Unclaimed Baggage Center - Suitcase Shopping

SHOPPING TREASURES AMONG LOST LUGGAGE By Patrick Crowley The last time you flew on a business trip did you, or the airline, lose a Nicole Miller leather jacket? Or how about a snazzy gold pair of Kenneth Cole boots? Or maybe even a Francesco Biasia purse, a WCM leather belt or a double strand cultured pearl necklace appraised at $13,650? Those wayward items of lost luggage have found a home on the sales floor of a one-of-a-kind store, a sort of misplaced baggage heaven where clothes, jewelry, shoes, jackets, cameras, golf clubs and more go to find new lives with new owners. Tucked in the northern Alabama foothills of the Appalachian Mountains is a placed called The Unclaimed Baggage Center. Part salvage operation and part department store, this retailer mines products from luggage lost by airlines or left behind in airports by passengers. Located in Scottsboro, Ala., the 32-year-old company handles about 1 million items a year, with 6,000 new pieces of merchandise – from jewels to clothes to Egyptian artifacts – hitting the store’s floor each day. Shop now.