When the suitcases arrive, their contents are a mystery. Staffers wearing latex gloves are accustomed to finding clothes, shoes, books, headphones and chargers. They know that sorting through the ordinary is the only way to find the extraordinary.
Imagine unpacking bag after bag, day after day. But one day, amid sneakers and socks, a beekeeping suit emerges from bracelets and blazers. Cell phones. Jackets. A pair of diamond earrings. Jeans. E-readers. A fragment from a meteorite.
Welcome to a store in Alabama that has been operating for more than 50 years, and which advertises itself as the country's only retailer of lost luggage. It recently released its third annual report detailing what travellers packed last year.
"The report provides a detailed overview of how our habits, values and priorities are evolving," says Matt Owens, a senior executive at the company. "Over time, I believe it will serve as a cultural time capsule, helping us understand not only where we've been, but where we're going as a society."
Where the bags come from
Nearly a billion passengers flew domestically last year, while nearly ten billion travelled by plane internationally. The vast majority of checked bags are ultimately reunited with their owners, but this store's focus is the small number that aren't. After failing to locate an owner within 90 days, airlines send abandoned bags here, where their contents are sold, donated to charity or recycled.
The strange and the specific
According to the report, unexpected finds included a clarinet worth $17,500, a bionic knee, a robot with no discernible function, and a doll from the 1960s. One suitcase contained only rat poison, "carefully packed and surprisingly organized." Another held a set of fake human bones.
The report also listed the most commonly abandoned items. Last year, staffers logged 209,986 shirts, 128,722 pairs of trousers, 57,623 pieces of jewellery, 51,449 mobile phones and 48,736 pairs of shoes. Staffers also noticed an increasing number of lab-grown diamonds, viral fashion items and trendy collectibles.
The store released its inaugural report two years ago, promising a unique window into the zeitgeist. That year, staffers noticed an uptick in wireless earbuds, athletic apparel and games consoles. Unusual finds included a funeral casket key, a jar of shark teeth and an ancient Greek coin.
How it started
The business was born in 1970, when Owens' grandfather, an insurance salesman, learned from a friend about a bus company with a lost luggage problem. The bags, which were piling up in a warehouse, would probably end up in a landfill.
"My granddad, coming from a long line of entrepreneurs, decided to buy the bags," Owens says. "He scrounged $300, borrowed a pickup truck and drove up to collect the first load of bags. That's kind of our origin story."
He enlisted his wife and kids to help sort through his discoveries, which he sold from card tables set up in his home.