New discount retailer offers daily deals, drawing in Tucson bargain hunters

If you love digging for a bargain, a new discount retailer in the Tucson market is ready to satisfy your craving.

Goode Deals has opened two locations filled with returned and overstocked items from big-box stores.

“Big box retailers have very liberal return policies,” owner Keith Kramer explains. “Nobody says ‘no’ to a return.”

When an item is returned, national retailers sell the item to brokers who then sell truckloads of items to liquidators, such as Goode Deals.

The inventory is a surprise every week.

“One week I’ll get tons of kitchenware and Legos,” Kramer says. “One week I’ll get 500 coffee mugs.”

Everything goes into bins — there is no sorting or themes to the bins — that’s where the digging comes in.

Prices range from $8 to $1 on different days, which keeps people coming back.

The occasional high-end item will be displayed on a “prime” shelf, such as leather satchels or Schwinn bikes.

But even then, no item is priced over $50.

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“It’s lucrative but with a whole set of challenges,” Kramer said. “Long lines, people trying to take cuts, people trying to hide items for the following day when we announce merchandise will be $1 … that sort of thing.”

At a glance, inventory includes furniture, school supplies, bedding, espresso machines, luggage and toys.

“It’s like Black Friday every day for us,” Kramer said. “In the morning we open to between 50 and 100 people who are waiting in line.”

Dollar days are announced on the Goode Deals Facebook page the night before so customers can follow alerts there.

“This model is based completely on volume, if we didn’t have the volume we wouldn’t make it,” said Kramer, who formerly owned Tres Amigos furniture stores. “We call them stupid low prices, but they really are.”

There are no exchanges or refunds.

The two stores, 2940 S. Sixth Ave. and 3820 N. Oracle Road, each have unique days of operation, hours and prices of the day that can change from morning to evening hours.

Visit facebook.com/getthegoode for the latest news or goodedeals.net to sign up for email alerts.

Rick Borane, senior associate broker with Volk Co., worked on the lease for Goode Deals and said the concept appeals to landlords with large, vacant spaces on their hands.

“Landlords are attracted to this type of tenant because of the increased traffic they generate,” he said. “As you know, retail has been challenged by online retail … Keith’s model competes well with online retail because of the discounting and you may see this happening on a larger scale in the future.”