MN Home Outlet liquidator adds two Twin Cities locations

MN Home Outlet, a home improvement liquidation store, has two more locations in the Twin Cities.

Jimmy Vosika, who in 2014 opened the original MN Home Outlet in Burnsville, opened a new store in Woodbury in December and one in Coon Rapids last week.

"We never set out to be in retail," said Vosika, who also owns ShopJimmy.com, an e-commerce site that sells TV parts. "But the Burnsville store has been an experiment that worked out well."

The two new home improvement outlets in Woodbury and Coon Rapids are seeing twice the traffic and sales that were projected, Vosika said.

The Woodbury store is about the same size as Burnsville at 57,000 square feet. Coon Rapids is 32,000 square feet.

The stores sell tools, lighting, large and small appliances, flooring, plumbing, vanities, TVs and other items returned to hardware stores, discounters, warehouse clubs and e-commerce sites.

Items at the liquidation centers generally sell for 50 percent off full retail prices.

Mike Entsminger of Anoka shopped at the Coon Rapids store Tuesday. "It's more organized than the Burnsville store," he said. "It's like shopping at a garage sale."

Vosika is aware of the issues in Burnsville, so that store is being reorganized and remodeled.

Selection at the stores is hit and miss, since it's based on customers' returns, but the three stores typically get five to eight truckloads per day.

Both new locations can be somewhat difficult to find because signage is not expected to be completed until the weekend. The Woodbury store is a former Gander Mountain.

The Coon Rapids store is a former Circuit City that sat vacant for almost 10 years.

Room & Board is expanding into Texas. The Golden Valley-based furniture retailer will open a showroom in Dallas in the spring.

The company said that more than 6,000 of its customers live in the Dallas area. "It was time to put down roots in the Big D," the company said in a statement on its website.

The 12,000-square-foot store will include an outdoor terrace. The location previously housed a Design Within Reach store, which has since moved to a different location in Dallas. Coincidentally, DWR recently opened a new store in Edina, which is across the street from the Room & Board store.

Room & Board has 16 locations in 10 states, including California, Colorado, Illinois and Massachusetts. In Minnesota, Room & Board also has an outlet store in Golden Valley that is open on weekends only.

Ninety percent of Room & Board's products are made in the U.S. from domestic and imported materials. Many of its manufacturers are small companies. It was founded in 1980 by John Gabbert from the Gabberts furniture family. Gabberts had a store in Dallas that closed in 2006.