ADESA

When I first noticed this parking lot located along Route 2 about 5 miles from our house, I assumed it was for a shopping mall. If you study the picture, however, you quickly realize that the buildings are way too small to require this much parking space. My next guess was a park-and-drive lot for the airport, but there are no shuttle buses anywhere to be seen. Finally, I thought it might be a huge car dealership with lots of inventory, but there is no form of signage whatsoever. After some sleuthing, I discovered that this is where used cars and trucks are auctioned at wholesale. Once a week, hundreds are sold all over the northeastern region of the country. The inventory comes from rental car companies, fleet managers, manufacturers, dealerships, and finance companies. The company is called ADESA and has 56 such locations across the USA. It was recently acquired by Carvana.