[bobwoodard]

Seems like an opportunity for someone to learn a trade like sewing/tailoring?

Since they’re already in the garbage, pull out the items and track down some needle and thread!

[listenhillary]

The New York Times points out that one-third of the city's population is poor,

There is your problem right there. Raise the tax on the poorest to discourage being poor. They'll stop being poor or flee the city and NY will have less poor people. Seems to be the solution for all other social manipulations that statist taxes are used for.

[WKUHilltopper]

“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.”

Yeah, and the author wants to “boo hoo” about how bad these retailers are—instead misses the point that ONE-THIRD of the population is poor! You want to whine about something, whine about how your socialist thug government in NY is a complete failure and disaster. Your stifling enslaving burden of taxes is the first place to look. You want to help people? Then quit stealing their money!

[sockmonkey]

I remember a few years ago, when photos were published of the cast offs from some Planned Parenthood Clinics. The outrage wasn’t focused at PP, but at the folks who went through their trash, and distributed photos of the deceased unborn. Planned Parenthood= Good. Dead babies-good, pictures of them- bad. Walmart=Bad. Coats with holes poked in them=bad. Pictures of cast off coats=Good.

[Redcloak]

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.

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.

[GraceG]

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????

[chris_bdba]

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.

[gardengirl]

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.

[brityank]

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.

[Clinging Bitterly]

It is their stuff. Some of it they can and perhaps do donate, and there would be some advantage in doing that, it seems to me (writing off market value vs. cost). But there are things they are contractually obligated to destroy.

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.

[ican'tbelieveit]

she also found hundreds of Wal-Mart tagged items with holes made in them that were dumped by a contractor.

Walmart probably needs to find a new contractor, but this was not Walmart dumping.

[NoGrayZone]

It’s their stuff. They should do whatever they want with it.

[surfer]

I actually asked about this a couple of years ago...directly to Wal-Mart and I was told it was government regulations and liability issues that force Wal-Mart to do this.

The bottom line is we need to truly tranform our country into a free land and we need to get rid of all these stupid laws and lawyers that create insane situations like this.

The Wal-Marts that have the deli’s, etc have to throw all that food away, they can’t even give perfectly good food to local shelters because of liability issues.

It is when we look to the government to solve our problems this is how things end up.

Welcome to the Progressive’s Perpetual Opposite Day!!!

[calex59]

I believe this is the law. They must destroy the merchandise they can’t sell, they are not allowed to give it away or sell it at ridiculous prices. I saw the same thing happen with farm goods such as milk and oranges, dumped into a ditch because they were not allowed to either sell it or give it away. Magazines are also destroyed if you can’t sell them, you must rip the cover off of them.

[Irish Eyes]

What is H & M ??

[Cacique]

btt

[eyedigress]

Philips destroyed at least 1000 HD projection TV’s. Oh Well.

[phil_t]

This is a classic “Hate Walmart” article.. there are NO WalMarts in Manhattan or anywhere nearby. If New York City environs would allow a WalMart to be built, then this story would have a basis for being written.

Using the Walmart.com store locator, here’s a list of “nearby” WalMarts:

1. Secaucus, NJ 07094
2. Kearny, NJ 07032
3. North Bergen, NJ 07047 Opening Soon
4. Saddle Brook, NJ 07663
5. Valley Stream, NY 11581
6. Linden, NJ 07036
7. Union, NJ 07083
8. Westbury, NY 11590
9. Uniondale, NY 11553
10. White Plains, NY 10601
11. East Meadow, NY 11554
12. Woodbridge, NJ 07095
13. Riverdale, NJ 07457
14. Boonton, NJ 07005
15. Watchung, NJ 07069
16. Suffern, NY 10901
17. Cedar Knolls, NJ 07927
18. Edison, NJ 08818
19. Old Bridge, NJ 08857
20. Piscataway, NJ 08854

I question how the writer was so sure WalMart had anything to do with the damaged merchandise she found. If Walmart had sold the stuff to H&M, then WalMart has no further role in the matter.

As an earlier poster noted, businesses face big losses from scams whereby people bring merchandise back for credit.. the merchants in most cases give a dollar credit for returned items even though the customer has no evidence of having ever paid anything for the merchandise. I personally know of several businesses that folded due to the excessive losses sustained by merchandise being returned for credit which had been purchased elsewhere at a sharp discount. That’s why, for example, booksellers mark books to show they have been remaindered and thus will not be accepted for full refund, since the book was purchased elsewhere for 5-10% of the list price.

Rather than bashing WalMart, we need to put Walmart in charge of running the country:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/item_K8hD47GcZBkh1v3SjNYldI

FLY ON THE WAL: UNDERCOVER AT WAL-MART, THE HEARTLAND SUPERSTORE THAT MAY SAVE THE ECONOMY