Mississippi State’s physical plant began its spring cleaning early this year, and with good intentions. Officials have created a weekly surplus store for unused items as an alternative to throwing them away.
“We’ve got a lot of surplus property that we’d hate to just throw away,” said Peter Rook, assistant director of general services for the physical plant.
“We have a lot of items that we need to dispose of, and it just seems like it would be better to recycle materials this way instead of just throwing them away,” he said.
The physical plant’s recycling committee created the surplus store concept because the group wanted to make use of the materials, Rook said.
“We’re trying to clean out the surplus items at the top of the building, so each week we go upstairs, clean out a little bit and bring down items to add to what we already have in the store,” said Kathy Collins, executive secretary for the physical plant and surplus store cashier.
“We’ll have different things in the store each week,” Rook said. “There’s a wide variety of items and they’re bargains.”
Items for sale include carpeting, wallpaper, office chairs and desks, filing cabinets, fencing materials and antique items.
Rook said sales from the store help the physical plant’s recycling program and put some funds into recycling items that don’t pave their own way financially.
All items are offered for cash only and have no warranty or guarantee. After customers have purchased their items, they are responsible for immediately loading and removing them from the premises.
The surplus store will be open every Wednesday from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. until further notice.
“We’ll have the store open each Wednesday until we run out of materials to sell or there’s just not enough interest to continue,” Rook said.
Anyone can shop at the store, as long as they don’t mind waiting in line. Customers can assemble at the Cooley Building conference room early as 6:45 a.m. each Wednesday, according to the surplus store Web site. From there, they will be given a numbered ticket, and a matching ticket will be placed in a jar. A surplus store representative will draw tickets from the jar at 7 a.m., and customers with the matching tickets will be allowed access to the store.
“So far everyone who has come has gotten into the store,” Rook said.
Customers will be accompanied by a representative throughout the store until their purchased items are loaded. Each item will have a price tag including a description of the item. After selecting an item for purchase, the representative will remove the ticket from the item and the customer must sign and print their name and include their address on the ticket.
Each customer is limited to two items per entry to the store, but he or she may secure another ticket to enter the store on the same day. The public will be allowed to enter the store only during store hours, and no previewing of items will be allowed.