Hundreds of people from all over North Carolina are expected to converge Saturday morning on the former Home Depot building to get first dibs on furniture and accessories being sold at 60 percent to 90 percent off regular retail prices.

The annual Bulluck Furniture gigantic warehouse sale is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at 950 Home Depot Plaza.

The sale, which runs through March, has been held for more than 40 years. Bulluck Furniture, located at 124 S. Church St., has found large vacant store locations to hold the recent sales.

“We used to do (the sale) there at the furniture store,” company manager John Kincheloe said. “We started with the furniture sale the first weekend in January, and then two weeks after that, we’d bring in lot of accessories.”

Last year, it was held in vacant space that formerly housed the Hannaford Food and Drug on Sutters Creek Boulevard.

But the sale was moved this year to the former Home Depot space as the chain Hobby Lobby is doing its due diligence as it considers whether to open in that space that has been vacant for years.

“Basically, we had to be beg (Home Depot) to let us rent the building,” Kincheloe said.

There are several reasons why the products are being sold below normal retail prices, he said.

“Everything is dramatically less than what it would be sold for in a traditional retail shop,” Kincheloe said. “Some of it is 
damaged and dented, but priced accordingly. Some things are just off color. There are first-quality things (being sold) that are overstocked.”

Kincheloe said he expects hundreds of people to be lined up Saturday morning outside the former Home Depot building.

“The most people we ever had was when Lowe’s closed and moved to their current location, and we rented that building where the theater is at now,” he said. “That morning (the sale started), we had 1,800 people in line. It took 24 minutes before there was a break in the line. For the last few years, we’ve had about 800 people in line.”

The reason the sale is such as draw, he said, is because people realize the savings are real.

“It’s no hype. It’s real deals,” Kincheloe said. “It’s first come, first serve. The best things are picked over fast. The early bird gets the worm.”

The hundreds of people who visit Rocky Mount for the sale help the local economy, probably more than any other retail event, Kincheloe said.

“It’s definitely a tradition,” he said.