The Yahya’s opened the Yahya’s Liquidation store less than a year ago.

“I love Webster City,” said Yahya, “There are very nice people here.”

Yahya has moved a number of times over the years, living for a while in Ohio and West Virginia. But his biggest move was from Tunisia, North Africa.

His move to Webster City occured when he got a job working for the Van Diest Supply Company. While working there, he met his wife, Mollie Tague. Mollie is from Webster City and still works for Van Diest Supply.

The Yahyas have two children: Finley, 10 years old, and Zane, 4 years old and live in Webster City.

The couple took on this venture after noticing the empty building that was available for rent.

“I did reselling on Facebook, and then we saw this building for rent,” said Hssine, “So we saw the town needed a discount/liquidation store and decided to try this.”

They knew they couldn’t compete with Walmart or major chains. Their biggest challenge is that people don’t understand the store. It still has discounted products, very little is pre-owned or returned.”

“Some have the misconception that we are like Goodwill or a thrift store,” said Hssine, “It’s still new products, just more returns or distressed packaging of products.”

The diverse selection of products makes it more like a small department store, with product ranging from clothing and shoes to accessories for phones, household items and appliances.

“Most of our products come from major retailers or Amazon liquidations,” he said. “When we first started we were more of a bin store,” he explained, “A lot of people came in at first, but then didn’t come back. So we realized that wasn’t working.

Since then they have added shelving to display items, and are selling larger items, such as laptops, luggage, household goods and some scratch and dent appliances.

They also have an online auction through their Facebook page one day each week. These changes help not only their customer base, it also helps promote their business.

“We have a lot of Webster City customers,”, he said ” but we also draw a lot from Duncombe, Fort Dodge and Eagle Grove.”

“I didn’t realize until I started this how important it is to be loyal to small business,” he said.

So, what’s next for the Yahyas?

Whatever it is, it might need to be a bigger store.