Losing your luggage when taking a plane, bus, train, or a cruise, can be a hassle. People spend days calling airlines in hopes that their belongings were recovered. However, not everyone seems to miss their missing luggage. A lot of baggage goes unclaimed. In fact there are enough unclaimed belongings to fill a store in Alabama.
Looking for some hand-me-downs? Hop on a plane to Scottsboro, AL to find a store full of belongings from traveler's forgotten luggage.
As reported by the New York Daily News, when luggage is unclaimed and airlines, bus companies, trains, and cruise lines can't determine who the luggage belong to, the forgotten baggage winds up at the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro. UBC has a contract with airlines and other transportation companies in which they can purchase unclaimed luggage.
Airlines don't send unclaimed luggage to the center until three to four months after the travel date. During that time, the airline completes a government mandated three-month search process to try to find who the lost items belong to. After that time period, the luggage is sold to UBC.
UBC then stocks their 40,000-sqaure-foot store with items found in the bags. The store, which has been in operation for 40 years, sells the items for 20-80 percent off suggested retail price.
Items include everything from clothing, shoes, sporting goods, electronics, books, jewelry, music, movies, and of course, luggage itself. There are also odd items like moose antlers and Egyptian artifacts.
This store is pretty popular as it attracts close to a million shoppers a year from all over the U.S. and more than 40 countries, according to UBC Brand Ambassador Brenda Cantrell.
Cantrell told the Daily News, "(UBC) is the ultimate adventure shopping destination. There is no other store like ours in America."
"Our tagline is: 'You never know what you're going to find,'" Cantrell said. "And that's what makes [UBC] so thrilling and adventurous."
There is some criticism over whether the items should be considered as "unclaimed baggage," as it is hard to believe that someone would not realize that their luggage is lost. Some reasons baggage may not reunite with its owner is because the luggage and ID tags on the bags are wrong, making it difficult to pinpoint who it belongs to.
The UCB claims that only half of one percent of luggage goes missing a year, but 95-98 percent of it is discovered and returned to owners within five days. After the three month search process, the remaining unclaimed bags are taken over by the UCB.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
