Retail Therapy: Online furniture seller Move Loot expands to Fresno

A furniture-selling company that bills itself as a cross between Craiglist and Uber has expanded to the Fresno area.

Move Loot began selling its sofas, dressers, tables, bed frames and more via MoveLoot.com or its mobile app in our area this month. Move Loot also picks up and delivers the furniture.

The website features used furniture and a few new pieces. Unlike Craigslist – which in Fresno seems to feature either new furniture sold from discount stores or couches so dated nobody wants them – Move Loot’s furniture is “highly curated.”

That means the staff at the San Francisco-based company gets picky about what it allows on the site. Potential sellers submit photos of the item they want to sell, including information about where it was purchased, any damage, etc.

The staff decides whether the item goes onto the site to be sold at a discounted price.

The site has a range of styles and prices. Sofas, for example, sell from $99 for a futon to $1,105 for a nearly 10-foot-long white leather sectional.

The average seller in California makes about $580 on the site.

Move Loot picks up the furniture it accepts and takes it to a warehouse in Fresno, where it stores and photographs it for the site. All the furniture from Sacramento, Fresno, San Francisco and Los Angeles goes through the Fresno warehouse.

Move Loot employs about 30 people in Fresno.

If an item doesn’t sell within two months, it can either be donated or returned to the seller.

The company also does business in a few East Coast cities.

Bed Bath & more Beyond

The Fresno Bed Bath & Beyond has added a large health and beauty section. The store, at 7497 N. Blackstone Ave., revamped the northeast corner of the building.

Multiple aisles now carry shampoo, toothpaste, vitamins, baby wipes and hair accessories such as headbands. That includes Bed Bath & Beyond’s own brand of products called Harmon Face Values.

The section also carries makeup, including Maybelline, Physician’s Formula and other lesser known brands. One large shelf features only nail polishes. A “travel and trial” section featuring small bottles of lotion, for example, and travel containers for beauty products was also added.

The retailer is likely trying to get customers who come into the store for shower curtains or coffee makers to do more of their day-to-day shopping in the store.

This story was originally published January 21, 2016 at 11:21 AM with the headline "Retail Therapy: Online furniture seller Move Loot expands to Fresno."