Visiting the Unclaimed Baggage Store in Scottsboro, Alabama: Is It Worth It?

We have now visited Unclaimed Baggage in Scottsboro, Alabama twice, most recently this June on the long drive home from visiting Jess’s family in Ohio. We live in Alabama and regularly drive the Huntsville to Chattanooga corridor, so this odd and rather brilliant store has quickly become a favourite stop whenever we are passing through. If you have seen it go viral as “the lost luggage store” and wondered whether it lives up to the fuss, here is what it is actually like to visit, and whether it is worth pulling off the interstate for.

The short version is yes, it is worth a stop, and it is more fun than you might expect. Unclaimed Baggage is the only store of its kind in the United States: a 50,000 square foot shop selling the contents of luggage that airlines were never able to reunite with their owners. Part bargain hunt, part oddities museum, you never quite know what you will find on the shelves from one visit to the next. The one thing to keep in check is your expectations on price, which I will get to.

Quick Take: Is Unclaimed Baggage Worth Visiting?

Yes. If you are anywhere near Scottsboro and you enjoy a good rummage, Unclaimed Baggage is worth a couple of hours of your time. Entry is free, the store is far better organised than the “warehouse of lost suitcases” idea in your head, and the changing stock makes every visit different. We have done well on clothes, electronics accessories and art across our two trips.

The one caveat I need is mention is price. This is not a dollar-store bargain bin. Most items are priced like a decent thrift or outlet store rather than dirt cheap, so you are paying fair value rather than pennies. Head to the Bargain Basement next door and stay patient, though, and the real deals are there to be found. Treat it as a fun treasure hunt with the occasional standout buy, not a guaranteed haul of designer goods for a dollar, and you will leave happy.

Unclaimed Baggage at a Glance

What It Is Actually Like to Visit

Walking in for the first time, the thing that surprised me was how normal it feels. I had pictured something chaotic, a jumble of battered suitcases tipped out onto trestle tables. Instead it reads like a large, well laid out department store. Clothes are arranged by type and size, electronics have their own area, and there are clear and well organised sections for shoes, bags, jewellery, books and homeware. You can actually find things without having to dig. As someone who doesn’t like shopping at the best of times, not having to trawl through a mess of racks to find something in my size was a relief.

The scale is the fun part. At 50,000 square feet the main store is seriously big, and with roughly 7,000 new items going out every day, the stock turns over constantly. Nothing here was bought wholesale to be sold. Every single item came out of a bag that someone, somewhere, lost. Once an airline has searched for the owner for about three months without success, the contents are sold on, and a good chunk of it ends up here.

One small but useful tip from experience: like many stores in the South the store is kept cold, which can be an adjustment, especially in an Alabama summer. We always bring a layer when we go shopping so we don’t get frozen part way through the experience.

What They Sell and How It Works

Almost anything you can imagine someone packing in a suitcase turns up here eventually, plus a fair bit you would not. Clothing makes up the bulk of it, roughly 60% of the stock, sorted by type and size across a big chunk of the floor. Both Jess and I have had good luck with clothes here; on our last visit Jess found a lovely dress she was very pleased with.

The electronics area is the one I make a beeline for. I have never seen more second-hand headphones, Kindles and tablets gathered in one place. It is also a reliable spot for USB chargers and travel adapters, which I stock up on every time because they are cheap and you can never have too many. Everything electronic is tested and wiped of any personal data before it goes on sale, so you are not buying someone’s old phone full of their photos.

You will also find laptops and some photography gear. The latter is very much hit and miss – last time I was there there was a Canon EOS R100 for example, which is my favourite entry level travel camera. So you could be lucky.

Beyond clothes and electronics there is jewellery, sporting gear, books, and a rotating cast of strange one-off pieces. We have picked up some lovely hand-painted art over the years. The clothing is professionally cleaned before it hits the rails, and the whole operation is split across ten departments in the main building, with the Bargain Basement as a separate three-floor building right next door.

As always with shopping, we highly recommend checking prices and comparing them with what you can find online. In our experience prices for most items, including electronics, are very reasonable and often below what you’ll find elsewhere for used items. However, the internet makes double-checking that a cinch, and there’s free WiFi on site to help you in that regard if you don’t have reception inside (I didn’t).

Is It Worth It? Our Verdict on Value

Worth it, with one expectation to manage: this is good value, not giveaway pricing. Before we visited for the first time we read online reviews to see if it was worth the detour. We found that reviews split between people calling it a bargain paradise and people grumbling that it is overpriced for used goods.

In our opinion after visiting a couple of times, the truth sits somewhere in the middle. Most things are priced fairly for what they are, comparable to a good outlet or charity shop rather than a clearance bin. You are unlikely to walk out feeling robbed, and you are unlikely to walk out having spent five dollars on a designer coat.

Where the value really shows up is in two places. The first is the things that are both useful and cheap, like the chargers, adapters and headphones I mentioned. The second is luck. Because the stock is whatever happened to be in the bags, every so often something brilliant lands at a price that has not caught up with its worth, and if you are the one standing there when it does, you win. The way to tilt the odds in your favour is to head straight for the Bargain Basement.

How to Shop It Well: What Two Visits Taught Us

A few things we have learned that make a visit more rewarding:

• Start in the Bargain Basement. This separate three-floor building next to the main store is where the keenest prices live, so go there first while your energy and patience are high.
• Do both buildings. It is easy to spend all your time in the main store and miss the basement entirely, or the other way round, so give yourself enough time for each.
• Dress in layers, because the air conditioning is serious. A light jacket makes a long browse much more comfortable.
• Go in with an open mind rather than a shopping list. The stock changes daily, so there is no point setting your heart on a specific thing. Some of our best finds were things we did not know we wanted until we saw them.
• Check items carefully. Everything is tested and cleaned, but it is still secondhand, so give clothing and electronics a good look before you buy. When we have bought electronics the staff have always let us test it in store before leaving to make sure it works, and we’ve never had a dud. But it’s worth checking nonetheless.
• Not strictly shopping related, but take advantage of the photo opportunities. There are a few neat setups around the store where you can take your photo to prove you were here

How Long to Budget

Allow at least two hours. On our most recent visit we spent roughly two hours including a stop for food, and that felt about right for a good look around both buildings without rushing.

If you love a slow browse, or you are the kind of shopper who reads every label, you could happily fill three or four. If you are just popping in out of curiosity to see the famous store, you could get the gist in an hour, but you would be leaving the best finds on the shelves.

Cups Café and the Found Treasures Museum

When you need a break, there is an in-store café called Cups Café. We have eaten there a couple of times and the sandwiches and salads are both good, which is more than you can say for most shop cafés. They brew Starbucks coffee and do Dippin’ Dots if you have kids in tow.

The part that surprised me most, though, is the Found Treasures Museum. The store has always set aside the most remarkable things that have come through its doors, and in 2023 it opened a dedicated museum to display them. It is small, free, and well worth ten minutes of your time.

The standout exhibit, and the reason a lot of people come, is Hoggle: the actual puppet from the 1986 Jim Henson film Labyrinth. The puppet was lost in transit after filming and eventually surfaced here in a piece of unclaimed luggage in the late 1990s. He has been restored and now takes pride of place in the museum. As a fan of the film, seeing him in the flesh in a shop in rural Alabama was a surreal little moment.

Getting There and When to Go

Unclaimed Baggage is in Scottsboro in northeast Alabama, and you will need a car to get here. It is about 45 minutes from Huntsville and a little over an hour from Chattanooga, which are the two cities most visitors base themselves in or pass through. For us it is around three and a half hours from home, which tells you it is a place we go out of our way for rather than stumble past. If you are flying in and need wheels, it is worth comparing prices for a rental car before you arrive.

On timing, the store is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 8pm, Saturday from 8am to 8pm, and it is closed on Sundays, so do not make the mistake of building a Sunday road trip around it. As for the best day to go, do not overthink it. We have been told weekdays are quieter than weekends, which is true, but since the stock changes constantly there is no secretly perfect day. Whenever you turn up, it is a fresh hunt.

Where to Stay

We have always passed through Scottsboro as a stop on a longer drive rather than staying the night, so we have not tested the local hotels ourselves. If you do want to base yourself nearby, the best-known local option is Goose Pond Colony Resort, a town-owned resort on Lake Guntersville with cottages, a lodge and a campground. For a wider choice of hotels, most people are better off staying in Huntsville or Chattanooga and folding Unclaimed Baggage /clearinto a day out from there.

Make a Trip of It: What Else to Do Nearby

Unclaimed Baggage is brilliant, but unless you are a far more dedicated shopper than we are, it is a half-day stop rather than a full day on its own. The good news is that it sits within easy reach of some of our favourite things to do in the region, so it pairs neatly into a bigger trip.

Our top recommendation for a pairing is the Lodge cast iron factory store and the Lodge Museum of Cast Iron, about 40 minutes up the road in South Pittsburg, Tennessee. We have been, the little museum is good, and we came away with a couple of pieces of cast iron cookware that we use all the time. Museum entry is around $10 per person and the factory store is free to browse.

If you are heading toward Huntsville, it is one of the best days out in the state for anyone with even a passing interest in space. Both the US Space and Rocket Center and the legendary Space Camp are there, and we have written full guides to both.

In the other direction, Chattanooga makes a great base or day trip, with riverfront walks, the aquarium and Lookout Mountain. We have a guide to how to spend a day in Chattanooga and a fuller rundown of things to do in Chattanooga to help you plan. Scottsboro itself also has a small cluster of antique shops if you have time to linger.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Unclaimed Baggage worth visiting?

Yes, if you enjoy a good browse and you are already in the area. Entry is free, the store is well organised, and the stock changes daily so no two visits are the same. Just go in expecting fair outlet-style prices rather than rock-bottom bargains, and head to the Bargain Basement for the keenest deals.

Is Unclaimed Baggage cheap?

It is good value rather than cheap. Most items are priced like a decent thrift or outlet store, so you are paying a fair amount rather than next to nothing. The best deals are in the three-floor Bargain Basement next door, and the occasional standout bargain does turn up because the stock is unpredictable.

What are the opening hours?

The store is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 8pm and Saturday from 8am to 8pm. It is closed on Sundays, so plan your visit for another day of the week.

How long should I spend at Unclaimed Baggage?

Allow at least two hours to look around both the main store and the Bargain Basement without rushing. Serious browsers could easily spend three to four hours. If you are just curious to see the place, an hour will give you the gist.

Where do the items come from?

Everything sold here came out of luggage that airlines were unable to return to its owner. After an airline has searched for the owner for around three months without success, the contents are sold on, and Unclaimed Baggage buys a large share of it. Around 7,000 new items go out on the floor every day.

Is Unclaimed Baggage open on Sundays?

No, it is closed every Sunday. The store is open Monday through Saturday, so build your trip around a weekday or a Saturday.

What is the best thing to buy there?

Electronics accessories like headphones, chargers and adapters are reliably good value, and clothing is the largest section by far. Beyond that, the fun is in the unpredictable finds, from art to one-off oddities, so keep an open mind and see what has turned up.

Further Reading

To help plan a wider trip through the region, these guides of ours pair well with a visit to Unclaimed Baggage:

• Visiting the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville
• Our guide to Space Camp in Huntsville
• How to spend a day in Chattanooga
• Things to do in Chattanooga, Tennessee

For the wider region, we like the Lonely Planet guide to the American South as a planning companion.