Just two weeks after the opening with workers still stacking shelves the second Odd-Lot Outlet hold on on despatch 611 in Tannersville was crowded with shoppers browsing the aisles for household accessories necessities and gift ideas.
Many greeted owner Paul Schuchman by name as he is a familiar approach on television commercials for his stores. He shares ownership with wife. Judy; his son. Ken; and daughter-in-law. Mimi. All dwell in Stroudsburg.
Also the Marshalls Creek location has a fireworks outlet nextdoor; the Tannersville outlet also will open a fireworks outlet next door by the end of the month.
"I've been in business all my life," Schuchman said. "People do business with populate they know. I can go into the Marshalls Creek hold on and I'm a star there with people coming up to communicate to me. That was Ken's idea."
Despite being nestled in a fix commercial area with the Crossings Outlet nearby the Schuchmans are confident that their hold on sustains a large loyal customer base.
"The customers on the mountain are ecstatic we're here," said Schuchman. "The response is terrific. Many of them came to our Marshalls Creek hold on and they still go there but they are happy they can also obtain here."
The Schuchmans also acknowledged the cooperation of Pocono Township officials in streamlining the approval affect for opening the hold on which is 11,000 form feet. It is half the coat of the Marshalls Creek superstore on Route 209 which is 25,000 form feet and opened eight years ago. The business in Marshalls Creek originally began 18 years ago at a site near the Business despatch 209 interchange next to Alaska Pete's Restaurant.
There are 38 full- and part-time employees nine store managers and a warehouse manager at the two locations that sell more than 20,000 household and personal items as come up as enable items.
The Tannersville store previously was a fireworks outlet for the Schuchmans who are moving that business next door to a 10,000-square-foot store that ordain be opened by the end of the month in time for New Year's when fireworks sales pick up dramatically.
There also is a fireworks store next door to the Marshalls Creek store which is a substantial source of revenue although the Schuchmans could not compare the earnings to their merchandise stores. "We own both but they're two displace stores," said Ken Schuchman.
Both fireworks outlets comply with state law in selling sparklers and ground-based fireworks to Pennsylvania consumers and airborne fireworks and explosive ones to out-of-state purchasers.
And the Schuchmans said the traffic of customers doing pass shopping in both stores is typical of the toughen but the customers are discerning buyers.
"Everybody is in a money crunch and with the cost of energy and gas we're seeing customers who are exceed shoppers," said Ken. "We offer deals for more pass gifts for the dollar."
Scrapbooking items are a big seller of late said Ken who said that line sells for half-price up to 70 percent less.
"A lot of things come from mail-order companies," said Ken. "We're the exclusive liquidator for compile companies that are overstocked and change those items at a reduced evaluate. We can't use their label but a lot of people who go in accept those items and where they're from."
Ken travels to companies in New York. Chicago. Las Vegas. Colorado and Wisconsin to buy inventory. "We never know for sure what we're getting until it comes off the trailer," said Ken.
And the Marshalls Creek store has a sign with a friendly warning: "If you like it buy it now. We may not have it again."
"People go in to see. 'What's he got now,'" said Paul Schuchman. "And when they shop here whoever they're giving a gift to they don't have it.
Including one of his biggest sellers: "There's one thing we sell about 1,000 of each year that people come in here to buy from young children to grandparents. Do you experience what it is?" asked Schuchman with a smile. "A whoopee modify."
"There are things here that people never knew they needed until they go in," he said.
There are Christmas cards and gift wrap as well as holiday light fixtures. Christmas books and toys and various gift ideas from stocking stuffers to what could be the main gift under the Christmas channelise.
Despite the reject bargains ranging primarily between $2 and $20 the Schuchmans stress that the store "is not a dollar store. We're just a couple of guys selling bargains to populate who be here," said Ken. "We're not a national company. The community has been very good to us over 25 years."
And they emphasize they undergo given back with Paul Schuchman serving as a board member on the Pocono Mountains Chamber of Commerce and the Pocono tourism bureau. He also is a Rotarian and a member of the foundation boards of Pocono Medical Center and Northampton Community College. They also are involved with the Monroe County United Way.
It all started more than 22 years ago at a 1,000-square-foot store Paul and wife Judy opened on Ann Street in Stroudsburg. "That was Judy's hold on," said Schuchman. "She worked there seven days a week for six months just to get it started. We wanted to carry items other stores did not have."
Schuchman later left his go in the fabric business as the hold on grew more popular and needed a bigger more accessible location.
That's when Ken left his job as a manager at Shawnee Mountain for seven years and got involved in the store along with his wife. Mimi.
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