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This story is part of Retail TouchPoints\u2019 ongoing \u201cSmall Business, Big Ideas\u201d series, focusing on smaller retail brands that have found big success and have even bigger ambitions.<\/em><\/p>\n Back in 1960, before terms like \u201coff-price\u201d and \u201ccloseout\u201d were commonplace, decorated World War II veteran Norman Nardick was working for a catalog company offloading its out-of-season merchandise. As he drove around the streets of Chicago looking for local retailers interested in steeply discounted Christmas tree bulbs and the like, he had his own lightbulb moment \u2014 perhaps there was a larger market for excess and out-of-season inventory.<\/em> As we all now know, Norman was at the cusp of a whole new category of retail, one now dominated by companies such as Dollar Tree<\/strong> and TJ Maxx<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Norman\u2019s company, The Bazaar Inc.<\/strong>, specializes in wholesale and, 65 years since its inception, now<\/strong> supplies many of those big-name retailers<\/strong>, as well as smaller regional chains, with name-brand off-price and closeout inventory. Today, the company is led by Norman\u2019s grandson, Bradley Nardick, who took over the business from his father Rob Nardick five<\/strong> years ago. What began with a 1,500-square-foot<\/strong> warehouse now encompasses 400,000<\/strong> square feet of ever-changing products that are shipped around the country, a bigger operation than Norman probably could ever have imagined.<\/p>\n But Bradley Nardick has taken the reins at a moment when the off-price segment is experiencing unprecedented challenges<\/strong>. This has been highlighted by a host of high-profile bankruptcies among some of the biggest players in the space \u2014 Big Lots<\/strong>, Bargain Hunt<\/strong>, 99 Cents Only<\/strong>, Christmas Tree Shops<\/strong> \u2014 all of which cited persistent economic headwinds since the COVID pandemic as the reason for their demise. Even The Bazaar has felt the pressure; last year, the company closed its own small chain of consumer-facing closeout stores, Bargains in a Box<\/strong>, in one of Bradley\u2019s biggest moves since becoming CEO.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing the third generation is tough,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of pressure to continue a thing that\u2019s great, and it took me a while to trust myself enough to even go against the grain. I mean, most people just called me \u2018Rob\u2019s son\u2019 for like my first 10<\/strong> years at the company. But it\u2019s very hard to be a great wholesaler and a great retailer at the same time;<\/strong> we don\u2019t have a huge corporate management structure here. So I made the decision to close the stores, mainly because I wanted to focus the company in on what the business has been built on, which is helping independent retailers remain relevant with their customers<\/strong>, bringing them great deals so that their customers will want to keep coming to them versus Walmart<\/strong> or Amazon<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n That focus is becoming even clearer with Bradley\u2019s next big endeavor, an ecommerce offering<\/strong>, something the company has never done before. \u201cWe have a long history of supplying the elite off-price companies with great deals that make their customers keep coming back,\u201d he said. \u201cWe built the website because, as I looked through our customer data and at the local market here in Chicago, I realized there are tens of thousands of independent off-price retailers in this country, and there\u2019s no company focused on making sure that they<\/em> have great supply.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n Not only that, but Bradley is taking a new angle on off-price ecommerce with the site, leaning into what has historically been a challenge (unpredictable supply and quantities) and turning it into an advantage with a limited release, drop-style vibe inspired by streetwear brands like Kith.<\/p>\n The realization of how important this was for smaller local retailers was something that Bradley discovered while working at Bargains in a Box. \u201cWhen you\u2019re a smaller independent you don\u2019t have national brand recognition, you don\u2019t have the technology and systems and processes and buying power, so what do you live on? You live on being known locally for \u2018Wow!\u2019 deals<\/strong>,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I first got here and was running our local stores, I saw how hard it was to keep people excited about who we were and coming back to us when were a block away from a Walmart or three blocks away from a TJ Maxx.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a couple of really big winners in the off-price game right now, and it seems like every wholesaler in a position similar to ours is just trying to sprint toward them as fast as possible,\u201d Bradley added. \u201cWhat I\u2019m trying to do is make us also a merchandising partner to the smaller independents that aren\u2019t always top of mind<\/strong>. The intention is to open the door for all these smaller independent stores and help them curate a great mix of merchandise that keeps their customers coming back week after week, the same way we\u2019ve done with the big national brands.\u201d<\/p>\n Off-price and closeout retailers have historically found ecommerce a difficult needle to thread given the often unpredictable and inconsistent nature of their supply, but Bradley believes The Bazaar\u2019s position as a wholesaler gives the company an edge in this realm.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve always had a uniquely good source of supply,\u201d he said. \u201cThe advantage in our position today is we have 60 <\/strong>years of history with some of the best manufacturers in the world. We carry any big name-brand consumable item that you would see in a Walmart or a Target or a Walgreens<\/strong>, and we work with those companies directly. I think the other place where ecommerce gets really complicated for the discounters is the order sizes can be really small, but as a wholesaler we\u2019re in a unique position where the average order size warrants the expense of picking, packing and shipping.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n The Bazaar\u2019s website, which is built on Shopify, went live in early February 2025 and also showcases a rebranding that was done in conjunction with the launch, led by Chicago-based marketing consultancy ColorJar. \u201cWe wanted to do something that was a bit of a throwback to the era that my grandpa started in, you know \u2018Big deals, we\u2019ve got the deals!,\u2019 a kind of over-the-top vibe<\/strong>,\u201d Bradley explained.<\/p>\n The site features intentionally low minimum order quantities<\/strong> and fast shipping<\/strong> direct from The Bazaar warehouse, but Bradley\u2019s favorite feature is the countdown clock<\/strong> on the homepage that displays how much time is left until new inventory drops.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cKith<\/strong> is my favorite company, I love that brand, and so when we were building out the site, the aspiration is similar to what they\u2019ve created with that limited release, drop culture<\/strong>,\u201d said Bradley. \u201cI think we actually have a very similar dynamic, just in a totally different consumer class \u2014 it\u2019s not a beautiful coat or leather shoes, it\u2019s name-brand hand soap that\u2019s 70%<\/strong> below Walmart, get it while you can! It\u2019s exciting, and from that point of view the unpredictability in the supply chain is what makes it unique and fun.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n Aiding Bradley\u2019s efforts is new technology that make selling online and connecting inventory with the right customer easier than ever before. For example, The Bazaar site features an integrated AI solution<\/strong> that \u201cbasically maps all of our customers\u2019 preferences and makes sure that we\u2019re constantly feeding them inventory that we know they\u2019ll be interested in,\u201d said Bradley. \u201cWe\u2019re essentially re-creating the kind of white-glove service that a huge retailer gets<\/strong>, where salespeople call and say, \u2018Hey, we just got this in and I know you guys love this kind of thing,\u2019 but distributed out to thousands<\/strong> of little retailers around the country.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s amazing the things you can build today to really provide a level of service [digitally] that you couldn\u2019t have dreamt of before,\u201d Bradley added. \u201cI\u2019m excited about our ability to lean into the current big technological trends and use that as a way to bring great supply to more people.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked what his dad thought of this new direction for the business, Bradley said he recognizes the need for it and is excited, although perhaps not as unconditionally as Bradley might like. \u201cWe had 200<\/strong> visitors to our site on the second<\/strong> day, and I was like, \u2018Isn\u2019t that crazy? Have you ever seen 200 people in our showroom?\u2019 My dad\u2019s response was \u2014 I mean you know that generation, baby boomers, their wisdom is in practicality \u2014 so it was kind of like, \u2018Yeah that\u2019s cool, great possibilities, but how much cash is in the register today?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Despite Rob\u2019s tempered enthusiasm, there are already signs that the ecommerce venture is opening up new avenues of business. For example, the company received an order one day from a pet grooming business<\/strong>, and \u201cthat\u2019s never been a market we even considered,\u201d said Bradley.<\/p>\n Indeed, each generation of this family has evolved and grown the business for their time. Norman saw an opportunity in a market that didn\u2019t yet really exist; Rob scaled up alongside the growth of national big-box chains; and now Bradley is bringing the concept forward into the era of online commerce, which, by the way, is awash with millions<\/strong> of small, digital-only merchants that resell overstock and excess goods, another potential new client base for The Bazaar. Bradley also said he sees opportunity for growth with nonprofit clients.<\/p>\n But at the moment the plan is \u201cto remain disciplined about who we think we\u2019re working with, which is the smaller independents,\u201d Bradley said. \u201cThat could mean they have 50<\/strong> stores or 10<\/strong> stores or it could mean a buying group that [operates on behalf of a group of small stores]. There\u2019s this underbelly world of retail, where it\u2019s a hustler\u2019s game<\/strong>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n When asked if he considers himself <\/em>a hustler, Bradley said his grandfather and father more accurately fit that bill: \u201cI don\u2019t know if I got that gene exactly, but we have a great buying team of people who worked with my father and have come from some great companies, and they love to negotiate. My hustle, what I love, is the interconnectedness of the wheeling and dealing<\/strong>. Like, \u2018We have this cup, who in the world might want this?\u2019 and it\u2019s everybody from Menards<\/strong> to that local guy in New York who supplies to apartment buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Norman](\"https:\/\/www.retailtouchpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_5263.jpeg\")
Taking the Mantle in the Midst of an Industry Inflection Point<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"Products](\"https:\/\/www.retailtouchpoints.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/DSC07648-1280x853.jpeg\")
The Small Business Challenge: Continually Coming up with \u2018Wow!\u2019 Deals<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Deals and White-Glove Service for All (Not Just the Big Guys)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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The Third Generation Challenge\u2026and Opportunity<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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