Open Mon–Sat, 10am–4pm Closed Sundays

3820 Richmond Hwy, Richmond, VA (opens in a new tab) 804-275-9239

Richmond, VA · Est. 1942

Eighty Years on the Same Few Blocks

Hull Street Outlet has been family owned since 1942, and in the same building on Richmond Highway since 1952. The name still comes from the street where it started.

The Short Version

Quality With Economy

In 1942, Sam Finn opened a military surplus store at the corner of Hull Street and 17th. The idea was simple enough that it hasn't needed changing: buy well, sell honestly, and price it so working people can afford it. He called it quality with economy, and it's still the whole business plan.

Ten years later the store outgrew Hull Street and moved to what is now 3820 Richmond Highway - the same brick building with the rocket out front. The name came along.

Along the way Sam added two departments that had nothing to do with surplus and everything to do with the same instinct. He started buying office furniture in bulk from corporations and government agencies that were clearing out, and he began cutting foam rubber to order - reportedly the first retail merchant in America to offer custom cut foam to the public.

Sam's sons run the store today. Three departments, one roof, and a counter where somebody still knows where things are.

Black and white photograph from 1965 of Sam Finn standing with two colleagues in the doorway of the Hull Street Outlet store.
Sam Finn (center) in the store doorway, 1965.
Three members of the Finn family standing in the entrance of Hull Street Outlet.
The next generation, in the same doorway.

How It Got Here

Eight Decades, Four Turns

  1. 1942

    A surplus store opens

    Sam Finn opens a military surplus store at Hull Street and 17th in Richmond. The name sticks for the next eighty years.

  2. 1952

    The move to Richmond Highway

    The store outgrows Hull Street and moves to 3820 Richmond Highway - then Jefferson Davis Highway - where it still is.

  3. 1950s

    Foam rubber, cut to order

    Sam becomes, by all accounts, the first retail merchant in America to offer custom cut foam rubber to the public.

  4. Today

    Still in the family

    Sam's sons run three departments out of the same building: surplus, office furniture and foam.

The Hull Street Outlet storefront: a long brick building with the store name painted across the front and a tall red-tipped rocket standing beside the entrance.

Why It Matters

What Eighty Years Buys You

  • Buying relationships that predate most of our competitors. Surplus lots and corporate furniture clearances come to us because they always have.
  • Staff who know the stock. If it isn't on the floor, someone here usually knows whether it's in the back and when the next lot lands.
  • A price that reflects how we bought it. We buy in volume and we don't carry a showroom's overhead.
  • No sales pressure. Walk the aisles. Open the drawers. Come back Saturday. It'll be a different store by then anyway.
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