I get asked this question all the time – so I thought it’d be a good idea to go ahead and get this out of the way, especially for some of our newer guests. Many people, especially people who have never shopped at Tomlinson’s before are intimidated by the sign on the front door that says “WHOLESALE ONLY” and then some note to the effect of “You must bill through a licensed business…” So, can anyone shop at Tomlinson’s?
Yes.
When you go to the checkout, you’ll be asked “Who do you bill through” or “How do you bill”. All that we need is the name of a company. It can be your own company or someone else’s. It can be someone you work for now, or someone you’ve worked for in the past or a company that someone in your family works for…it can be pretty much anything.
The reasoning behind this is two-fold. First, many years ago we actually didn’t sell to the end consumer. The original purpose of the Florence store was actually to distribute products to our other locations. Slowly we changed that to allow other mom and pop stores around Florence buy their stock from us at wholesale prices. And finally, we started allowing normal customers (like you and me) buy from our Florence store. We always had to ask “Who do you bill through” and it’s something that we still do.
Another reason that we still ask is that many of the manufactures that we buy from will not less us discount their products unless we are a “wholesale” store. By asking you who you bill through we can get around some of these rules and still discount the products that we sell.
Basically, it’s just something that we have always done and still ask to this day. We don’t report anything that you buy to anyone and we rarely even look at it after your purchase is done. So please do come in and shop with us – we don’t bite so there’s no need to be scared away. We’ve got really great prices and some unique products – you’ll be glad you stopped in.
Store Hours and Location:
Tomlinson’s in Florence is located on Palmetto Street right down the road from McLeod Hospital. The street address is 1309 East Palmetto, and we’re in the brick building right before you get to the fork in the road where Cheves street comes together with Palmetto (you can also get to the back of our parking lot from Cheves street). There’s a sign on the front and both sides of the building – but not one on the road. So if you drive by just turn around and head back.
During most of the year we are open on Monday through Friday from 9AM until 6PM. Every Saturday in November through Christmas we open up on Saturday’s from 9AM until 1PM too.
What do we sell:
We have Men’s and Women’s clothing, Jewelry, Domestics (bedding, bath, window treatments, etc…), Housewares, Gifts, Small Appliances, and toys. We have very low wholesale prices – on the price tag you will see two prices listed. The higher price is the suggested retail price and the lower price is the “wholesale” price that you will pay when you get to the register.
If you’ve got any other questions you want to ask just leave a comment on the blog, or send an email to andrew@tomlinsonsales.com and I’ll respond as quickly as possible. See you soon!
One More Thing…
I figure I should mention it since it is Thanksgiving week – we are not open early for Black Friday. We’ll be open from 9AM until 6PM, so if you’d like to get out early and do some shopping at the mall, we’ll be there when you get done. We don’t have sales or gimmick promotions like “Buy One Get One Free” because we don’t need to. We price ALL of our merchandise at very low prices every day. Our motto is: “Tomlinson’s: Where you don’t have to wait for a sale to save.”
