When thinking about how to explain our Surplus department we drew a blank ... after carefully looking around we were able to find an old write up from a long term Team Member who was at the time a buyer's assitant in the Surplus category.  This article is great for some insight, a little humour, and a very interesting story about their experience.... enjoy!

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What is Surplus?

Surplus has always been described to me as one of the "cornerstones" of Princess Auto and a fundamental source of Princess Auto's past and its future. As a new team member with Princess Auto it hadn't meant to me what it now does. I thought I'd begin with what I believe makes it a cornerstone. There are textbook and dictionary descriptions of what a cornerstone is, but in following with the Surplus tradition there has got to be a different way to look at it? Something with true Surplus panache.

Probably one of the most important roles of Surplus is creating a unique shopping experience while behind the doors of a Princess Auto store. Surplus sets us apart from most any other retailer out there by having truly vast sections of goofy gadgets and unexplainable contraptions fulfilling practically any requirement, no matter how strange they may be! Where else could you stop by and get suited up with a Russian Military chemical gasmask, buy a brand new battery and case for a cell phone you haven't used in twelve years, and pick up that much desired rototiller with a weedwacker engine on it? All in the same eight feet of display racking! A kid in a candy store doesn't even begin to describe the emotions this evokes.

It takes a special sort of customer to buy Surplus (just try and describe them) and a special sort of person to choose the stuff to sell too! I've always considered myself lucky to be a part of the madness that is Surplus, buying and selling Surplus that is! Sure there was a time when I wasn’t sure about the items I was buying… but that was only once!

Who in their right mind buys trailer loads of assorted gas masks and clown nightlights, sorts them out and retails them beside the likes of sump pumps and surge protectors? That job belongs to a retail company that wishes to break out of the cookie-cutter retail box store mould. That special kind of retailer is none other that Princess Auto my friends.

Does Surplus set us apart from other retailers all by itself? Of course not, but it sure does put an edge on the blade! Surplus fills a niche that in my 33 years on Planet Earth has not seen a match to it. There is a saying that "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" but because Surplus is truly hard to do, not many are interested in trying. Thank goodness for that! It's just like when I was a nose picking little boy at school... I got the lunch table all to myself! There are advantages to that position I've learned.

One previous Surplus buyer told me "If surplus was easy, everyone would be doing it!" and that is the absolute truth. We take what many see as too assorted or too difficult, make it possible, then sell it for a really great price and make a profit in the end to boot. Everyone is happy! We are more than that though! We spark the imagination of our team members, customers both young and old and our business partners across the street or across the world. That spark began with things like aircraft starters being made into welding generators and has evolved into reconditioned lawn care items and high end audio accessories to name but a few.

Every time I come to work it's a new and different experience and I wouldn't want Surplus any other way! I'm sure there are many across the land that feel this way about their individual departments as well. That's what makes Princess Auto so darn unique! Such a department like Surplus has earned it's place at Princess Auto and can only be described as a "cornerstone" of our businesses past and it's future!

Now where can I find me a pair of orange NASCAR slippers and a video cable for my Xbox? I know where...

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