‘It’s all about the deals’: Resale store Hotbins is a hit in Fort Myers
It’s 8:45 a.m. Friday, and already more than 50 people have lined up outside Fort Myers store Hotbins.
Is it Black Friday already?
Nope. But it sure feels like it.
Especially when Hotbins opens at 9 a.m. and the crowd blasts through the doors in a matter of seconds.
They quickly grab shopping carts and scramble to look through the store’s namesake: Dozens of red-and-white bins on wheels, piled high with boxed toys, electronics, small appliances, exercise equipment, tools, office supplies and more.
“It gets crazy,” admits shopper Dossy LaFleur, 65, of Lehigh Acres, who was one of the first people in line. “It’s insane. People go nuts, just pushing and shoving.”
But if you want the best stuff, LaFleur says, you have to get there early and brave the crowds.
“It’s the deals,” she says. “It’s all about the deals.”
And there are a LOT of deals to be found on this recent Friday: Holmes-brand ultrasonic humidifiers, bubble lawnmower toys, push-up training kits, GE LED light fixtures, Instant Solo coffee makers, cell phone cases, Orfeld cordless vacuum cleaners, five bins of shoes, Sharper Image deep tissue massagers and lots more.
All for just $12 each.
“Last time I was here, I found a $300 wedding ring,” says shopper Tina Markowitz of Naples. “You never know what you’re going to find.”
Still too expensive?
Just wait.
Prices drop every day until they hit rock bottom on Wednesdays ― $2 for almost everything in the store.
Hotbins resells Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot products
Most of the merchandise are returns and overstocks from Amazon, Walmart, Kohl's, Costco, Home Depot and other stores, says Hotbins store manager Carlos Quezada. Hotbins gets them from third-party vendors and brokers.
“Friday is our crazy day,” Quezada says. “We have resellers coming in, pretty much, at 4 o’clock in the morning. 4 or 5. We open at 9. …
“The line just depends on what kind of merchandise we’re getting. Every week, it changes.”
It can get a little nuts in there sometimes, Quezada agrees. When they first opened, Hotbins would post video showing the store's layout each week, and shoppers would run and even shove each other to get to the more expensive items. Now Hotbins only posts close-up photos of each item so people don’t know exactly where to go, he says, and they’re much better behaved.
There’s also the ongoing issue of theft ― something retail stores deal with every day ― including people swiping unguarded items from other people’s carts. That’s why Quezada uses a bullhorn to warn people waiting in line before the store opens.
“Please don’t steal, because we call the cops,” Quezada says on this recent Friday and smiles. “And before the cops come, it’s gonna be UGLY.”
TikTok, Instagram help drive crowds to Hotbins
Hotbins ― often spelled with all caps as HOTBINS ― opened in Fort Myers on Oct. 14, 2022 without much media fanfare. That's probably because it happened just two weeks after Hurricane Ian hit Southwest Florida, and all the newspapers and TV news channels were busy covering the storm's aftermath.
Still, people managed to find the place anyway, Quezada says. And now they line up every week looking for bargains.
“I’m amazed,” Quezada says. “Every day you get new people. Every day.”
A lot of that comes from Hotbins’ heavy social media presence. They post many of the items they have for sale each week on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. And sometimes people proudly post their Hotbins finds on social media, too.
“We do a sneak peak on social media” Quezada says. “So that way people can know, ‘Oh, man, this is what they’re gonna have this Friday. Let’s go check’em out.’”
What shoppers need to know about Hotbins
Here’s how Hotbins works: Every Friday, the store starts fresh with an all-new shipment of merchandise. Most of those products are $12 each ― although you’ll find some bigger-ticket items along the walls and elsewhere in the store, such as a $199 couch, $20 bedding sets or a $110, TCL brand smart TV.
The goal is to sell everything in just six days. So prices drop $2 every day after that until they reach rock bottom on Wednesdays: $2 for each item (and sometimes even $1). Although Wednesdays might take more patience for shoppers: By that time, much of what’s left are unmarked boxes with no clue about what’s inside.
Monday through Wednesday are what Hotbins calls its “sell the store” days. Whatever doesn’t sell by the end of the day Wednesday goes in the trash or gets given away, Quezada says.
Then the store’s 15 employees do it all over again: They close Thursday to re-stock and re-open Friday with all new stuff at $12 again.
“It’s like resetting a whole new store,” Quezada says. “Every week.”
A growing Florida resale chain: Six stores in two years
The Fort Myers Hotbins is part of a small-but-growing Florida chain that started in Lake Worth in June 2022. Since then, it’s opened five more stores in Hialeah, Fort Myers, Tampa, Tamarac and the newest one in Sarasota.
The Fort Myers store is the biggest one, Quezada says. It’s located next to Burlington in the 29,000-square-foot former home of Ada's Natural & Organic Food Supermarket in South Plaza.
Quezada admits Hotbins might not be for everybody. You have to dig through piles of boxes ― many of them unlabeled ― to find the best stuff.
And you can’t open the boxes yourself to look inside. You have to take them to an unboxing counter and let store employees do it for you.
“We get a lot of people where they come in and it’s like, ‘Man, this is too much,’” Quezada says. “But then you have the people that have the patience, and man, let me tell you: They spend the whole day here.
“I’m not kidding. They spend the whole day looking through those bins. They go one by one by one.”
Fridays and Wednesdays are the store’s busiest days, Quezada says, when they’ll get 100-300 people.
Searching for treasure at Hotbins: ‘You can’t beat that!’
Some people come looking for gifts. Some for things to re-sell at marked-up prices online. And some are just hoping to find something cool.
On this recent Friday, dubstep and BTS blares on the loudspeakers as people shop for bargains. Quezada makes announcements in English and Spanish.
Shopper Dossy LaFleur came looking for Christmas presents ― including a gag gift for her granddaughter: A bidet.
In less than an hour, her cart is piled with bargain finds: A Soft Owl candle-making set, solar string lights, a miniature washing machine, silverware, a Wavytalk curling iron and ― yes ― she even found that bidet.
When LaFleur gets to the register, everything rings up at just $76.68.
“You can’t beat that!” she says, grinning.
Other shoppers turn up some great buys, too.
Markowitz finds a Chikadiv-brand SCUBA-diving set for $12. She quickly looks it up on her phone to find it sells for $309 on Amazon. So she plans to re-sell it on online ― something she often does with things she buys at Hotbins and elsewhere.
“It’s really exciting!” Markowitz says. “Every little bit helps. And if I can re-sell, it’s something you could put towards a trip or something I want to do. It’s pretty awesome.”
Part of the fun is in the treasure hunting: Especially with those unmarked boxes that could contain just about anything. Not even the store employees know what’s inside every box, Quezada says. “There’s no way we can check thousands and thousands of merchandise in the back."
Sometimes it’s something great like a $300 wedding ring. And sometimes it’s an unmarked appliance part without any clue what it goes to. You just never know.
The discovery is part of the fun, says Crystal Thomas, 31, of Fort Myers.
On her recent visit to Hotbins, Thomas found a humidifier, an LED light, a big water bottle and a heated blanket ― all for just $51.
Not bad, considering she was just killing time before dropping her daughter off at school.
“You never know what to expect when you come here,” she says.
More about Hotbins
Hotbins is in South Plaza at 4650 S. Cleveland Ave., No. 12, in Fort Myers.
The store is open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday through Wednesday. It's closed Thursdays to restock.
No returns are allowed, although you can check and even try out each item at the unboxing counter.
The store also offers free raffles every Friday through Sunday for items that are out on the floor. They give away everything from headphones to game controllers, Quezada says.
To learn more about Hotbins, call 689-1163 or visit hotbins.com. You also can follow the store on TikTok (@HotbinsFM), Instagram (@hotbinsfm) or Facebook (facebook.com/HotbinsFM).
Connect with this reporter: Charles Runnells is an arts and entertainment reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. For news tips or other entertainment-related matters, call him at 239-335-0368 (for tickets to shows, call the venue) or email him at crunnells@gannett.com. You can also connect with him on Facebook (facebook.com/charles.runnells.7), X (formerly Twitter) (@charlesrunnells), Threads (@crunnells1) and Instagram (@crunnells1).
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Fort Myers’ new Hotbins sells Amazon, Walmart returns at $12 or less
