The COVID-19 crisis, which prompted a wave of retail bankruptcies and nationwide shutdowns, swallowed a whole season’s worth of unsold goods, Bloomberg News reported. That has opened the door for Hilco and Gordon to run sales -- not for the retailers that usually hire them, but under their own nameplates. Shopper’s Find, as the stores are called, are sourcing directly from manufacturers or wholesalers stuck with piles of last season’s fashion and other extra goods. “As more and more stores are closing, there are fewer outlets for inventory,” said Ian Fredericks, the head of Hilco Global’s retail group. When Hilco and Gordon Brothers run their mainstay liquidations, they step in to manage and oversee stores’ operations. That involves not just tasks like displaying merchandise and running the cash register, but adding inventory from vendors to round out what’s available -- bringing in socks, for example, if you are selling shoes, Fredericks said in an interview. Those contacts have proved useful for both sides now that manufacturers need to offload mountains of stuff and the liquidators have found no shortage of cheap rents for spaces to run a new type of cut-rate sale.
