{"id":42813,"date":"2011-08-05T08:02:56","date_gmt":"2011-08-05T12:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=42813"},"modified":"2011-08-18T12:13:47","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T16:13:47","slug":"theres-something-for-everyone-at-the-surplus-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/08\/theres-something-for-everyone-at-the-surplus-store\/","title":{"rendered":"There’s Something for Everyone at the Surplus Store"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Store<\/a>
Store keeper Jeanne Saunders prepares a sale for Emma Broadhurst (CLAS '13). (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After 10 years running UConn\u2019s Public Surplus Store, Wayne Landry has learned that everything has a price point, even toilet paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sold 60 cases of the stuff, at $5 a case,\u201d says Landry, manager of Central Stores and the Motor Pool. \u201cI think most of the people who bought it were going to use it as rags, in a garage or basement,\u201d he said of the huge, one foot in diameter, institutional TP. The offending item didn\u2019t meet UConn\u2019s standards and was returned to the vendor\u2014who didn\u2019t want it, leaving it in Landry\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

Enter the Public Surplus Store<\/a>. As Central Stores manager, one of Landry\u2019s jobs is running the store, which on Aug. 12 will celebrate its 10th anniversary. Rather than toss the 4,000-foot long rolls of toilet paper, Landry brought them to the store. They sold rapidly. So do the many computers and printers that help fill the store each month, and the dinnerware previously used by Dining Services.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur first option [with surplus materials] is to recirculate, give the item a new life in another department, rather than recycle or resell,\u201d says Landry. \u201cI\u2019d much rather get something from your department and move it to another department on campus. We don\u2019t make money, but we are saving the taxpayers money\u201d\u2014by moving tables, chairs, cabinets, lab equipment, and other items from one place to another, meaning the recipient doesn\u2019t spend money on new furniture.<\/p>\n

Truth be told, the Surplus Store does<\/em> make money\u2014$603,000 since it first opened\u2014but the money is plowed right back into Central Stores, allowing Landry and his crews to pick up or deliver surplus materials across campus for free. It also keeps tons of bulky waste out of the state\u2019s landfills.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Surplus Store sells surplus items generated by all University departments. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Take, for instance, the huge box of paper clips that once made its way to the store. Rather than polluting the earth for decades, Landry put a stack of bags next to the box, and offered them up for 25 cents a handful, no matter how big the hand. Or the roughly 70 vertebrate cabinets, about the size of a dresser but with 10-15 2-foot wide, 3-foot deep drawers that were surplused when the new Biology\/Physics Building opened. Only about 10 remain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really got the store moving through UConn 2000,\u201d Landry says. \u201cWhenever a new building would open, an old building would close, and we would go through the building before it was razed and recover anything we could. When the old pharmacy building closed, it was a gold mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

UConn faculty and staff can see what\u2019s available in surplus Monday through Thursday from 1 to 3 p.m. (on Mondays and Wednesdays in the old warehouse on Auditorium Road, and Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Depot Campus warehouse at 104 Walters Ave.). Unit-to-unit transfers are free. The Surplus Store is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the second Friday of every month. Only cash payments are accepted.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of our items sell for $5 to $200,\u201d says Landry, with a full computer system selling for between $75 and $250.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive years ago these machines were state-of-the-art,\u201d he says, discussing the computers, most of which are Dells. \u201cAnd they\u2019re great now, too, unless you\u2019re into some of the latest video games.\u201d All the machines\u2019 hard drives have been scrubbed clean, and freeware\u2014Ubuntu\u2014has been installed on them, giving buyers an operating system similar to Microsoft.<\/p>\n

The store has also been a boon to many Connecticut camps and non-profits, which often operate on a shoestring budget. A number of those groups, Landry says, scoop up the dozens of bunk beds, desks, chairs, and dressers available at the store for as little as $5 to $20 each.<\/p>\n

\u201cWord has really gotten out about the store,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery month when we open the doors, there\u2019s a line snaking across the loading dock and down the handicapped ramp. I do my best Wal-Mart greeter routine. I guess that\u2019s a good way for me to prepare for retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Old<\/a>
Old microscopes for sale at the Surplus Store. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
Computer circuits available for purchase at the Surplus Store. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
A pool table for sale at a reduced price. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Surplus<\/a>
Surplus items from Dining Services. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Tools<\/a>
Tools are among the surplus items. ( Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Surplus Store recirculates, recycles, and resells items that departments no longer want.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[37],"class_list":["post-42813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gallery","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 04:46:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42813"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43664,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42813\/revisions\/43664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42813"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=42813"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=42813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}