Renee Sevenski
Contributing Writer

(Photo provided – Brandy and Steve Haeck)

Black Friday shopping! It could be a reaction of scream and run, or you could be planning your very early morning plans to go. Back in November 2021, Brandy Haeck was asked to join her good friend to go to a Black Friday Bin Shopping experience. A bit different than the usual Black Friday sales. Here you go through bins that hold returned and clearance merchandise from major retailers that are sorted by categories, and you can dig through them to find your best deals on brand products. Brandy walked away not really finding any joy at this time with Bin Shopping. She had been asked again to be a pal and revisit bin shopping. Brandy decided to give it another shot for a small part of her found it intriguing. As her friend was bin shopping Brandy on a whim decided to purchase a pallet. This is where the 4 ft x 3 ft box is sealed so you cannot see what is in it nor can you touch it or shake it or kick it. You buy it without knowing what it holds. Brandy hauls this box back home and she opens it and starts going through it and to her surprise…..JUNK IT WAS! This mystery box was full of odds and ends of St. Patrick’s Day party favors, decorations and glasses and 100 tote lids, yes just the lids. What exactly does a person do with 100 tote lids? Brandy was out of a $150.00. Thankfully this experience still held an excitement for Brandy and soon she started to buy and sell some of her bin buys and was doing quite well.

About a month later Christmas of 2021, Steve, Brandy’s husband says “Hey, I really do not know what to get you for Christmas, how about a pallet?” Brandy loved this idea and they both went together after Brandy put some extensive research into how to purchase better quality pallets. They were both excited to get back to their garage and open their purchase. What a surprise when it contained “Adult Toys” with other items like miscellaneous auto parts, lighting pieces, and “Box 1 of 3” furniture boxes. May I mention that boxes 2 and 3 were not included. Most of us would stop here. Not Brandy and Steve, try and try again, and this they did until they succeeded. Before long they decided that it was going well, they had been growing a network of Facebook followers, friends and family members and really keeping on top of new arrivals. October of 2022 Valhalla Value opened their doors on Pearl Street with a brick-and-mortar business. Now with a store front Brandy and Steve started buying truck loads which usually consisted around 26 pallets at a time. With increasing Facebook groups, some Marketplace, and their very own website, offering a layaway plan, afterpay they had to have more space. Only 8 months later you could visually see Brandy and Steve pushing carts from across the street to Lovett and moving their store to a new location with more room to expand.

Valhalla Value is opened seven days a week with Brandy running operations in the store and you can find Steve behind the scenes buying and finding truckloads of pallets and helping with shipping and you can even find him assembling items. They take great pride in opening and checking items for all parts and if they are in working condition. They even go a step further that if it is something that they are not able to check out in the store they offer a seven day return for non-working items.

Brandy and Steve believe in giving back to their community and have done well establishing their business in our town with sponsoring the Eaton County Fair and Frontier Days Rodeo and even purchasing from the FFA auction and much more. Stop on in and help Brandy and Steve celebrate two years of serving the Charlotte community!
On Saturday, September 14, from 12 p.m. until 3 p.m. you can grab some special inside store deals and you can enjoy Pulled Pork and Mac & Cheese for a small donation while supplies last. The donations in return will go towards their tradition of adopting families in need at Christmas. Valhalla Value is located at 518 W. Lovett St. Charlotte, MI
“We’ve are dedicated to providing great deals and growing relationships with our valued customers. Thank you for being a part of our journey!” Brandy & Steve Haeck