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

Shine ^

[Scythian]

This unsettling discovery was made by graduate student Cynthia Magnus outside the back entrance of H&M on 35th street in New York City. Just a few doors down, she also found hundreds of Wal-Mart tagged items with holes made in them that were dumped by a contractor. On December 7, she spotted 20 bags of clothing outside of H&M including, "gloves with the fingers cut off, warm socks, cute patent leather Mary Jane school shoes, maybe for fourth graders, with the instep cut up with a scissor, men’s jackets, slashed across the body and the arms. The puffy fiber fill was coming out in big white cotton balls.”

The New York Times points out that one-third of the city's population is poor, which makes this behavior not only wasteful and sad, but downright irresponsible. Wal-Mart spokeswoman, Melissa Hill, acted surprised that these items were found, claiming they typically donate all unworn merchandise to charity. When reporters went around the corner from H&M to a collections drop-off for charity organization New York Cares, spokesperson Colleen Farrell said, “We’d be glad to take unworn coats, and companies often send them to us."

[Dallas59]

“Damaged” merchandise...somebodies getting paid...

[Pearls Before Swine]

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.

[Graybeard58]

I don’t know what W-M in N.Y. does with unsold and unwanted items but around here they are donated to charity.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

Seems pretty stupid and wasteful, but it’s their stuff, their decision.

[pyx]

Wal-Mart spokeswoman, Melissa Hill, acted surprised that these items were found, claiming they typically donate all unworn merchandise to charity.

IF AND ONLY IF the Main Stream Media is watching us or IF the cameras are rolling.

[Grumpybutt]

Wow. Too bad they couldn’t/didn’t think about voluntarily donating all those clothes to service member families or to charity.

[driftdiver]

Nobodies getting paid. Retailers destroy much of what they cannot sell. Sometimes they are reimbursed by the manufacturer and sometimes they eat the costs.

They destroy because otherwise they get sued or find people returning the items for refunds.

[traditional1]

You can bet the other side of the coin is that if they "donate" them to the homeless, "poor", etc., in good condition, they will just get sold on the street for drug money.....it happens all the time with donations for the "needy", from Craigslist and elsewhere.....I'VE SEEN IT HAPPENINNG IN THIS AREA FOR A LONG TIME. Same thing at the Salvation Army and Goodwill sites; the city-dwellers come in droves to buy suburbanites' donations, so they can sell them on Ebay or on the street.

[decimon]

The clothing contained trans-fats?

There’s some reason the stores did this. Possibly some onerous regulations.

[thefactor]

There is no Walmart in NYC so I would like to know where they came from.

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.

[mnehring]

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...

[BipolarBob]

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.

[Dr.Zoidberg]

If it's my property, I'll dispose of it as I choose.

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.

[mmichaels1970]

Seems pretty stupid and wasteful, but it’s their stuff, their decision.

I agree. They bought it from the suppliers. Why can't they throw it out?

Maybe, as dallas59 suspects, some sort of con is going on. Short of that, I don't see why they can't destroy the stuff that they purchased.

[Marty62]

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

[Red Badger]

Possibly some onerous TAX regulations!...........................

[sueuprising]

I don't think this is a matter of a private business being forced into doing something by a government agency. Rather it is one of those stories where big business often looks like a big Scrooge, dumping perfectly fine clothing while poor people go without. I am not sure what advantage WalMart or H&M has in doing this, and it seems like it was an isolated occurrence in NYC, but surely the managers who ordered the disposal should take a course in public relations. The David and Goliath archetype still runs strong.

[MrB]

There are some other things they’re trying to avoid as well.

Remember, most “loss prevention” is aimed at the EMPLOYEES.

Someone would/could come up with a scam for stealing unsold or returned merchandise.

I worked retail while in college, and any returned item that could not be resold was required to be destroyed, with a witness.

[usmcobra]

I hope they give all those unbought Obama T-shirts away to people on welfare.