Where did the can with the dent go? Where else but ... The Dented Can

DOLAN SPRINGS, ARIZ. -- The Ocean Spray jellied cranberry sauce? Dented.

The Progresso garbanzo beans? Dented.

The Sunny Select fruit cocktail? Dented.

The Liberty Gold pineapple chunks? Dented.

The Geisha mandarin oranges? The Gourmet Award extra-small artichoke hearts? The Campbells cream of mushroom soup?

Dented, dented, dented.

At the Dented Can in Dolan Springs, Ariz., just over the Nevada-Arizona border, most everything is dented. Or dinged, smashed, torn or otherwise damaged. It's a Rockwellian, off-the-beaten path, mom-and-pop business you sometimes stumble upon in rural outposts while on road trips for Powerball tickets.

"We're a pretty select group," Irv Bastian, who owns the Dented Can with his wife Juanita, said. "There are not many around. I couldn't tell you how many are in this region, but we're pretty elite."

A similar dented can store is in Kingman, Ariz., and another is in Bullhead City, Ariz. A larger facility in Las Vegas, the Super Price Grocery Outlet, mixes in damaged goods with its vast inventory of bargain items.

Along with his sea of scarred cans, Bastian sells boxed foods such as cereal and Hamburger Helper, beaten-up packages of baby diapers, chewing gum and even, um, feminine hygiene products.

"We're not too picky," Bastian said. "If someone's going to buy it, we're going to sell it."

Bargains have long been a way of life for Bastian, a former house painter from Napa Valley, Calif., who opened an antique store in Bullhead City eight years ago. He and Juanita bounced around the area's thrift store and auction circuit for a few years and noticed a demand for just about any household product at a cut-rate price.

With the advice of a friend who owns the Bullhead City dented can store (called the Warehouse), Bastian opened his own business in Dolan Springs a little more than two years ago.

"I've always been into bargains, thrift stores, auctions and things like that," Bastian said recently during a so-so business day. "You can get something for a really good deal just because it's cosmetically damaged. That's what we specialize in."

But you have to do a bit of driving to find this bastion of bargains.

The Dented Can is about 80 miles southeast of Las Vegas, on Pierce Ferry Road, which intersects with U.S. Highway 93 about 20 miles south of Hoover Dam en route to Kingman. Pierce Ferry Road leads tourists to the western rim of the Grand Canyon through Dolan Springs, a rural Mojave County community of around 6,500 residents spread out over a 20-mile radius.

"We get 90 percent of our business from the locals," Bastian said. "Everybody knows me and knows we're here. But the local people can be a little picky at times and they might want supermarket-quality stuff."

But Bastian's business -- a shack, really -- is no supermarket. You hop over to Kingman, about 35 miles up the road, for that. The Dented Can is no larger than a double-wide trailer and the wind-worn exterior is painted in unpretentious white. A hand-painted wooden sign is placed out near the road and the log fence near the entrance is decorated with cacti.

Inside, a well-worn recliner sits in one corner, a cigarette-stuffed ash tray at arm's length, and the small unisex restroom is available to anyone who happens in (not just customers). A swamp cooler provides an ever-present hum and keeps the heat away (but the scent of old smoke lingers), and six-foot-high shelves are hastily stacked with hundreds of dented cans and crunched boxes.

However, like the inventory it houses, the Dented Can is not in competition for any civic beauty awards.

"It's just an off-the-road place," Bastian said. "You're taking advantage of good deals. About 80 percent of the people who live here are either senior citizens (who are) retired or on public assistance, so there's a need for this kind of service."

Bastian's prices, he figures, are anywhere between 40 and 80 percent lower than supermarket prices. A can of Spam that goes for $2.39 at a supermarket could be found -- dented -- at Irv's place for a buck less. A large can of Progresso soup going for $1.89 at a supermarket is offered for 50 cents less at the Dented Can.

Other bargains include boxed products -- three boxes of Cream of Wheat for $5, two boxes of Cocoa Pebbles for $4 -- that have been slightly damaged.

To Bastian's good fortune, there is seemingly a limitless supply of ready-for-sale dented products available right here in Las Vegas. He makes the drive every four or five weeks to Damaged Recovery Systems, which supplies the western United States with wholesale goods from its 45,000-square-foot facility on the corner of Craig and Pecos.

"We have a number of different business we deal with," Robert Mirotta, manager of Damaged Recovery Systems, said. "Our company represents major companies like Campbells and Pillsbury and we sell products that have either been damaged in some way or overstocked to licensed businesses that we call secondary markets."

Usually, a warehouse employee will drop a case of, say, Campbells tomato soup and turn the entire load of cans -- damaged or not -- over to a company manager for re-sale. The shipment winds up at a place such as Damaged Recovery System and eager entrepreneurs such as Bastian descend.

"A lot of times I'll come back with a lot of cans that are in good shape," Bastian said. "Some aren't damaged at all, but the companies don't want to spend the time sorting out the good from the bad so they just turn over the entire case."

Bastian buys them at a dirt-cheap wholesale prices. Then he marks them up slightly -- but below retail -- for re-sale.

"Sometimes I'll get a can of black beans that goes for 85 cents retail at a supermarket, for 45 cents," he said. "Then I'll offer it for 55 cents. I make a profit and the customer wins, too. That's how it works."

Health risks are obviously a concern when selling damaged food products. There is the remote chance that a customer could purchase a can of Cling peaches in heavy syrup and wind up with a potentially fatal case of botulism.

But Bastian is careful with his inventory and knows the warning signs of potentially harmful cans. Bastian checks to make sure the seal on the side of the can has not been split and that the ends of the cans are also tightly sealed.

"You can check it, smell it, and even if a customer notices something wrong they can bring it back and we'll change it out," Bastian said. "With boxed foods like cereal you check to make sure the inner liner is still sealed.

"If the liner is torn, I throw it in the dumpster or feed it to the birds."

Francine Shell, a registered sanitarian with the Mojave County Department of Health and Services, inspects Bastian's business twice a year and has found no instances of suspect products.

"There are so many ways to tell if an item is spoiled," she said. "If the can has bulging ends or they're springy, then it's been broken. It would be extremely evident by the odor."

The damaged goods industry even employs a simple dented-can rating system: A No. 1 can is barely dented, No. 2 is significantly dented, and a No. 3 (usually items thrown from a truck during an accident) are heavily damaged and automatically discarded.

"That takes the guesswork out right away," he said. "You don't see as many No. 3's as you used to because they are making the cans a little more durable."

But the Dented Can's own shelf life is in question. Bastian, with a payroll of none, says his days of wheeling and dealing damaged products might be winding down.

"I'm just about ready to hang it up," Bastian said. "I'm looking for something different and I'd like to see someone come in and buy the business."

At a bargain price, of course.

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