A new store opened this week on main street in Kamsack that is handling new liquidation-type products, garage and estate sale used items and antiques.
Penny’s Liquidation was opened in the former SaskPower building by Eugene and Joan Tataryn.
“I’m now building the inventory,” Eugene said last week as he unpacked boxes of items to display on the shelves in the building’s front room which measures about 2,400 square feet.
“I have an issue with retirement,” he said, explaining that he had retired a few years ago after a 30-year career as a chemical salesman. He said he had begun that career in Thunder Bay and was then transferred to Saskatchewan.
“Attending auction sales has been a passion of mine for years,” he said, adding that instead of sitting at home he has enjoyed attending garage sales, estate sales and auction sales from which he has acquired a good-sized inventory for the shop.
Added to that will be items he will be purchasing from a Calgary-based supplier who deals with products being liquidated from large retail chains that are overstocked with household items.
He said his son Sheldon and Sheldon’s wife Penny, after whom the business is named, were to be arriving in the province earlier this week with a shipment of goods from the supplier.
“I know that shipment will include about 35 new outdoor helmets for snowmobilers as well as vacuum cleaners and other items,” he said. “I’ll be filling my van with that stuff.”
Those items will be added to his collection of auction sale stock in order to equip the store in time for his opening, expected today (November 26), if not yesterday.
Eugene was born and raised in Swan Plain and Joan is originally from Biggar. They have three sons: Sheldon of Calgary; Dwayne of Thunder Bay, Ont., who has two children, and Brad of Field, B.C., who has two children with his wife, Holly.
“I’m keeping my eyes open for estate sales,” he said, explaining that if hired to liquidate an estate, he’d be able to use the building’s large basement to store and display all of the furniture and other larger items that would be included in such a sale.
He said people who are unable or unwilling to hold their own garage sales are also welcome to discuss their situation with him.
Located in a special room off the large, main showroom is Tataryn’s collection of antiques and he is eager to discuss each one, including the full can of Billy Beer, the product that the brother of former US President Jimmy Carter had attempted to sell; an empty can of Burns pure lard, and a like-new container of cough medicine which when first sold was priced at only several cents a bottle.
“We’ll be carrying just about anything, and will be selling things at a good price,” he said. “I don’t want to get rich, I just want to be able to pay the rent and make enough money to be able to attend another auction sale.
“I’m a picker,” he said, referring to several popular television shows about people who scrounge the countryside looking for items of value. “There are a lot of treasures out there.”
He said he does not attend sales in Kamsack because he would not like to re-sell items which he purchased locally, so he prefers to attend sales in other communities. He particularly enjoys the moving or estate sales because the owners are then most eager to sell.
“I hope this works,” he said of his venture into the retail business. “I’ve been getting a lot of positive comments about it.”
To begin with, the business will be operated by only Eugene and Joan, but he said he will be able to obtain the assistance of a few others with strong arms when needed.
The business will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays to Saturdays during the winter months, and then because in the summer months auction sales are often held on Saturdays, he’ll be changing the hours of being open from Tuesdays to Fridays.
