By CHELSEA JENSEN
By CHELSEA JENSEN
Stephens Media
Looking for deep discounts on everyday items, clothing, electronics and more? Overstock n Discounts, Kona’s newest salvage retailer, is bringing the deals to West Hawaii.
From a $700 seven-piece living room set and a $200 genuine leather couch to $7.50 pullovers, $6 T-shirts and $15 name-brand cooking ware sets, Overstock n Discounts carries an ever-changing variety of goods that local police officer, nonprofit president and, now, proprietor Nalani Freitas hopes will help residents get more bang for their buck. The Kaloko Light Industrial Area for-profit store opened April 29.
“We’re hoping that we can provide goods to the community to help them get through hard times and their struggles,” Freitas said. “Everybody wants to make their budget stretch.”
To help people do just that the target price reduction on all goods at the store is about 50 percent — or as much as Overstock n Discounts can afford — below general retail prices, Freitas said. She’s able to do that by purchasing local overstock and salvage items from a big-box store and several smaller retailers.
“When you’re getting salvage, you’re working off pennies on the dollar,” she said about how a salvage retailer can offer such deals.
Most salvage consists of new items that had to be moved out of a store to make room for new
stock, customer returns and lightly damaged items, Freitas said. Retailers often throw away or containerize the goods to ship back to the mainland where brokers purchase and distribute the containers to various salvage retailers, Freitas said.
“On the mainland it’s insavne,” she said about the niche market’s popularity. “Salvage is a huge thing there because every retailer has salvage.”
However, keeping the goods here, rather than shipping them to the mainland and, perhaps, back to Hawaii, results in deep discounts for Big Islanders, she said.
“It’s just crazy to send it back when our costs here are huge already,” Freitas said, later adding that in essence retailing salvage goods on Hawaii Island is just another component of being green because it’s reducing waste and fuel use if kept here.
While not the first-ever salvage retailer in Kailua-Kona, Freitas said it’s been nearly a decade since the last one, “Da Kine Discount Store,” located on Kaiwi Street closed its doors. She’s excited to bring back something similar to help the community.
“Everybody is trying to make their budget stretch,” she said.
Overstock n Discounts also provides a home for Freitas’ nonprofit Kaanalike, which for the past 15 years has provided everything from furniture and appliances to clothing and food for families needing a little extra help. The nonprofit pays for its phone line and a portion of the utilities, she said.
Overstock n Discounts is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday at its warehouse site located on the makai said Kanalani Street in the Kaloko Light Industrial Area of North Kona. The store accepts cash, debit, and Visa and MasterCard credit cards.
Retailers looking to sell salvage or overstock items to Overstock n Discounts can call Freitas at 326-7523.
Email Chelsea Jensen at cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com.