Airline Passengers’ Flotsam for Sale in Alabama

Have you ever wondered if such a thing as a suitcase junkyard exists, where all the lost and misdirected airline baggage goes?

One place it lands is Scottsboro, Ala., 140 miles northwest of Atlanta. In a store appropriately called the Unclaimed Baggage Center, you can find wayward old and new suitcases. And their contents.

You might find a wedding gown, designer sweater, new skies or, believe it or not, a casket.

My husband and I have shopped at Unclaimed for many years, and bought items ranging from a new black, slinky formal ($25) to a pine and canvas patio loveseat ($49).

We’ve also bought enough silverware to furnish a child-care center’s kitchen. And it’s hard to pass up a Christian Dior cravat for $6 or a Ralph Lauren sweater for $10.

Each year in November, Unclaimed holds a ski sale that usually attracts about 2,000 people, some from as far away as Oregon. Skis that normally go for $400 or $500 sell for $100 a pair.

Everybody Plays

Displays of paperback novels written in German, plus cassette tapes marked in Japanese, demonstrate that airline losers come in all nationalities.

How does Unclaimed acquire the merchandise that airlines lose?

The system works like this: After three months, the airlines usually reimburse passengers for luggage that can’t be traced and delivered. The remaining bags, boxes, etc., are consolidated by the airlines in their own collection depots.

Unclaimed Baggage representatives would not give details about their contracts for disposal of lost luggage, but one newspaper reported that “the merchandise from one major airline could total 5,000 to 10,000 pieces a year.”

Unclaimed buys the merchandise unopened and contents unseen. Materials are then sorted, cleaned and pressed, if needed. Due to the volume of business, Unclaimed has its own laundry and dry cleaner.

All goods are merchandised by category as in any discount department store. Items include men’s and women’s clothing, suitcases, sporting goods, cooking utensils, books, jewelry and cameras.

Unclaimed is like a glorified garage sale, an upscale scavenger hunt. You hunt for the bargains. The merchandise may be brand-new designer clothes, new cameras or used raincoats and computer parts.

Unclaimed was founded in 1970 by H. Doyle Owens, the son of a store owner. He and his wife began with a garage sale--tables with items priced at 25 to 50 cents.

Today their fleet of trailer trucks collect merchandise from around the nation. Owens and his family also own similar Unclaimed outlets in three other Alabama cities: Albertville, Decatur and Boaz.

To H. Doyle Owens Sr.’s knowledge, there are no other stores like Unclaimed in the United States. Trains and motor coaches sell merchandise at auctions or at outlet warehouses, but not airlines.

How to Keep It

Here are a few tips that might help keep your bags from reaching an Unclaimed Baggage Center:

1. Identify your bags outside, where it won’t get washed off or defaced, and inside with your name, address and phone number. Some airline spokesmen say you should even include an itinerary of your trip, with dates and phone numbers inside your case.

2. Make sure that airport baggage attendants put the right tags on your bags. If you are flying to Los Angeles, make sure they put an “LAX” tag on it instead of “LAS,” which is Las Vegas, or “LAW,” which designates Lawton, Okla.

3. For skis, engrave your name and address with an electric scriber that police recommend for marking valuable property. Or buy a ski bag. Then put identification on the bag as if it were a suitcase.

How much luggage really gets lost? Most airlines will not admit that much, if any, gets lost. But according to the New York Times, “Out of 56.9 million bags that one airline checked, 6,127 bags were sold for salvage.”

The lost luggage that ended up for sale represented 1% to 2% of the bags that were separated from their owners. Although not too bad a record, it was still enough to keep Unclaimed in business.

The airlines are losing money on these baggage losses. They pay from $200 to $1,250 per passenger for a lost bag, so whatever they get from salvage is a small help.

If you really want to know what people are carrying on airplanes these days, pay a visit to Scottsboro, Ala. It’s all there.

For more information:

Unclaimed Baggage Center, 509 W. Willow St., P.O. Box 752, Scottsboro, Ala. 35768, (205) 259-5753. Open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Unclaimed Baggage Center and Fifth Avenue Exchange, 101 E. Bartlett St., Boaz, Ala. 35957, (205) 593-4393. Open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Boaz is 40 miles south of Scottsboro off U.S. 431.

Unclaimed Baggage Center, Highway 431, Albertville, Ala. 35950, (205) 878-9477. Open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Albertville is 30 miles south of Scottsboro on U.S. 431.

Unclaimed Baggage Center & Ozone Galleries, Gateway Shopping Center, Decatur, Ala. 35601, (205) 305-0439 or 350-2482. Open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday until 8 p.m. Decatur is about 25 miles west of Huntsville on U.S. Alt. 72.

The toll-free number for all Unclaimed Baggage Centers is (800) 274-5753.