Nanuet New and Used: The Indoor Garage Sale

This May, Scott Sanguinetti, along with partners Steve Slamka and Tom Chindemi opened Nanuet New and Used, a store that specializes in selling second-hand goods, both used and unused. 

Yet while his business may be only a few months old, Sanguinetti has been buying and selling merchandise for as long as he can remember.

“My son and I are auction people, always going around buying and reselling,” said Sanguinetti. “I’ve pretty much been doing that my whole life.”

For years, as a part time job, Sanguinetti has been selling liquidated bath and hot tubs out of a storage unit. When a customer buys a tub, and then returns it, it doesn’t go back onto the shelves of a Home-Depot type store. Rather, the tub goes into a liquidation warehouse. Sanguinetti has found a way to buy these tubs, worth five, six or ten thousand dollars, and for several hundred.

While the tub business was going well for Sanguinetti, he felt like he could be doing more. He wanted to sell other goods, but knew that would be impossible to do out of a storage unit.

“I always wanted to get a store, but I could never afford it. I can sell tubs out of a storage unit, but not purses, and other things like that,” Sanguinetti said.

Sanguinetti went around the county for weeks looking for a storefront when he happened upon a building in Nanuet he recognized. The building used to be home to The OM, a head shop that had been around since the 1970s.

“Everybody who grew up in Rockland knows about this place. Its where they bought their incense, tie die clothes, Grateful Dead memorabilia, black light posters, all that,” Sanguinetti said. “This place has a reputation.”

The three business partners were able to purchase the whole building, which of late was being used as a daycare, from the landlord at an affordable price, and in the spring Nanuet New and Used officially opened at 261 S Middletown Road.

Nanuet New and Used holds just about everything you can imagine, from roller blades, to leather jackets, riding boots, a fireman’s uniform, a defibrillator, couches, samurai swords, jewelry, dirt bikes, tools, toys and a whole lot more.

The majority of these items come to the store through friends and family, or are simply things that people leave outside their homes.

Yet, for Sangueitti, there’s a lot more to the store than just buying junk items that take up space.

“Anybody could fill the shelves, but you got to have the stuff that people want to buy. And we’re still learning. We’re selling; getting good reviews, people liking what they see. Its not that easy, but I don’t think anybody else does this,” Sanguinetti said.

In the future, Sanguinetti is considering renting out a room to a man looking to sell vinyl records, and another room to a tattoo artist.

“You need to be versatile to make it,” Sanguinetti said. “We want people to come in and say wow. You gotta wow ‘em. If they’re overwhelmed, they’ll tell people.”

Since its opening, the store has seen a decent amount of customers, and Sanguinetti is hoping for more.

Today, the only advertising of Nanuet New and Used is a post on Craigslist that lists the store as an air-conditioned garage sale, but Sanguinetti plans to get newspaper ads and commercials in the near future.

“Its known for being an old head shop and we’re just trying to bring it back to life,” Sanguinetti said.