New in Avon, MA: BinStar Opens Fun & Sustainable Shopping Experience

A treasure-hunt style shopping adventure is taking root in New England to solve a massive environmental problem. With its first store now open on South Shore of Massachusetts, the new retail concept — BinStar — helps consumers find great deals and save the landfills at the same time. BinStar is located at 20 Stockwell Drive in Avon.

BinStar is on a mission to make retail landfill-free by turning high-quality merchandise returned to e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores into treasure for its customers.

The idea for the new concept came to 27-year-old Jamaica Plain resident Jack Laughlin while he was working on the returns problem at a large e-commerce company and couldn’t find a scalable buyer of the company’s returns and overstocks.

Upon further research, Laughlin learned that 9.6 billion pounds of new, returned goods end up in landfills every year — and he was determined to do something about it.

BinStar is Laughlin’s answer to that enormous sustainability problem, with an adventure in savings built in for customers.

“With the opening of BinStar, we are excited to bring a new mission-driven shopping experience to New England,” said Laughlin. “Our shoppers have the chance to ‘dig up’ incredible deals and contribute to solving a massive environmental problem at the same time. BinStar brings new meaning to everyday shopping, playing on the child-like fun of finding a treasure, which appeals to all ages.”

BinStar sells assorted returns and overstocks, all out of large bins. There is no traditional retail merchandising, no price tags, and no e-commerce.

Each day of the week, every item is sold at the same price — with the fixed price for all items changing daily. Each item costs $19 on Saturday, $15 on Sunday, $10 on Monday, $8 on Tuesday, $5 on Wednesday, $3 on Thursday and $2 on Friday. Fridays are even more fun with everything going down to $1 from 4pm to close.

Customers will see different things in the bins every time they shop, in a widely diverse range, from AirPods to Ziplocs, and everything in between.

Anything BinStar acquires for sale – including high-ticket items such as iPhones and espresso makers – goes in the bins and is for grabs for lucky shoppers. Unlike many other retail concepts, BinStar does not “cherry pick” any high-dollar items to sell online at a discounted price and does not markup any products for a separate sale.

The first BinStar location employs approximately 6-9 employees to start, and all full-time employees earn equity in the business.

BinStar’s store and distribution center is located at 20 Stockwell Drive in Avon, MA. Store hours are Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

About BinStar

BinStar is New England’s new treasure hunt-style shopping experience on a mission to make retail landfill-free. Bringing a whole lot of fun to everyday retail, BinStar invites shoppers to dig up great deals and help solve a major environmental problem — nearly 10 billion pounds of high-quality, returned goods being thrown away every year. Learn more at bin-star.com and follow @shopbinstar on Facebook and Instagram.