A long time listener (Thanks Nicole!) sent us a great story from Planet Money where they interview a guy who buys stuff at Toys R Us and resells on Amazon. We all now the drill, but this news team dug a little deeper and asked all the questions we always ask: “How is this even a job, much less an industry?”
Listen here: http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/06/03/411777635/episode-629-buy-low-sell-prime
They also talk to Ina from eCommerceBytes about Target’s problems with Lilly Pulitzer and the online resellers. They don’t get to a definite answer but it will be interesting to see if big box stores try to stop the flow of their goods onto Amazon. Or maybe the manufacturers will cut out the middlemen and sell directly online? Or maybe the Retail Arbitrage business is here to stay eating away at the Big Retail Corporations until they go out of business? Who Knows!
God bless that world. But I love the Scavenger Life where we find items at the tail end of the waste stream. We’re carrying on the tradition that has been going on for centuries. Find the stuff that people think is almost garbage, put it in a different context, and give it new life (while making a living). As long as there’s waste, we’re paying our bills.