“Damaged” merchandise...somebodies getting paid...
Mixed feelings. I’d hate to have a private company forced to donate, for nothing, stuff they couldn’t sell, devaluing my purchase of what they did sell. On the other hand, I hate waste—but maybe that’s what recycling is for.
I don’t know what W-M in N.Y. does with unsold and unwanted items but around here they are donated to charity.
Seems pretty stupid and wasteful, but it’s their stuff, their decision.
Wow. Too bad they couldn’t/didn’t think about voluntarily donating all those clothes to service member families or to charity.
The clothing contained trans-fats?
There’s some reason the stores did this. Possibly some onerous regulations.
I bought a suit from H&M once. The thing was $100 and lasted me 9 years! Up until the pants split in the middle of a wedding dance floor. I loved that damn suit. Is there a point to that story? No. But I was out until 5am last night so bear with me.
This is similar to what bookstores do by tearing off the front cover and disposing the book. When you have unsold merchandise, it is more expensive to store it or send it back. Unfortunately with our highly litigious society, corporations can’t just give stuff away any more either. The vendors could sue the company for not meeting sales contracts (long story about that), people who the merchandise was given could sue if they get something as small as a paper cut, then of course, there is the IRS...
Other stores do the same. Otherwise exploitation of a set of rules would degrade the value. It’s their stuff besides. Nothing to see here. Move along.
If it's Walmart’s property, it's their business to dispose of it as THEY choose.
It's not up to some busybody, under water basket weaving degree holding, dumpster diver to decide what they do with their property.
Mind your own business cinthia.
In an ecomy in crisis.
Millions unemployed.
Freezing temps etc.
This type of behavour is a SIN.
Even IF they didn’t want to donate, they could have offered deep discounts so that people in need could have a chance to buy this stuff.
A tent sale anything.
OUTRAGEOUS
I hope they give all those unbought Obama T-shirts away to people on welfare.
I worked for Target in High School ** years ago. I can attest that they did indeed dump lots of perfectly good merchandise that was unsold. It was an appalling waste. They wouldn’t even let employees take it.
Now they donate it to the local Goodwill, which is a far better use than needlessly destroying it.
Publishers of books will give bookstores credit for unsold paperback books -- but the bookstores must rip off the cover of the paperback and are supposed to burn them... it is cheaper to have the retailer destroy the unsold merchandise, rather than ship it back.
I don't understand what the "big" deal is -- this practice has been SOP for decades.
Just another WM bashing liberal.
WM has thought all of this through and has decided to dispose of the clothes because a)it is cheaper than sending them back, processing them, etc. b)the dumpster diver’s fellow liberals would take the clothes and try to return them to WM c)they are under contract to do so from the manufacturer/supplier.
WM does TONS of recycling... they are in business to make a profit for their shareholders, not be a charity.
I bet the employees have gone through it before it’s being trashed.
I’ll bet insurance or unions are involved.
Wanna know something even more disturbing? Sams and WalMart MUST trash good food on the expiration date. Such as bakery items- on the expire date MOUNTAINS of cakes, pies, breads etc( all perfectly edible) go into the dumpster. Not on sale for half price- in the garbage! Not even cut up for the employees or given to homeless shelters- in the garbage!
More shocking- if food leaves the store even for a moment and is returned, in the trash it goes. Saw it with my own eyes- woman bought two hams, walked out the door, changed her mind and returned one Employee asked if she should return it to the cold case and she was told to trash it. Saw it happen with a cake too- it had been mis-decorated for a birthday order. Customer refused it because of the kids name being misspelled. In the garbage.
This happens at places like Winn Dixie too. They used to put near-expired bakery items in a basket for half price. Now they pile them on a handtruck and put them in the dumpster. Appalling waste when they could get SOMETHING for them and people could save a bit of money for good food.
I love Wal Mart, and Sams, but this is wrong. I could almost see the liablity factor re food,( even then you could have a sign-off on liability arrangement with charities or something) but CLOTHES and shoes? Sell them for a dollar at a sidewalk sale or something! I saw a dumpster full of shoes behind a mall once, all sprayed with orange and red paint. Criminal!