How Jim Rowe Filled a Shopping Desert—With Costco Returns

Jim Rowe has always been an entrepreneur. From 2002 onward, he and his wife built a sizable chain of restaurants across Washington with nine locations in total. Then COVID hit, and like so many others, everything stopped. Luckily, Jim’s not one to sit around.

A few side hustles later, he’s running what some dub “a mini Costco,” offering the best deals in Ellensburg, a town of 20,000 people. So if Jim’s sitting, it’s actually on the starter yacht he purchased with his resale wins. In fact, when we met with Jim over Zoom to learn more about his resale journey, he was on said yacht with Seattle’s Space Needle in view.

Key milestones

2002: Starts restaurant career; eventually opens nine locations with his wifeCOVID (2020): Restaurants shut down; pivots to side hustles to fund daughter’s college
2020-2021: Junk removal business provides resalable inventory; converts warehouse into Home Again Used Furniture
2021: Discovers B-Stock via Shannon Jean; wins first Costco auction; makes $3,500 in a single-day Facebook Live sale
2024: Moves into an old tow truck storefront with zero marketing; does $60K in sales first month
2025: Relocates The Bargain Shop into a 6,000 sq ft former Sears location
Present: ~$700K spent through B-Stock and expanding nationally via eBay, Whatnot, and TikTok

Turning junk removal into college tuition

With his daughter about to start her first year at Boise State, Jim committed to funding her college by starting a new side hustle each year—and proving along the way that building and selling a business doesn’t have to be as hard as people make it out to be.

“ The first side hustle that I started was a junk removal business. I soon found out, [by] customer number three, that people were giving me items that were still good and resalable. And so my profit margin on the junk removal jobs would go way up.”

A small used furniture store followed, then storage unit auctions, then used restaurant equipment from his own warehouse. He was buying faster than he was selling, and his wife noticed.

“I was doing really well selling used restaurant equipment, so I started buying more equipment. Even though my wife was like, ‘I thought we were trying to sell everything,’ I ended up buying and selling more stuff.”

The road to return pallets

Eventually, Jim came across Shannon Jean, a seasoned resale expert and founder of the Reseller Mastermind community, on X. When he reached out, mentioning his niche in used restaurant equipment, Shannon pointed him to B-Stock. That same night, he logged on.

That first B-Stock win…of many

One of the first listings he saw was a Costco auction for a garden shed—the exact shed he needed for the coffee shop he’d been building for his daughter (yet another one of the side hustles). It was retailing for around $1,600.

“I was like, ‘Okay, worst case scenario, I’ll bid $1,600, and if I win it, I bought a shed.’”

Well, he bid, won it for less, and discovered the auction included two additional sheds. He sold those, and just like that, he was already ahead.

Armed with a few more auction wins—furniture, exercise equipment, more returned items—and a penchant for social media, Jim held an outdoor sale right outside his storage unit doors. He went live on Facebook. His wife demoed a couch. They made $3,500 in a single day.

“I looked at her that day, and I said, ‘This is a lot better than the restaurant business, isn’t it?’ And she goes, ‘Yeah.’ And I go, ‘I’m gonna continue to do this.’”

By the next day, Jim was already moving to lease an old tow truck shop. Fast forward to now, and he’s only continuing to grow, with almost 90% of everything he does today still on B-Stock.

A frenzy was born in Ellensburg

Curiosity got the better of folks. With just a red ‘For Sale’ sign, Jim already had customers pulling off the side of the road to see what his bargain store was all about.

“ I didn’t put much thought into it. I was like, ‘I’m just gonna sell what I have out of this warehouse, and I’m gonna be open when I wanna be open and sell some product.’ Well, the customers decided they wanted more than that.”

Jim found himself open Wednesday through Saturday for the next six months. In that first month alone, he did $60K in sales.

Testing the market

Simply by rolling stuff out by the sidewalk and seeing pallets unloaded from the trucks, a whole other kind of frenzy was born—all in pursuit of “a crazy good deal,” as Jim put it.

“Right out of the gate I sold some crazy stuff. I sold a greenhouse, chicken coop, sauna, and tons of furniture. I was buying my way through B-Stock.”

Creating a space people want to visit

“  We’re pretty limited on shopping opportunities, so it just took off. It’s a shopping desert in Ellensburg, Washington, and here’s this new opportunity to have some fun, you know?”

When the weather hits single digits, and you’re still getting customers through the door, you must be on to something.

“ Women would just come in and pick through the bin…it was the most interesting thing, because they’d stand around these bins talking and showing the clothes to each other, and then getting a great deal on ’em.”

Lessons learned along the way

Jim shares one of the earliest lessons from his encounters with Shannon: start by buying something that you need. For Jim, that was the Costco garden sheds, and fortunately, his business was profitable from day one. However, that doesn’t mean it’s always been smooth sailing. (Pun intended.)

“ If you’ve ever bought a pallet, delivery day can be tricky because you don’t know what to expect.”

The more business Jim does, the more he wants to know about the product that he’s getting. At this point in his journey, he knows which vendors are less of a gamble–especially regarding how reliable the sorting of merchandise is.

“When you spend as much money and have as many orders as I’ve had, you’re gonna run into some challenges. You can fall back and have B-Stock help you, or you can become a problem solver and just overcome them, and that’s typically what I’ve done.”

The profits are in the problem-solving

Across X and Facebook, you can find Jim mentoring enthusiastic newcomers to the business. He’s even joined up with Shannon’s Reseller Mastermind group.

“ Don’t get overwhelmed by the auction game,” he emphasizes. Buy with math, figure out how you’re going to sell the product, and then brace yourself for some serious problem-solving because things aren’t always shiny and new.

“ The profits are in the problem-solving. In the restaurant business, that’s another skill set that you learn; you’re overcoming problems quickly. Even at the table you’re overcoming problems, helping a guest.”

The value of a lifetime customer

Another lesson from the restaurant business that stuck was hospitality. “We’re looking to make a friend fast,” is what he likes to say. It starts with a big greeting, an experience they can remember, and sometimes, great service that goes beyond his doorstep.

Jim spoke about an elderly couple who came in and purchased a chest freezer with no way to get it home. Not only did Jim and his son offer home delivery, they even removed the door from its frame to maneuver the new freezer inside and haul the old freezer out.

 ”Once you understand the lifetime value of a customer, it’s not an $80 freezer that I’m interested in. I wanna help them, I want them to come back, and I want them to recommend friends and family to us.”

Location, location, location

The Bargain Shop found its new home in a 6,000 sq ft former Sears building. A big upgrade from his former retail storefront. “Some say that we look like a small Costco because probably 85% of my products come from Costco,” he jokes.

His customers can do their bargain hunting while purchasing everyday essentials like paper products, water, groceries, and even pet supplies. Some items Jim doesn’t even make money on, but considers it all a grassroots way to bring people into the store.

“Now, the [former] Sears location doesn’t have the traffic going by it, which has hurt us a little bit. But once you’re inside the store, it’s definitely a better shopping environment.”

That being said, Jim has found that location can be a growth factor—and many of his larger Facebook Marketplace sales happen in the Seattle market.

“Once or twice a week, I drive over and do deliveries to people’s homes, because my market’s just not large enough for what I’m trying to accomplish. I just have bigger goals. I’m trying to buy a $700,000 yacht, and to make that happen, I’ve had to spread my wings.”

Looking ahead for Jim

We asked Jim what he envisions for the future of his business. This is what he had to say:

“ I’m not trying to create a hobby. If I’m gonna do this, I wanna go after it and scale something.”

Social media as a growth catalyst

“My plan is to use these other sites like eBay, Poshmark, TikTok, and expand across the country. The more social media I do, the more products I sell or the more people that sign in and watch me sell live as well.”

In fact, his Whatnot shows took off almost too quickly. He cautions that if you’re selling 200 pairs of shoes per show, your inventory stream better be able to keep up!

Reimagining the traditional brick-and-mortar

Already, Jim’s thinking about brick-and-mortar differently. Their current space is built specifically to accommodate live selling and order fulfillment. There’s even talk of a potential podcast and YouTube channel.

“What we’re doing with our store now is we’re turning it into a large online store. So everything that we have in our store, for the most part, will be listed online, either on eBay, our own website, and sites like TikTok or Whatnot.”

Interested in more of what Jim has to say? Follow @resellerrowe, and you may just get inspired to start your own resale business. 

Are you a B-Stock buyer who wants to tell us more about your reselling business? Let us know, and we can feature you!