BuyWander Inc., an e-commerce retail returns marketplace, has opened a fourth warehouse store, this time in West Valley City, Utah, in the greater metropolitan area of Salt Lake City.

“West Valley City is kind of like Spokane Valley,” says co-founder and CEO Jordan Allen. “We’re close to the airport and we’re close to downtown.”

BuyWander launched its first location in Spokane Valley in February 2024. Since then, the company has outgrown three spaces before settling into a 36,000-square-foot building at 12606 E. Sprague, in Spokane Valley.

BuyWander also has opened stores in Portland, Oregon, and Kent, Washington.

The company operates as an e-commerce platform, hosting online auctions seven days a week. The Spokane location lists over 3,000 items daily, Allen says. Unlike many traditional retailers, the company uses a no-reserve auction model with curbside pickup, offering discounted prices on returned and overstocked products. 

“This isn’t a super fancy, bougie, 1% thing,” he says. “It’s for the 99% hard-working Americans that are trying to save and get ahead. We’re helping people get their kids into dorm rooms. We’re helping the people who live paycheck to paycheck.”

The company’s newest warehouse is a 47,000-square-foot building, located at 2589 S. 2570 W, West Valley City, Utah. BuyWander has hired 25 staff members for the new site, and plans to increase the number of employees to 35 in the coming months, Allen says. 

The new facility is a significant step in BuyWander’s expansion strategy, as the company’s fourth and largest warehouse, explains Allen.

“Every time we open a store, we get a little faster and a little better,” he says. “What took us 18 months to figure out in Spokane, we nailed in three months in Portland, and now we’re down to a month. We’re getting better each time we open up a store.” 

The company has grown to about 120 employees across all of its operations, he says.

BuyWander projects $70 million in annual revenue by August 2026. Allen says the company's long-term goal is national expansion. 

“We’re hoping to open up 200-300 stores across the U.S. over the next five years,” he says.

BuyWander is eyeing a fifth location, potentially in Northern California, in January 2026.

“There’s just so much supply that goes from California to Las Vegas to Phoenix … and all the way to the East Coast,” Allen says. “And there’s not a lot of competition doing what we do. It’s sad to see all this stuff get shipped around everywhere. (We say) just leave it there. It’s good for the environment. It’s good for the retailers, the customers. It’s a win-win for everybody.”

According to the National Retail Federation, $890 billion worth of merchandise was returned by consumers in the U.S. in 2024, up from $743 billion the previous year. 

“You wouldn’t believe the amount of stuff we get from Amazon, Costco, Target, Walmart, and Home Depot,” he says. “All these major retailers are just not built to sell anything other than factory-sealed items. It’s a very black-and-white decision for them.” 

BuyWander initially experimented with bin stores but has since moved away from that model.

“We had the 17th-best bin store in the region,” Allen joked, citing logistical headaches, safety concerns, and space limitations as reasons for the change. “People were climbing into bins, walking around, and smashing things. We really like the idea of everything online.” 

As previously reported by the Journal, Allen’s earlier ventures include the now-defunct vacation rental company Stay Alfred Inc. and Doorsey Inc., an online residential real estate bidding platform that was acquired in 2023 by Dallas-based Auction.io. That acquisition, he says, helped spark the idea for BuyWander.

“I was still on the board of a company that acquired us … and the new CEO said, ‘Hey, you should look at this retail return space. It’s kind of growing and it’s kind of weird,’” Allen recalls. “I said, ‘That sounds like the absolute worst thing ever, … broken hair dryers, used combs.'" 

However, Allen decided to embark on a six-month road tour to research the business concept.

“There were 100 semi-trucks backing up,” he says. “It was like a yard sale in the back of a truck. … Brand new this, gently used that. It was the intersection of the weird and the wonderful.”