My First Sourcing Trip To A Dollar Store

Today was a half-day sourcing day. I had to go to town anyway for our annual corporate meeting with the attorney… so thought I’d go to a few stores.

I started out at Staples – I was looking for a few more things that I needed for my new product project – Create A Bundled Product And Include Public Domain Images

As I wandered around the store – I often get discouraged at how expensive Staples is for supplies, but I don’t want to buy “big packs” of anything as this is a “test” project.  Because I took the time to just wander and let some of the “product supplies” speak to me… I came up with an additional idea to add to this new product.

My next stop was the 99 cent store – which I’ve never been in – much less used for sourcing. I spent $85!

• I found some home goods to “bundle”. It took me a while of wandering to figure out what I wanted to bundle… but I came up with 4 different bundle ideas.
• I found some little boxes in the Christmas clearance aisle to use for my new product idea.
• I found some toys that  have good ROI and are easy to ship.
• I found some candy that looks like it will sell well with out any competition.
• I found a few really good DVD’s with high ROI. Pretty excited about that find.

The 99 cent store would not sell to me tax-exempt. I asked several people… and they flat out said “NO”. I’m going to contact the corporate office to see if they have a policy that the store is just unaware of. This has happened to me before in other stores… and I got it fixed right away. I share that story and more in my new product “Buy Tax Exempt“.

I also checked out the tiny bit of “Garden” related products they had. I didn’t buy anything – because I’m not sure what I’m going to sell. I was happy to see some things that did interest me… and I could see “bundle” ideas as well.

All in all I was pleasantly surprised at what I found in the Dollar Store that I could sell on Amazon FBA .

Then I headed to Barnes and Noble – I went to look for Gardening magazines for research. I’m disappointed in these magazines. We (hubby was with me) found 6 different publications and not one was worth buying. We checked the book section to see if we would have more luck – No Joy.

I’ve also been disappointed overall with the forums I was researching on as well.  I found a few threads that talked about “products” – but for the most part they talk about what is growing well and what kind of seeds they are looking for.  

Then hubby said something that threw me for a loop.  He really has been listening to me all these years… lol.  He said – “It would really help if we went online and found out what people are searching for”. Duh…

I’m good at keyword research… I use this skill all the time online.  I’ll be spending some time researching on the Google Keyword Tool. This tool is also great if you are creating Product Pages on Amazon… this helps customers find your product!

In fact – I spent about 15 minutes on research (combining my “garden bundle idea” from the Dollar store, looking at Amazon and using the Google Keyword Tool). I’m on my way back to the Dollar store tomorrow for my “first” Garden related product that I’ll be shipping to Amazon.

Toys R Us is right next door – I had hubby in tow, so I thought it would be a good time for an hour of “scouting/sourcing” training.

Most of the clearance in TRU was a bust. They did not have much marked down below 20% off. I did find a few Christmas related things that will be great for next holiday season – I’m going to store them at home for about 8 months and then ship them to Amazon FBA. These were recommended on FBAFinds.com – Thanks Jordan.

I found one toy that has me confused. The toy is really good ROI on Amazon – but this toy looks like it’s been in storage for several years. The boxes were “aged” and discolored.  I wouldn’t send them to Amazon as NEW and I’ll have to think about it before I would send them in as collectible. I’ll wait until TRU has their “extra” % off on clearance days and see if I can scarf them up – cheap.

I also purchased a few things at full price… which I said I wouldn’t do again. But they are so good and have little/no competition on Amazon – I just couldn’t resist. Hubby learned to “read” FBA Scout a bit better this evening… and he couldn’t believe the ROI. It took a bit of time to explain everything I look at when I’m using FBA scout – but worth it.

I actually only spent about $58 at TRU this evening and got some great products to send in.  I’m only looking for the GREAT stuff right now. I’m limiting my spending budget and this does make for more “careful” scouting.

All this shopping took about 4 hours.  I did some training, some research, thought about a few new product ideas and found about 1/2 a box worth of product to send in right away.  I call this a successful day.

I had planned on hitting Wal-Mart and some Thrift Stores today… but I’m not scouting for 8 – 10 hours a day now. I can wait a few more days.

My friend/book-keeper/shopper hit’s town tomorrow night. I sent her on a scouting trip last week in Phoenix (about 3 hours away from me) and haven’t heard if she was successful. I hope so!

I haven’t shipped anything to Amazon FBA for about a month now… it’s time to “gear up” and “get ‘er done”. It has been nice to not “feel the pressure” of scouting and shipping. I really got caught up in the momentum of the Holiday shopping season. I will be better prepared next year now that I know what “it feels like”. LOL

Okay… I need to do a bit more “end of the month” accounting for my book-keeper and then it’s off to bed. (It’s 10:30 p.m. and I’m striving to get to bed before midnight from now on… I’m a night owl, but I would like to get more done earlier in the day instead of late at night. I think my family would appreciate it as well. Ha.

“The money is made in the sourcing, not the shipping”… Always Be Sourcing!

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