Kim’s Hidden Gems gives back

Before the Bath & Body Works in the Lansing Mall closed, Kim Perez enjoyed walking through the store to drum up ideas for her candle business, K Scentsations.

Making soy candles was one of two side hustles Perez enjoyed before she quit her job as a regional property manager last year. The other was buying liquidated pallets — huge stacks of heavily discounted items from major retail stores, typically returns or overstock.

Now, she’s back in that same space she once took inspiration from. But this time, she owns it.

On Nov. 22, she and her husband, Mario Perez Jr., opened a discount home decor store in the Lansing Mall. Kim’s Hidden Gems offers discounted items sourced from pallet liquidations, alongside a designated wall for her soy candles.

The store is focused on home goods, but the offerings vary depending on what Perez finds in her latest haul. At the time of writing, the store features a wall of kitchen appliances and pans, a record player and various albums, tables, couches and far more.

“My niche for the store is the pretty things, the things that women like,” she said. “Coffee makers, picture frames, rugs, things like that.”

The couple sources pallets from warehouses in Michigan and surrounding states. But the nature of pallet shopping is always a gamble, so the shop’s offerings rotate.

Sometimes the pallets are liquidated gold, such as one with 800 pieces of clothing that Kim bought for $300. Some pieces were originally priced at over $40; she’s able to make a substantial profit while still selling them at a discount for $7 each.

Sometimes, they’re enormous paperweights.

“My husband and I have also bought $600 worth of scrap metal,” she said, laughing. “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.”

For the husband-and-wife duo, who were married last year, the store is a way to give back. Both intermittently experienced homelessness during years-long struggles with addiction. Kim spent a year in a treatment facility, and Mario spent six years in prison. Now, they donate some stock every month to community shelters, as well as contributing to back-to-school drives and providing Christmas items to in-need families.

“It’s like a full-circle moment for me to have my candles here and to be able to give back to the community,” Kim said.

Pouring “every penny and every ounce of energy” into the business was also a way for Mario to do something kind for his wife.

“She used to work in corporate America doing property management, and I used to see her coming home depressed, with migraines and headaches,” he said. “It got to the point where she was going to the emergency room.”

Running a small business may not be the most relaxing way to detox from the corporate world, but for Kim, the fulfillment of helping people furnish their homes at a discount is worth it. She described a young woman who had come in after just moving into a new apartment.

“She had made a Facebook post that she was trying to get furniture for her new apartment. So I inboxed her and told her, ‘Come to the Lansing Mall. My store is Kim’s Hidden Gems.’ She had $130, and she got a couch, an air fryer, a lamp, an ottoman, sheet sets, and I gave her two candles. 

“There’s no place else she would be able to do that for $130. But it wasn’t about the money for me. It was about helping someone get a fresh start.”