Toledo Tales

Left: Rotten Lots associates at grand opening

(Toledo, OH) Martin Pietrykowski admits that he has been a "three-time loser" as a businessman, but insists that his new "Rotten Lots" facility is an idea whose "time has arived."

"We take over after Big Lots and Odd Lots have done their thing, and we feature the finest in almost-wasted merchandise," he said, holding up a selection of rusted, labelless cans. "There's a lot of good merchandise to be found in the nation's commercial dumpsters."

One of the keys to his business model, said Pietrykowski, is the low organizational overhead.

"We've got an old warehouse, plus whatever chump change we throw to the 'dumpster-diving' crackheads who rustle up our inventory," he chuckled. "After scraping off the visible dirt and crud, we slap on a price tag and the rest is pure profit."


Left: Samples of what Pietrykowski calls "recovered retail value"

Pietrykomski believes that Rotten Lots fills a growing retail niche.

"Let's face it - with American jobs going overseas, we have an entire underclass of chronic unemployed people who can't even afford WalMart or the Dollar Store anymore," he said. "We are catering to the new untouchables, and we are way ahead of the retail industry on this one."