Buying Walgreens Returns: What You Need to Know

Walgreens is one of the largest pharmacy chains in the U.S. and has been around since 1901. It’s often the first stop many will go to for health and wellness products like cold medicines, personal care products, cosmetics, and more. In fact, in Q4 of 2021 alone, sales increased to $34.3 billion. With so many essential products all in one place, and over 9,000 operating stores across all 50 states, there’s plenty of Walgreens liquidation inventory to be found!

Walgreens Liquidation Auctions is the official B2B liquidation marketplace for Walgreens. Buyers can find a good variety of inventory in auction lots. Many contain items for different genders, ages, and consumer needs. Basically, it has a little bit to offer everyone.

In this article, we go over the Walgreens marketplace from top to bottom:

• Overview of the Walgreens marketplace
• The value of Walgreens liquidation
• How to buy Walgreens returns
• Reselling Walgreens returns

Walgreens Liquidation Auctions: An Overview

The Walgreens marketplace offers bulk quantities of liquidation health and beauty inventory like cosmetics and personal care items, plus additional sundries and home goods. Walgreens liquidation inventory will come in various conditions. You can expect merchandise listed on the site in the following conditions; customer returns, overstock, and salvage.

So, what kind of Walgreens inventory ends up liquidated?

This marketplace is open to international buyers, too! So whether you’re in the US, Canada, or elsewhere, you can bid on Walgreens auctions and win inventory at prices far below MSRP! Resellers then go on to introduce inventory into the secondary market, all while offering their customers a good deal and profiting along the way.

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What makes Walgreens liquidation pallets so valuable?

Much of it is brand new inventory

Liquidation health and beauty merchandise is primarily brand new inventory! You’ll find some customer-returned inventory mixed in, but a majority is brand new, overstock, original packaging, and retail-ready merchandise. This is due to shelf pulls — goods currently on shelves are replaced with more in-demand inventory or items are approaching their ‘sell by’ dates — and over-purchasing. Discontinued items — new formula, new packaging, poor sales performance, etc.— are another reason goods end up in the secondary market.

Variety of essential items

Many consider soap, deodorant, shampoo, etc. to be necessary items. These products are always in demand and the inventory moves fast. Additionally, businesses are still in need of personal protective equipment (PPE) like gloves, facemasks, face shields, etc. Luckily, you can acquire this inventory in bulk through Walgreens! More than 50% of auctions sold on the Walgreens Liquidation Auctions marketplace in 2021 featured sanitizer and/or PPE products.

Consumer trends and seasonal changes

Consumer trends play a role in what you can find in health & beauty liquidation pallets. Eye makeup trends or popular nail polish colors, what’s hot (or not) at the moment impacts what stays and what goes. Also, seasonality plays a big part when it comes to shelf real estate. From new colors for spring to the end of cold and flu season! You can often find liquidated merchandise from a store’s primary shelves on the secondary market in just a few months’ time.

What to know when purchasing Walgreens liquidation pallets:

How items are sold

Walgreens overstock and returns are sold by the truckload and less than truckload (LTL) on Walgreens Liquidation Auctions. Buyers can browse auctions that interest them and place bids based on the retail value of the goods. The most important auction details will be listed in the auction title, for example, “Truckload of Hand Soap, Disposable Gloves & Antibacterial Wipes, 21,448 Units, Like New Condition, Ext. Retail $100,040, Dayville, CT” tells you the shipment type, inventory type, quantity, condition, estimated retail, and where it’s coming from.

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Use filters to help narrow your search

Filters allow you to sort through auctions that meet your criteria. You can search by Condition, US States, Cosmetic Condition, Shipment Type, and Inventory Type. We’ll break down the importance of a few of these filters below.

Listing location

Shipment type and location can be used to determine the best auction for you. The amount of miles your lot has to travel to get to you directly impact the cost of shipping. You can find Walgreens auctions listed out of the following state(s):

• Connecticut
• California
• Georgia
• Illinois
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• Puerto Rico
• South Carolina
• Texas
• Wisconsin

Please note: US & International buyers are allowed to bid and buy on the marketplace. If you’re an international buyer (excluding Canada) you must provide some form of official documentation that shows the purchase is for export.

Shipment type

Lot sizes on the Walgreens Liquidation Auctions marketplace include truckloads and LTLs (less than truckloads). The standard pallet size is 48” x 40”. A truckload has 24 pallets and an LTL can be anywhere from one to 10 or 12. It’s always best to start small and then work your way up. If you’re looking for smaller lot sizes, check out B-Stock Supply health & beauty auctions.

Product & packaging conditions

The Walgreens marketplace follows the same uniform product and packaging conditions as most B-Stock marketplaces. This gives interested buyers peace of mind when bidding and securing inventory on B-Stock’s liquidation marketplaces.

Also important to note are packaging conditions.

Run the numbers

With the help of the manifest, interested buyers can sort directly on the manifest page to see the most valuable items. Before you start bidding, you should take into account the number of units, MSRP, and shipping costs. Fees for liftgates and residential addresses may also apply. Once you have a good formula down for how much you’re willing to bid, you’re all set!

What to know when selling Walgreens returns:

Don’t sit on inventory

Health and beauty shoppers are mindful of ‘sell-by’ dates, therefore, you will want to move inventory in and out as efficiently as possible. This means you should start off with smaller lots in the health and beauty category in order to lower your risk of over-purchasing until you learn how fast you can move the inventory (particularly items with expiration dates).

Mind any restrictions

Some online marketplaces, particularly Amazon, restrict third-party resellers of certain health and beauty brands. This is in an effort to reduce the number of counterfeit products on the site and to protect brands that are sold exclusively via another store. Alternatively, you may consider selling in person if you’re a flea market vendor or have your own bodega or discount store. That way, you can bypass selling restrictions that might apply to your liquidation inventory.

Brand names sell

If you have inventory with brand names like Revlon, Maybelline, Dove, and CoverGirl, among others, you’re likely to catch the eyes of your customers. These are trusted names in the primary health and beauty market, and equally so on the secondary market. If you’re reselling online (and are following marketplace guidelines), you should highlight these brand names in your product title and description. This makes your listings more likely to come up in search results as consumers type in the names of recognizable products they’re after.

Start buying Walgreens liquidation today

Walgreens Liquidation Auctions is a reliable source of health and beauty, cosmetics, personal care items, home goods, seasonal merchandise, and PPE. Pallets of Walgreens liquidation inventory are available to registered business buyers like you—this gives you direct access to popular household name products. Simply apply to the Walgreens marketplace and start your bidding!