News photos by Reagan Voetberg Cole Veeren explain the ideas behind purchasing the palette and talk about the palette on display.
Alpena – Earlier this year, Cole Veeren started a business venture with her family.
Veeren buys a pallet of trucks. Pallets usually consist of overstocked or returned items from retail chains such as Amazon, Target, and Dollar General. Each pallet is about 5-6 feet tall and about 3 feet long, but the size may vary depending on where the pallet comes from.
Veeren organizes pallets in warehouses and resells them to customers.
Veeren’s business is known as Mitten liquidation. He runs it from Hillman’s warehouse with the help of his mother, Alex Velen and her boyfriend, Archie Hill.
Alex and Archie do a lot of movement, sorting, regular retail tasks, while Veeren works more on the edge of management, sorting out truck loads and managing finances.
News photos by Reagan Voetberg Veeren sell pallets full of toys. These types of pallets often come from targets.
Velen’s wife, Chelsea, also frequently visits the warehouse with her and Velen’s two young sons, Rome and Atlas.
Wehlen was born in the United States, but grew up in the Netherlands until his Dutch father came from the Netherlands until he was about ten years old.
Veeren’s interest in palette liquidation began on YouTube, he said. He watched a video of people selling pallets and selling them, and from there he went down the rabbit hole.
“I thought it was pretty cool so we did it with our family several times,” Velen said.
They buy pallets from trucks.
News photo by Reagan Voetberg Veeren’s son Roman and Atlas. It’s like exploring a warehouse when you visit.
“Sometimes I buy trucks that are just Amazon products, such as Amazon Returns or Overstock Items,” Veeren says.
At the time, Archie and Alex were dropping down trucks full of pallets with tools.
“This is primarily Amazon, either revival or no industry,” Veeren said of the truck. “Only the tools that mailed the sender that he was unable to actually get or pick up the package was sent back.”
“But every truck load is different and you receive truck loads from almost anywhere on Walmart, Target or Amazon,” Velen said.
Buying a pallet is always a bit of a gamble, Velen said. You’re not sure what you’re getting, especially if the item is a return. Some pallets are wrapped in clear plastic, allowing customers to see the packaging. Additionally, items are packed in cardboard boxes without indicating the contents.
News photos by Reagan Voetberg Veeren separate several palettes into individual items and priced. Items retail prices are 40-50%.
“The (box) is called a kitchen towel, but it’s not a kitchen towel, it’s something else,” Veeren says.
One person found a brand new iPhone on Amazon Mystery Box. Tool palettes often come with high quality brands like Milwaukee.
Wehlen walked through the warehouse and pointed out a palette from General Dollar, where stock was overstocked.
He said many people prefer the common pallets because many people often get cosmetics, health products or medications at a lower price than retail prices.
In a way, mitten liquidation is like a business that can help other businesses. Many customers who buy Pallets make a profit by reselling items at retail prices in the Facebook market and elsewhere.
Reagan Voetberg News photos by Amazon Mystery Box are popular with customers. Some people have a “mystery box party” where they come together. Shown are examples of what someone can find in the mystery box.
“We have a local woman here. We have a shopping and sales group in Hillman, and the locals in Hillman shop and sell each other, so they turn that into a living,” Wehlen said.
“It’s actually quite profitable. In reality, you’re making more money than buying, destroying, selling pallets and selling pallets from trucks,” Veeren continued.
The pallet is stacked with boxes reaching average adult heights, some touching the ceiling. Some of the pallets in stock were priced at $525, $850 and $559.
Chelsea came to the warehouse with her and Velen’s children, Rome, Atlas.
“They’re the most enjoyable here,” Velen said with a laugh. “It’s new to them every time. They have a lot of fun.”
News photos by Reagan Voetberg Cole Veeren take the box out of a truck that arrives in the morning.
Wehlen hopes that when her children get older they can pass on business.
“That’s the goal,” he said. “We’re trying to build something, so as they get older, they can come to fold and they can start working with it… They have something that’s productive and they don’t get distracted by something that shouldn’t be distracted.”
Before beginning the settlement of Mitten, Veeren was a software developer and also worked in other jobs.
“From climbing a cell phone tower to all sorts of weird things, I did it all,” Wehlen said.
When asked if the business gave him time to spend with his family, he said yes and no.
“As long as you have to do all this, you need a little effort,” he said. “It takes time, effort and energy to actually build this all and do it all, but we do it together as a family so I don’t do it any other way.”
“I worked a lot of 9-5 in my life,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine doing it now. I enjoy spending time with my family and running a family gives us the freedom to really do it all together.”
In the back room of the warehouse, several pallet items are separated, allowing people to purchase the items individually. He holds the price at 40% to 50% of the retail value of the item. Veeren also has donation bins that allow people to place items from pallets they don’t want, and can also be handed out for free.
If the items have not sold for a few weeks, they will send them to places like goodwill.
“We donate what we can,” Veeren said.
He’s trying to solve something in the food bank so when he brings the truck with a palette of food or drinks, he can donate it to them.
Pallets can help you buy items that are low prices and cannot be done otherwise.
“Everything’s been expensive these days,” Veeren said. “Buying a new one is not an option for many people.”
“The overall goal of this is to support the community as much as possible,” he said.
News photos by Alex Veeren’s boyfriend Reagan Vaultberg Archie Hill sort the palettes that emerge from the track.
Reagan Vaultberg news photo Amazon Mystery Boxes palette. Veeren sells each box for $45 or the entire pallet for $850.
News photo by Reagan Vaultberg Alex Velen, Cole Welen’s mom on the truck.
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