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 ...
HAVE *YOU* THROWN ANYTHING AWAY TODAY? ...THIS WEEK?
As you're so distraught over the sins of one Wal Mart store, how are you doing on saving/donating all of YOUR extra stuff?
Is throwing extra stuff away a sin only if a business does it?
I kinda wish I had a better story about it but I'm also kinda glad I wasn't totally embarassed.Semper ubi sub ubi...
The companies' responsibility is to their stockholders, not the "poor". Giving merchandise away to the "poor" (those who want something but do not wish to pay or wish to pay with someone else's money, as opposed to those who are truly impoverished) dilutes the worth of the company and thus the stockholders' investment.
Probably caused by regulations that open them up to lawsuits if they give it away.
I thought stores like “Big Lots!” would buy unsold merch from places like Walmart or Target at a discount to pass the savings on to you????
>> Agreed. Like dumping perfectly good food into the dumpster. It’s not like there aren’t organizations and distribution networks to take these goods off their hands. Our tax code has been designed to encourage charity even on the part of business. No excuse. <<
I worked at McD growing up and they would throw away food for liability reasons.... They even had to lock their dumpster area for liability reasons, the main problem is Lawyers....
“Buyer Beware” and “Free Stuff, Beware Even More”
You didn’t ask me, but I see your point. We all throw away too much that can be re-used. I talk the talk and walk the walk. I belong to a local Freecycle group. Anything that is still usable is probably wanted by someone. People in need are happy to get it. People who want to resell usually only want perfect/new stuff and are no-shows when you list what you are giving away. Then too- the no-show’s are kept track of and you give your stuff to someone else who emails you.
This is a wonderful way to pass on outgrown childrens clothing, household stuff you are replacing with new, etc. Not everyone wastes usable things when it costs nothing to simply give it away.
I saw that episode of Frasier.
Considering lawyers and the litigious society today, I can see the liablity excuse, BUT, arrangements could be made with local shelters, etc, that would have them release the merchants of liabilty when goods are donated. I can’t imagine too many shelters or food banks that would not go for that.
Corporately, lawyers would be out of the mix altogether and people would have the goods instead of the landfills. It could be done.
Shelters won’t take unpackaged or expired food, they still have the same level of legal liability as everybody else. Just because they’re giving the food away, and the people they’re giving it to are poor, doesn’t mean there aren’t ambulance chasers out there looking for somebody with food poisoning.
Pun intended.
People may be shocked to find this out but most stores and places that produce items made of fabric also do this. I worked in a sewing factory that made sweats and other fabric items and if it was made bad enough to not even make it to the seconds store they were slashed into pieces no larger than 6” and sold as rags.
We try to pass along usable stuff first to family members who need it, then look for friends, acquaintences, friends-of-friends, etc..
Salvation Army has received a LOT of our used clothing over the years.
I find it hard to believe that there's anyone in this country who seriously cannot find food, shelter and basic clothing. At least everywhere I've lived, there are lots of ways to get the necessities covered, at least for a while.
Maybe it's different in NYC. I haven't lived there.
Both ways.
Hubby used to work for a large grocery chain as store manager. After a hurricane, they HAD to throw out everything in the store’s coolers—even if the power had only been off a couple of hours and the stuff hadn’t even begun to thaw. Couldn’t take it home, couldn’t give it to the local soup kitchen.
I understand the difference between perishable and non perishable, but sometimes the companies do stupid things just so they don’t get sued down the line.
From what I read on the Yahoo comments sections is that the clothes are picked up by “foreigners” and shipped overseas as rags which are broken down then respun.
Want someone to blame? Look to your governments reps and their insane TAX LAWS. These companies likely get a better return to their bottom-line as a direct expense of production/sales, instead of a limited percentage tax deduction.
They have little cards you can punch with each purchase to 20% off the 10th purchase.
That's a pretty good marketing program.
“There are naked poor people? Not a sight to see as most poor people in America are fat. We’ve gone overboard on the charity, to the point of incentivizing people to be poor.”
My example was not a literal one, but a figurative one that most people accept. I agree that many impoverished people in the United States are overweight, and clothed, but the general perception of a large company dumping unused clothing that the public would otherwise have to pay for, sits uneasily on most Americans. In my opinion, the companies can do what they like with unsold clothing, but it has the same effect on people that deliberately spoiled crops had during the Depression.It seems rash and wasteful.
One need look no further than the Dora shirt at the top of the linked article. Licensed product (Disney I think). Nobody gets that stuff without buying it, and that is not Wal-Mart's decision, but that of your "good" corporate citizen, Disney.
So these people are perhaps barking up the wrong tree.
I have spent the entire Christmas season being preached to by my church about charity. They gave away toys and they gave away free Turkey’s and even shoes to school kids.
But I have had times in the past where I was unemployed or completely out of money and for the most part I always could budget a meal. I wouldn’t have a problem eating on less than a dollar a day. I lived on mainly ramen noodles for months. Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner at times was a turkey or ham sandwich and a bag of chips. Hell I never got to the point but I know where to dumpster drive to eat like a king. Same with clothes, I never had a problem affording basic clothing, you can get shoes for ten bucks and shirts and pants even cheaper if you know where to shop.
Nobody I ever knew died from hunger nor do they go around naked because they can’t afford clothes. Most people on the edge don’t need that kind of charity. Food costs only 8% of the average American’s budget and I suspect clothes even less.
What ticks me off is all the time, money, and resources that goes to all these feel good charity things like Thanksgiving Dinners where the TV cameras show up and the volunteers gush about how great it is to help others. They didn’t really make a difference, those people was going to eat something that day. My turkey sandwich and chips was something I earned and tasted better than something I would be given.
But if you are barely making it and your car breaks down and needs hundreds of dollars in repairs or you break a tooth and need emergency dental or you need a new furnace that is what people really need help on and that is where most of the charity ignores. Most people can come up with their rent or mortgage payment but if you don’t have cash in the bank and the car needs a new water pump and you need the car to drive to work then you will fall behind on your rent.
All the thousands of dollars being wasted on Christmas toys for kids, I can go to a dollar store and get plenty of cheap presents for my kids if that is all I can afford. They will learn a more important lesson about saving for the future and not being materialistic than if they expect the latest Barbie doll as a free handout from the Church.
Most of the people I know struggling don’t want charity, if they are working they would love to pay back a loan by paying a few dollars a week or a month over time or if they aren’t working some charity or church lending them the money could ask them to spend their free time working on some charity project such as working in a soup kitchen instead of money and they would be glad to do so. But nobody is helping these people, if they have a credit card they are forced to rack up the balance or if they have friends and family maybe they can get help there but as for going to your average church or charity and asking for help to repair your transmission, most times out of luck.
Sorry but this rant has been building for awhile.
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