the Richmond market, Where Ya Bin has leased about half of the Quioccasin Station space formerly occupied by Food Lion, which the grocery chain departed more than a decade ago.
Pam Strieffler and Ian Webster of CBRE handled lease negotiations on behalf of the tenant. Michael Morris of Commonwealth Commercial represented the landlord.
Other tenants in the shopping center include restaurant and music venue The Tin Pan, gymnastics center Core Kids Academy and tutoring center Kumon, among others.
So an item that normally retails for $100 would sell for $14, as would an item that normally retails for $20? Hmmm. I predict there will be some serious tug-of-war going on for the coveted items. I notice one of the things in the photo that was returned was a box of Kind bars. It’s surprising that someone would take the time to send that back to Amazon. Unless the bars were defective, you should have had a pretty good idea of what you were getting.
They ate one and hated it. I bet the box is missing one or two.
Soooooo… this is basically a flea market for Amazon rejects, correct?
Wow…
Except at flea markets you generally can see what is inside. Sometimes it is (as in the first picture) still in the brown box from delivery and you are not supposed to open the sealed boxes in the bins. So cross between flea market and storage wars!
I watch unboxings of Amazon returns on YouTube, and there’s risks involved. Parts may be missing as buyers take a part and return the rest, people substitute older, sometimes broke, items in the returns since no one at Amazon actually checks what’s being returned. So you’re also taking a risk with anything purchased here, and the store doesn’t want you returning anything or forbids it maybe, thus the gambler-temptation prices. 25 cent Thursdays are going to be mob scenes.
It’s actually not too bad on the heavily discounted days because most shoppers come on Friday and Saturday to get the good deals before they are gone. This concept exists in Chesterfield at two stores on Midlothian Trnpk. One is called Blue Streak and the other store’s name escapes me right now but it’s about a block away from Blue Streak. At Blue Streak there is always a long line of people waiting to enter the store when it opens at 9am on Friday and that’s really when it’s chaotic.
Discount Depot is the name of the other store. They are a little cleaner and more structured than Blue Streak. You have to be patient when going to either b/c it can’t be a tug of war when they first open. Everyone wants a good deal these days.