A long time ago, two friends shared the same interests and hobbies. They decided that since they had a large collection of "junk" that maybe other people would like to buy some of their "junk". After all, one man's garbage is another man's gold. They became partners of a business titled "K-W Surplus". The two partners were Ray Whittemore and Bill Ellis. Their business began at 327 Breithaupt Street in 1979.

What did they sell? The stock was anything and everything. Whatever they could get their hands on for a cheap enough price they bought. Though they were sometimes surprised that people bought some of the items they thought wouldn't sell well, their business grew very quickly. The business got too big, or maybe they were buying too many things, some stock was stored a great distance from the store's site. In 1982, only 3 years after opening the store, they had to move to a larger building, thus the store was moved to its current location at 666 Victoria St. North.

The business continued to grow at the new location, and in 1993 Ray bought the remaining portion of the business from his partner Bill. Other Stores were also opened in different cities, including; London, Hamilton, Owen Sound, Ottawa, Sarnia, and Brantford. Unfortunately the stores in Ottawa, Sarnia, and Brantford are no longer open.

The Kitchener Store has expanded a few times in the last few years. Areas of the warehouse were cleared and surrendered to the store's sales floor. The first expansion was the "Sound Room", where car and home audio equipment are displayed, and more importantly, heard, without disturbing the serenity of the main store floor area. The most recent expansion was the "Computer Room", which of course contains computer equipment. Both new and used equipment is found in the computer room, the majority of used comes from businesses that upgrade, and we do buy used items from our customers while they upgrade.

The store is consistently busy, with more than 500 people visiting on weekdays, and well over 1000 on weekends. New items are arriving for sale daily, though sometimes it seems like it's hourly. With approximately 12,000 square feet, it can still be hard to navigate through the store on the busy days. Currently we don't offer sales over the internet, but we are considering it for the near future.