Posted on 01/08/2010 7:02:35 AM PST by 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at shine.yahoo.com ...
There has to be a good story (and some funny video) regarding that one.
“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.”
^^^This
Sometimes you have to provide proof of the destruction to get reimbursed as well. The ‘problem’ would be more with the distributors - if they would accept either proof of destruction OR proof of donation to a nonprofit more companies would likely more than happy to donate.
To prevent returns they'd have to cut the tags or do some other recognizable mark that would affect usability
This behavior by Walmart contributes to Global Warming, blocks Meaningful Health Care Reform, is the cause of the Monetary Crisis of 2007, creates H1N1 vaccine shortages, generates more SUV sales, and is ultimately Bushes fault.
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.
Could be. There's some reason and probably something you don't disclose.
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.
the problem is also companies mistrust of employees, manager overorders merchandise, only to make sure it finds its way into her/his closet.. it happens all over...that’s why public schools throw out leftover food.
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.
“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.”
Ooookay. Um, I know some people that buy the stuff, sell it on Ebay, and then use the money to pay bills and build savings, you know instead of waiting around for Uncle Sam to take care of them. No shame in that.
Welcome to that “shady” world of capitalism.
Geesh!
Hope it wasn't YOUR wedding :-)
EXACTLY! Too many suppliers have been burned when they had contracts to reimburse for unsold merchandise. The store told the supplier that the merchandise was destroyed after none being sold, only to find out that it wasn't destroyed but stayed on the shelves being sold. The supplier was screwed out of their costs.
I bet the employees have gone through it before it’s being trashed.
PLUS... I want to know if this LIB was as upset when B.O. ordered perfectly good cars DESTROYED!! They could have been given to the poor!!
Thankfully I had black boxers on! I just left my coat on the entire night. My girl didn't even notice until I showed her later on in the hotel room. She laughed her butt off. I kinda wish I had a better story about it but I'm also kinda glad I wasn't totally embarassed.
Pity the ‘Charity’ that gets damaged and ‘unwanted’/unsold not-so-goods from Wal-Mart. Think appropriate ‘disposal’ is fair and perhaps, more charitable, in the end.
I can believe that.
How would unsold clothing have affected any of those things?
This type of behavour is a SIN.
Really? Have you thrown anything away today?
Was that 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
Do you know of any people anywhere in the USA who don't have clothing? Is there anyone who could not get clothing in any other way?
I think you're outraged over your imagination.
Well she didnt “decide”. She saw it, told reporters, the news got out, the store got bad PR, and they changed the policy.
The store didnt have to do anything, but their customers obviously found what they were doing to be stupid, so they responded to them to keep their image good.
If the store was so high on that type of thing, they would not have made the switch.
Bite your tongue! Heh...
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