Millerâ??s Surplus finds new home in W-B

WILKES-BARRE – One door closed and Justin Miller quickly opened another one.

He relocated his Miller's Surplus Home Center to Waller Street within a week after leaving the state Route 315 location in Plains Township where he'd been for five years.

The building near the former Sunshine Market is being sold, Miller, 32, said, and he had to look elsewhere. He found a familiar place.

We had actually looked at the building before we moved into Plains Township, he said Thursday.

The 14,000 square foot space previously had been home to Modern Floors. He spent Wednesday getting approvals from the city planning and zoning boards and opened the next day at 9 a.m.

It's smaller with the same merchandise, Miller said.

We have a brand new kitchen showroom, fiberglass exterior doors and a bigger selection of flooring, he said. Flooring products take up more than 60 percent of the store's space.

The store is his fourth. The others are in Mechanicsburg, Catasauqua and Schuylkill Haven where the company's 83,000 square foot distribution center is located.

The company closed a store in Blakely, Lackawanna County, last month due to lack of business, he said.

That hasn't been the case here.

Sunshine was the best store last year and the year before, he said. It outpaced the Catasauqua store which was the first one he opened.

Miller pinpointed the reasons for the local store's success.

Customers in Wilkes-Barre are loyal and the employees are good, he said.

Miller has had no problem going up against the big box stores.

We have better products and lower prices, he said. The guys that work for me know what they're talking about.