Saving a Buck-A-Roo

Chris Crawford and his uncle Terry Lee re-opened the bargain store at the corner of Telegraph and Passons boulevards a week ago. It had been closed since June, when the previous owners shut it down.

"Times being as hard as they are, everybody's looking for a way to save their money," Lee said.

Crawford said he is the original owner of the store which opened in 2002, and that he sold the business four years ago and continued to manage the store, which offers everything from eggs to televisions at deep discounts. Now, he and his uncle are back as owners and say they've gotten a good response from the community.

Lee said that on the day they re-opened, a crowd of about 50 people waited in line in the morning and cheered for cashiers when they unlocked the doors.

Cashier Lupe Avina, who worked at the store for more than two years before the close and returned after the reopening, said old customers are returning in droves.

"The first two days, it was like we saw everyone," Avina said.

According to Crawford, the 9,000-square-foot store isn't quite full yet -- inventory is still coming in for the store's grand opening celebration in early November. But the doors are open and shoppers are perusing goods including Nike shorts and sandals, Keebler cookies, Dell computer monitors and even a few television sets.

Crawford said they get their merchandise with big price cuts because of everything from overproduction to changes in packaging that make items less desirable to large retailers. What will be in stock is unpredictable, but items are usually discounted by 40 to 50 percent.

"It's a treasure hunt," Crawford said.