Frugal Kitchens 101 - Liquidation Stores

A frugal kitchen tends to be a very well equipped kitchen.  Acquiring that equipment takes time, money, effort and sometimes patience.   Regardless of how careful you with any of your kitchen equipment, ranging anywhere from decor and servingware to bakeware and cookware to small kitchen appliances, it will be necessary to replace or upgrade from time to time.  Things break or wear out, tastes change, family size and lifestyle change, and so forth so of all rooms in the house there is always something needed or wanted for the kitchen.  There there are the necessary kitchen items that are consumable (eg. dishwasher detergent, rinse agent, serviettes, paper towels, and etc.) that are ongoing purchases based on need.  There are many ways of acquiring anything needed for the kitchen without breaking the bank.  Aside of shopping the sales and box stores, discount stores like dollar stores can save a lot of money on kitchen essentials.  Liquidation stores can offer larger ticket savings!

Liquidation stores (closeout retailers) essentially sell off stock bought from other businesses going out of business or otherwise liquidating their current stock for a variety of reasons. What this means is the stock in any given liquidation store is limited, may be one of a kind, or even seconds.  This differs from dollar stores that tend to be fairly consistent with their stock that is replaced with similar when out.  We discovered Big Lots which is an American chain liquidation store and Liquidation World, a Canadian chain liquidation store that first opened in Calgary in 1986 and now owned by Big Lots (purchase completed July 19, 2011).  We have also shopped in liquidation stores that aren't part of a larger chain.

Our experience shopping in liquidation stores has been quite favourable.  Unlike dollar stores, the food section is quite small but they have larger items like furniture, small kitchen appliances, dinnerware and items perfect for entertaining as well as items for kitchen decor.  It is common to find brand names like Cuisinart, Chicago Cutlery, Oneida, George Foreman, T-fal and etc.  I found a four place setting of Sabatier Porcelain in Travertine Grey for $2, perfect for entertaining.  I bought my Cuisinart kitchen knife set at a liquidation store.  It was the only one there, marked down to a third of regular retail price.  I also found a Geneva pressure cooker at Liquidation World for $35 (retail $140).  The interesting part of shopping a liquidation store is you never know what you are going to find.  It is like going on a treasure hunt for bargains.  The only caveat is if you see something you want, buy it then because chances are very good you won't see another item the same again.

Liquidation stores are the place to look for the following kitchen items:

• small kitchen appliances
• dinnerware
• bakeware
• novelty kitchenware (eg. coasters, salt & pepper shakers, tea pots)
• servingware
• kitchen furniture
• limited kitchen decor