Green Business is a Byproduct of VJ’s Bargain Barn

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Brian Delay is hesitant to call his business ‘green.’ At VJ’s Bargain Barn in Rochester, nothing is recycled or re-used; everything is new. However, all of his materials might have otherwise been destined for the trash heap because of small flaws like dents or simply mix-ups in manufacturing orders. “I don’t consider myself a green store, but it’s true that instead of these materials getting crushed, I buy them all and save them from the landfill,” he says.

VJ’s Bargain Barn offers housing materials at a considerable discount, selling items that may have a minor scratch or have been phased out because of a change in season or a new trend. In some cases, manufacturer error leads to big savings for local shoppers.

vj bargain barn
Owner Brian Delay has established relationships with local manufacturers who call him when they have surplus or obsolete items.

Windows are a case in point. “We get surplus vinyl windows because 5,000 times a year, there are wrong orders,” he says. “There’s nothing wrong with them at all, but they’re not what the customer ordered. Maybe they’re the wrong color or the wrong size. The manufacturer can’t sell them to anybody else because they were specifically designed for that customer, so I’m able to pick them up and sell them at dealer cost.”

Doors are another example. In some cases, an otherwise beautiful fiberglass front door will have a slight imperfection, which again means the dealer can’t sell it to regular customers. “We bring those in and now instead of being a $500 door, it’s a $250 door,” says Delay. The stock varies, but in general the store carries interior, exterior, French, and sliding glass options, as well as solid core and hollow core.

When it comes to flooring, the issue may be as simple as a change in color. Once a company switches the colors in its catalog, the old flooring becomes obsolete. “We buy a lot of stuff because of changes in catalogs,” he says. The same is true of carpets. “We’ll get colors that have just been pulled from the catalog,” says Delay. “With carpet that would normally sell for $3 a square foot, we can sell it for $1.50 a square foot.”

vj bargain barn
Brian Delay can offer many building products at a substantial discount at VJ’s Bargain Barn.

After 30 years in business, Delay knows most of the local manufacturers, and they know him. Most of them have a pile in the corner of items they can’t distribute to their regular vendors, and that’s the first place he goes when he pays a visit. Whenever they have a surplus or items they can’t otherwise use, he gets a call, which means he’s on the road more often than he’s in the store. “I got a call this morning from a door company that literally had a stockpile of doors,” he says. “They had small rub marks from dirt. Those are $250 doors we can now sell for $99.”

It’s hard to say how much surplus or slightly damaged material ends up in landfills every year. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, construction waste accounts for nearly 40% of all solid waste in America, with an average of 8,000 pounds of waste created from the construction of one 2,000 square foot home, but that doesn’t account for waste not generated in the construction process itself. However, Delay’s efforts undoubtedly help to reduce the amount of perfectly good materials that would otherwise be wasted.

He hopes that if he weren’t there, manufacturers would find someone like him to take materials off their hands. His father Vernon was inspired to start the business in the 1980s after seeing how much waste occurred as a byproduct of the mobile home industry. “Back then, they never saved a bit,” says Delay. “Everything got thrown in the dumpster. He kind of started this company because of that.”

vj bargain barn
Manufacturers often end up with windows that have been returned because they were the wrong size or color, and Delay snaps them up for VJ’s Bargain Barn customers.

Although some of his clients may appreciate the green aspect, he believes most of them care more about price. “Most of them are flippers, landlords, or people that don’t have a lot of money to spend on stuff,” he says. “They’re more interested in, ‘Wow, that was a really good deal on that door.’ They tend to be price-oriented.”

At the same time, he’s looking to expand his inventory. “Every year I try to carry something different and more,” he says. “I started with one type of cabinet: oak. Now I’m carrying oak, cherry, knotty pine, and white. I carry more colors. I’m trying to grow the company in that way.”

Delay does some advertising, but most of his business comes through word of mouth. “I get 1,600 hits on my website every month,” he says. Like many in the contracting world, his business took a hit during the recession, but has since recovered. “We lost business, because we’re in the building industry, but a lot of my contractors are super busy right now,” he says. “Everybody is coming back.”

VJ’s Bargain Barn
6525 – 196th Avenue SW in Rochester
800-600-6903
Hours: 8:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. daily
www.vjsbargainbarn.com

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