H&M and Wal-Mart destroy and trash unsold goods

[Thystle]

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beaut...-goods-562909/




That was a really poor financial move on their part. And I know it happens everywhere.


This is NOT the time to have that kind of bad press.... they REALLY should have donated it and hyped it up. Now they have just pissed off more people.


So many people could have used that stuff, this year especially!

[EricaDoula]

How sad that they do this!

[Mama~Love]

What a waste!

[cristeen]

I think it may be regional... I know the WM where my grandmother lives donates to the food/clothing bank where she works on a regular basis. As much as I dislike WM, I have to give them that. They're always giving them stuff they can't sell, from open packages of TP and pads to unsold clothing and expiring food.

[SunshineJ]

From reading the comments after the article, it's pretty clear that this practice isn't remotely isolated to those 2 stores (and it seems like with Wal-mart it varies by store and region). Still though, what a terrible waste! I shudder to think just how much in the way of resources has been consumed by this - it literally makes me ill. Sigh.

[sweetcheeks]

The Value Village (similar to Savers) in my town does the same thing. I think it's pretty disgusting that a thrift store participates in this too.

The Target I worked at in university always donated unsold stuff to a local thrift shop that helped underpriviledged youth in the area.

[Amys1st]

What really irks me is all this stuff was made in a sweatshop somewhere on the other side of the earth, then shipped here, put on the retail floor, marked way way way down over months and then tossed out. one of the millions of reasons I do not give my money to either of these stores plus many others of the same.

[not now]

Due to the backlash H&M has promised to look into this and make efforts to make sure this does not happen in any of it's stores anymore.

My local Target donates to Goodwill. It's awesome.

[nigellas]

Reminds me of the food burning part in "Grapes of Wrath"

[Theia]

I have heard of other stores doing this, not sure if it is company wide policy or just a local managerial decision. But a girl I met last spring that used to work at Victoria's Secret. She said her manager routinely made the employees (her included) cut up and destroy bra's, panties and other unsold/returned merchandise I get that this store is a speciality shop and sells its products for much more than WM. But why not donated these items to local womens shelters? I've met many women who left with only the clothes on their backs to go to shelter. The luxury of purchasing more bra's and underwear even from WM is the least of their concerns at that point. But when you are at such a low point, to be given a basic need like that and have it be pretty too, would be such a lift and no small thing to the recipient.

Like some of the PP's have mentioned, many of the products are sweatshop produced, and cost the retailer pennies on the dollar to produce and then it's sold at a mark up of hundreds of percent. How is it a bigger loss to give these items to a charity, shelter, Goodwill, Salvation Army than it is to destroy them? Simply disgusting IMO.

[LionTigerBear]

Oh, man, I HATE that they do this! It is so wrong.

Originally Posted by sweetcheeks

The Value Village (similar to Savers) in my town does the same thing. I think it's pretty disgusting that a thrift store participates in this too.

See, this I can understand a little more-- if you can't sell it a thrift store, I can see thinking that maybe it just isn't fit to be worn. Like, maybe NO one wants it. Now, I think it would still be good for shelters etc, but I think it's somewhat more understandable.

[Theia]

Originally Posted by LionTigerBear

Oh, man, I HATE that they do this! It is so wrong.



See, this I can understand a little more-- if you can't sell it a thrift store, I can see thinking that maybe it just isn't fit to be worn. Like, maybe NO one wants it. Now, I think it would still be good for shelters etc, but I think it's somewhat more understandable.

It kinda does make more sense. But there should be other methods of dealing with even thrift store rejects aside from it ending up in a landfill. It could be sent back overseas to really impoverished areas. In many areas that are severely impoverished pretty much everything has a second, third and fourth life. I know it's still harsh environmentally cuz of the pollution associated with shipping. But seems like many things that even a thrift store shopper is unwilling to purchase would sure find purpose elsewhere.

Or better yet would be to find/create a local group that takes such items and repurposes them. Lots of places sell patchwork clothes that are repurposed or made to look like that. You could employ seamstresses, designers, repairmen for electronics, etc. and have an additional retail outlet that could support the organization that received these items through donation anyway.

I wish I had a winning powerball ticket. The things I would create <dreaming>

[LionTigerBear]

Originally Posted by Theia

It kinda does make more sense. But there should be other methods of dealing with even thrift store rejects aside from it ending up in a landfill. It could be sent back overseas to really impoverished areas. In many areas that are severely impoverished pretty much everything has a second, third and fourth life. I know it's still harsh environmentally cuz of the pollution associated with shipping. But seems like many things that even a thrift store shopper is unwilling to purchase would sure find purpose elsewhere.

Or better yet would be to find/create a local group that takes such items and repurposes them. Lots of places sell patchwork clothes that are repurposed or made to look like that. You could employ seamstresses, designers, repairmen for electronics, etc. and have an additional retail outlet that could support the organization that received these items through donation anyway.

I wish I had a winning powerball ticket. The things I would create <dreaming>

I wish you did, too! You have great ideas.

[NightOwlwithowlet]

Originally Posted by not now

Due to the backlash H&M has promised to look into this and make efforts to make sure this does not happen in any of it's stores anymore.

My local Target donates to Goodwill. It's awesome.

Where I live too.

[sbrinton]

I used to work at Pottery Barn. There were certain items that had to be destroyed, but the store donated most things to a charity that helped people rebuild their lives after fires or disasters.

Some items, like returned towels that looked like they had been used, had to be returned. This was the store's policy to avoid donating something that could have been contaminated.

I also used to work at Banana Republic. There the employees were able to buy slightly damaged items for a huge discount, like 90% off. This mean the things weren't thrown away.

There is a lot of waste in retail. Things are broken or damaged. There is also a big issue with people buying things, using them and then returning them. Most of the things they had to throw away at PB were like that. I would say that in that circumstance, the person being wasteful and unethical is the customer.

[sunflower.mama]

Originally Posted by Theia

It kinda does make more sense. But there should be other methods of dealing with even thrift store rejects aside from it ending up in a landfill. It could be sent back overseas to really impoverished areas. In many areas that are severely impoverished pretty much everything has a second, third and fourth life. I know it's still harsh environmentally cuz of the pollution associated with shipping. But seems like many things that even a thrift store shopper is unwilling to purchase would sure find purpose elsewhere.

My sister spent time in Colombia last fall and got involved helping some women who had escaped from human trafficing. She asked me to gather some women's and children's clothing and shoes to donate, and for my dad to send them down there. As wonderful of a gesture as it was, he paid over $150 for shipping, which probably would have bought plenty of new items in a third world country. Now if this happened on a grand scale, with a cargo ship full of items, maybe it could work. But we were pretty bummed with how it worked out on a small scale.

[krisnic]

Babies R Us does this too. A month before food expires, they throw it away, dump the formula, and ship the empty boxes, bags and cannisters to corporate.

[SunshineJ]

Originally Posted by Theia

It kinda does make more sense. But there should be other methods of dealing with even thrift store rejects aside from it ending up in a landfill. It could be sent back overseas to really impoverished areas. In many areas that are severely impoverished pretty much everything has a second, third and fourth life. I know it's still harsh environmentally cuz of the pollution associated with shipping. But seems like many things that even a thrift store shopper is unwilling to purchase would sure find purpose elsewhere.

Or better yet would be to find/create a local group that takes such items and repurposes them. Lots of places sell patchwork clothes that are repurposed or made to look like that. You could employ seamstresses, designers, repairmen for electronics, etc. and have an additional retail outlet that could support the organization that received these items through donation anyway.

I wish I had a winning powerball ticket. The things I would create <dreaming>

One of the thrift stores back home would leave stuff on the racks for about 2 months if I recall correctly, and continue to mark it down during that time. If it didn't sell, it was sent to their "main" facility where the clothing was torn into strips and made into rugs and blankets for the homeless people and people who were in shelters (rugs obviously were for the shelters). Kids clothes however would be retagged and start the cycle again, simply because someone may not have needed something in a size 12 months 2 months prior but would next month type thing.

[lucyem]

Our local Panera bread used to have all kinds of day old baked goods in the dumpster behind their store. It would be overflowing on Sundays. Inside on the Panera literature they said the company policy was to donate to shelters. Yet ours threw it all away. I sent an email to corporate and I heard others did too. The dumping seems to have stopped.

[mom0810]

ALL retail stores and food places do this. Restaurants, grocery stores, retail stores, etc. The Jewel here throws out untold amounts of food every day. Expired, or about to expire, etc.