Your Next Side Hustle – Retail Rebel

“It’s my side hustle”

Have you heard that from any friends / family / colleagues? Do you have a side hustle going yet?? According to sidehustlenation.com, almost half of Americans reported having a side hustle this year, so you better get on the bandwagon before it gets too crowded. I recently jumped on and lucky for you, I’m going to share my not-so-secret weapon: Retail Rebel.

What is this place…?

I’ll be honest, I was terrified the first time I walked inside those sliding glass doors. To be fair I was completely unaware of what I was walking into (yes, I could have Googled it beforehand but I wanted to find out what it was for myself). I had never heard of the store “Retail Rebel” before and, as a lifelong shopaholic, I was absolutely stunned. This big open warehouse was filled with giant bins with each one surrounded by people scavenging to find the best deals. Knowing literally nothing about this place, I head towards the closest bin.

Much to my surprise, I noticed a lot of common items I have either purchased or considered purchasing on Amazon. And that’s exactly what this place is. A semi-classy dumping ground for Amazon returns. This place has built a business out of selling returned items at a fixed price – sometimes penny’s on the dollar depending on the day. That’s where things get interesting – the price of each item changes depending on the day of the week you decide to venture into this wild place. Here’s the pricing breakdown per item:

— Saturdays: $10
— Sundays: $5
— Mondays: $4
— Tuesdays: $3
— Wednesdays: $2
— Thursdays: $1
— Fridays: 50⍧

50⍧ Fridays

You can imagine how crazy “50 cent Fridays” can get. That’s the day it was when we first went shopping there. We didn’t even realize how much things were until half-way through our shopping experience, so then we went a little crazy and spent $15 total. We bought everything from phone and tablet cases to smart watch chargers to kitchen organizers and some random decorative string of lights. You can find a lot of random things on Fridays, but things are fairly picked over at that point. If you’re looking to make this a real side hustle, then Saturdays is where it’s at. When you are ready for the big time deals, you can check out their weekly pallet auctions – bid at your own risk!

Saturdays are for the Deals

Retail Rebel restocks their bins twice a week, both on Saturdays. They restock before they open at 9am and then again at noon. It’s very common to see a line out the door around those times as folks are wanting to be the first to dig through the new returned merch. If you get really serious about this, you can claim your weekend spot to make sure you have a fighting chance.

Saturdays are the days where you get the best stuff as it hasn’t all been picked through – but they are also the days you pay the most. However, in true side hustle fashion, you can re-sell the best stuff for a better price. It’s truly the circle of side hustle life.

Dig more. Spend a little more. Make way more.

Re-Sell Your Heart Out

There are a million and one places you can re-sell your Retail Rebel finds – Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Mercari to name a few. However, a lot of people direct these items right back to Amazon through their Amazon Sellers account. The catch with that are some extra fees that – depending on how serious you are about this – may not make it worth it in the end. The benefit to keeping these products in the Amazon family is that you can scan the barcodes and instantly see the value the item has on Amazon. Just be careful not to count your eggs before they hatch and get in over your head.

In the Black…so far!

I am proud to say that *currently* we have put money back in our pockets at the end of the day thanks to Retail Rebel and the people who have bought things from us. We have made some lucky finds — here’s a few that make us look like we kinda know what we are doing:

— Dash Cam: bought for $10 and re-sold on Facebook Marketplace for $150
— Muscle Massager: bought for $10 and re-sold for $50
— Laser Attachment: bought for $5 and re-sold for $40

It’s a Win – Win

The great thing about this concept is that everybody can win. We put forth the leg work and elbow grease to find these items, but the people who buy them from us are still getting below retail prices. A win – win! That’s the beauty of most side hustles. It gives us something to do every Saturday morning but also helps us work towards our own financial goals even quicker than just our W-2’s allow. Don’t get me wrong, our W-2’s pay the bills. But our side hustles pay for a new couch or that vacation we are planning for next year. The opportunities are out there, you just have to find them and – most importantly – act on them!

Happy Side Hustling!

All the best,

Bonny

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