Unclaimed Baggage Center

The Unclaimed Baggage Center is a 50,000-square-foot retail store in Scottsboro, Alabama, that sells items recovered from airline luggage that is never claimed or returned to its owner. Insurance salesman Doyle Owens founded the business in 1970 after a ham radio conversation with a bus driver about excess luggage, and formed his first airline supply partnership with Eastern Airlines in 1978. His son Bryan and daughter-in-law Sharon took over ownership in 1995, expanding the storefront to city-block length and adding a museum and cafe the same year Oprah Winfrey featured the store on television. It's billed as the only store of its kind in the country, restocking roughly 7,000 new items a day at discounts of 20 to 80 percent.