Bintime — Local services in Mauldin

My husband and I go to Bintime every weekend. Lately, we (along with many, many other shoppers) have gotten very frustrated seeing so many things in their Deal Den section that used to be in the bins. They are picking out anything and everything of value and putting it in the separate section. There was a beat up box of baby food in the Deal Den for $6.00. Why not just leave it in the bin for $5? Every weekend we go, the Deal Den gets more and more full and the bins get worse and worse. Very disappointing and I overhear so many other shoppers saying the same thing. There are many other bin stores in the area that don't pull out the same exact items. We can still get the same thing for $5 or $6 and not marked way up like at Bintime. We're going to be visiting the other stores more now since it seems like they are becoming nothing more than a liquidation store. I can go to Big Lots if I want that experience.

Edit to respond to owner: I certainly can understand not selling large furniture and TVs for $5.00, but I'm referring to Lego sets and other small items that were in the bins last weekend, but are now in the deal den. Just last weekend I purchased a San Francisco Lego Architecture set from the bin. This weekend, there is a similar set (just different city) with a price of $40. I'm not the only customer who noticed this. These are the types of items I'm referring to. A lot of the items in the Deal Den were once the types of items in bins, but can't be found there any more. I have absolutely no problem, with the large items, but I'm talking about the items like the Legos...

This used to be a great place to go and find good deals. For the last year or so, most of the bin items are junk, pieces of something, etc. hardly worth waiting in line for. They also say you have to use a blue bag, one per customer, but then they allow some people to use large carts to crowd everyone trying to carry heavy items in a single blue bag. The people allowed to use carts load up anything of value while the rest of us following the “rules” with blue bags can only get three or four items and have to check out. By the time you get to your car and come back, the people with the carts have been allowed to wipe out everything and easily roll it to the checkout and to their car, 30 items + at a time. Sometimes, I can’t even get to the items because the carts are blocking the area and I watch them take everything that I wanted just one or two of. I once asked a cart person if she was buying all of something (that I couldn’t get to because of her huge cart) and she said, “oh, here, you can have one “ Very generous of her to allow me to take one while she took about 15 or 20. I was told by a customer cart that she “shops there all the time and spends so much money that they allow her to use it.” Well, so do I, but I’m still lugging the heavy blue bag to my car a few items at a time. It’s simply not fair to customers who have to follow...

While Bintime is practically the original "bin store experience", there's literally competition on every corner now. The past couple of years have hit every business hard & they're no exception!! The owners have gradually kept more more of the high ticket items from the bins & customers. They frequently & consistently remove ANY high dollar item before sending pallets to each store. Those items are then sold online & at auction to the highest bidder. While they pepper a hot item here and there & lure customers in with promises of super high quality and high dollar "wins", they're few and far between. Especially the past several months. If you're lucky to be one of the first through the doors at opening time, you might find a treasure. The Mauldin store has BROKEN ENTRANCE & EXIT DOORS that the owners ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to have repaired. The doors have been broken for YEARS (LITERALLY). Not sure how they consistently pass fire code & inspections. Any other business would face high fines & even closure. Someone getting a little kickback somewhere to look the other way. There's NO OTHER FEASIBLE EXPLANATION to them sliding by month after month after year after year. If you're gonna purchase ANY TYPE of food or drink item(s), WASH THE PACKAGING THOROUGHLY!!! Rodents are frequent "guests" in the...