When the “normal” economy is causing a financial pinch, people turn to folks who have developed their own methods for surviving without lots of cash. In this case it’s the Amish.
This reminds me of a family I know who got started in business just this way. They started buying “bents and dents”… often from insurance companies that covered a tractor trailer that got into a wreck.
They started selling at flea markets until they made enough money to open a “real” storefront. They’re not Amish, but there business has grown ever since. So this isn’t just for the Amish.
But there are reasons, as the article indicates, why this is something of an Amish phenomenon right now…
Anyway, back to this news item.
Amish-run salvage stores, a thriving discount industry tucked away in America’s farmlands, sell expired food and medicine dirt cheap. This shadow economy, run by people who typically shun modern methods of commerce, is drawing a steady stream of non-Amish customers seeking relief from the country’s financial ills.
“We have anything from a Mercedes in our parking lots down to horse and buggies,” said Ray Marvin, general manager of B.B.’s Grocery Outlet, an Amish-owned salvage store chain in Quarryville, Pa.
The customers are after prices resembling those of old-fashioned nickel-and-dime stores – paper towels for 50 cents a roll, salad dressing for 10 cents a bottle.
Except for baby formula, the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t prohibit the sale of expired foods or medicine. The agency bars the sale of adulterated or misbranded drugs, but those are evaluated case by case.
Everything else is fair game – “buyer beware,” as B&K Salvage owner Bill Gingerich puts it.
Salvage goods also show up on the shelves of some close-out stores, but those primarily sell bulk wholesale and overstocked goods at discounted prices.
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