What Do Employees Of Closeout Companies Know That Other Workers Don’t?


Excess Inventory Buyers, Closeouts, Discontinued

Employees of closeout companies are a different breed of employee. Not that they are necessarily smarter or better than other employees, just different. It takes a special kind of person to work for a company that specializes in buying closeouts and discontinued inventory. There are many reasons for this but most of them are related to the nature of the business itself.

Excess inventory buyers are always looking to purchase a wide range of different items. This means one day the warehouse may receive coffee pots and the next day they can get hockey sticks. One day they will get candle holders and the next day hair dryers. So employees must be able to work with new products all the time, and they must understand everything has value and must be received, entered into inventory, sold, pulled and shipped just the same as if the company only sold the same product everyday. When companies liquidate excess inventory they may be in different industries and each may carry completely different products. Closeouts and discontinued inventory come in all shapes, sizes and colors which means everyday at work is not the same as the day before. Workers at companies that liquidate excess inventory have to be able to zig and zag as necessary, and be flexible both in their thinking and work routine.

Since closeouts come in all categories, there will always be different items coming through the doors of a closeout company that sells discontinued inventory.This means excess inventory buyers are constantly handling different items with ever-changing item numbers, different case packs, often re-packs, and if the workers don’t pay close attention to what they are doing there will be all kinds of mistakes. This is where it takes a certain kind of person to work at a company selling closeouts. It requires individuals who have the capacity to think on their own and make decisions as they go along, because the business changes day to day. As an example of this, if a shipment comes in and it is not in original factory cases, the warehouse people have to decide if they should repack. And if they repack, how many per case? And if there is no item number on the products, they must be assigned numbers. Companies that liquidate excess inventory rarely take the time to be sure everything is properly packed and marked. This often leads to more work for the excess inventory buyers, who are forced to fix all inbound shipments so they can be worked with. This is another reason it requires a special kind of of worker.