'Like Christmas': New bargain store opening in Eastland Shopping Center offers unique twist

A new discount store opening in the Eastland Shopping Center is bringing a unique twist to selling excess inventory and liquidation items from big retailers.

Bartlesville’s newest overstock store, $5 Gold Diggers, is holding its grand opening at 10 a.m. on Saturday. In a similar model to Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, which opened in August 2020, the store buys pallets of returned items, excess inventory and other items from large retailers, like Amazon and Target, selling them at a reduced price.

Unlike Ollie’s, $5 Gold Diggers has a singular focus — completely emptying the store every week, even if it means layering discounts and haggling with customers.

“We’re in business to every week sell out of our inventory and restock it. Every week we want people to come in and see something different,” co-owner David Harger said.

“All my staff is trained to get rid of whatever is in front of them by whatever means. If we have to negotiate a little bit or discount it, the bottom line is we want people to get great deals and come back.”

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Each week, the store will be closed Wednesday through Friday to unpack the newest shipment of items. The store orders pallets from a variety of retailers and does not know what they will receive beforehand.

The main part of the store features racks of clothes and large white bins piled high with a vast range of items, including home decor, diapers, shampoo and high-end makeup. Items in these bins are all priced at $5 on Saturdays, but are reduced to $3 on Sunday, $2 on Monday and $1 on Tuesday. 

A separate, smaller room — The Vault — will have “premium” and bulky items. As the staff unloads pallets of Target boxes ahead of the grand opening, The Vault is lined with furniture, lamps, carpets and items like car seats and pot and pan sets. This is also where the store will stock technology, like tablets and phones, Harger said.

Items in The Vault will not be priced as low as bin items, but will start with reduced prices that will fall throughout the week.

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'The goal is by Tuesday, the store is completely empty'

As the week goes on, staff will randomly announce further price reductions on some items and items that remain in The Vault will be further reduced and moved to the main floor.

“It’s like Christmas … because we don’t know what they’re sending us,” Harger said.

“The goal is that by Tuesday, the store is completely empty. We don’t want anything in the store.”

To prevent chaos in the store on Saturdays — the first day after new stock has been shelved — $5 Gold Diggers has a system for organizing the line of patrons. At a random time in the morning prior to the store’s 10 a.m. opening, a staff member will arrive to hand out tickets to the first 60 people in line, Harger said.

The tickets will secure patrons’ place in line, allowing them to leave without losing their spot. More than 60 people will be allowed in when the store opens at 10 a.m., but the ticket system determines the order of the first 60 patrons.

The tickets will also be used to determine the order patrons can enter The Vault, which opens at 10:30 a.m.

Harger said the ticket system will only be used on Saturdays. It is also used at the store’s Tulsa location, where people routinely begin to line up at 2 or 3 a.m. Saturday mornings, with the store opening to as many as 150 people in line.

Bartlesville was selected for the new location due to connections several owners had in the community and the lack of some larger retailers, like Target. After a few months, the owners are hoping to move from the store’s current location into the former Bob Loftis Furniture building for more space, Harger said.

In the meantime, the grand opening is expected to be busy, based on the response on Facebook, he said.

“In Tulsa, there are a couple of stores like this already … We think it’s a good market, we think people will enjoy it,” Harger said.