This week the New York Times reported a disheartening story about two of the largest retail chains. You see, instead of taking unsold items to sample sales or donating them to people in need, H&M and Wal-Mart have been throwing them out in giant trash bags. And in the case that someone may stumble on these bags and try to keep or re-sell the items, these companies have gone ahead and slashed up garments, cut off the sleeves of coats, and sliced holes in shoes so they are unwearable.
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.”
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34 comments:
They live in a bunker, they dont care.
What a shame. SOme local stores like Target donate left overs to Good Will. Construction materials are donated to Habitat ReStore by some companies. That's the way to go. Everyone wins.
It cost these establishments PENNYS to manufacture these items. They jack up the prices like 300%... Why would they care?
Maybe they don't want to pay inventory tax on them...
i asked the ladies in the deli one nite what they do with the left over food that doesnt get sold, her response was, they have to throw it out, if they get caught eating it or trying to take it home they will get fired... what a shame all the hungry an homeless people around here in this town, well hell anywhere..i thought walmarts mission was to help people not destroy them!!!!!!!!!!!
10:16, Because they are human beings maybe. There are alot of families going through things they never thought they would go through right now, somebody could of used this stuff.
10:49.I realize this! IDIOT! If they were human beings they themselves would realize this counrty is going through a hardship.That being SAID... WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS? I was making a point... ITS CALLED GREED!!!!! I am just as upset about this as the rest of you. It is a dumb thing they are doing!
GEEZ!!!
11:04 arent we jumping bad mighty fast. Your barking up the wrong tree with me on this. Ill cut you some slack.
Um, many retail stores like Walmart, Home Depot, etc. are required by the manufacturer to destroy defective goods instead of returning them. That is why. It is not a conspiracy against the poor.
Walmart sucks. I refuse to shop there and have done for years. The prices are low but at what cost to our nation?
i am an ex asst walmart mgr. i questioned why items weren't donated...it pained me to see things just thrown away. one of the reasons i was given was that whoever gets these items, can try to return them or exchange them. so donated items would come back to them and the recipient would get cash or a newer item.
a relative used to work for starbucks. she used to take leftover pastries, etc. to the local hospital emergency room. they were very grateful, and starbucks management was satisfied. when she had to have emergency surgery, the "starbucks girl" got super care. no point, just a good story.
I believe that Panera bread donates leftover bread to the Christian Shelter in Salisbury.
To the ex-Walmart manager- I do understand what you're saying- but there has to be another way...
I worry about where to take my good clothes when I clean out my closets (to benefit those in need most), and then I learn about this!! Unbelievable!!
How about break them up as a monopoly and charge them with human rights abuses and be done with them.
11:12....
Well arent we Mr. or Ms. bad a$$!
You seem alittle on edge...
LMAO!
I live there.
this is nothing new. they have been doing this for years
To the ex Walmart mgr and other retail managers reading....
It's very SIMPLE. Do not accept ANY returns without a receipt!
Duh!
I think that when it concerns clothing a simple solution would be to cut the tag out. It does not damage the garment and it would give the donating company a way to control return fraud.
And wal-mart does suck goat ba**s!
TDT
I agree with 1238. Not that it matters now, but circuit city used to do the very same thing, and the act had to be wittnessed by dist/regional manager.
Lowes does it as well, it's disguting.
I wonder what all the old mom & pop stores used to do with whatever they had left over or damaged? To bad almost all of them are long gone,huh.
Cutting the tags out and cutting the tags off would be more cost effective than slicing and dicing the clothes and then throwing the stuff away. OMG!!
What pisses me off about Walmart is you go in there and they don't carry all the brands. I love popcorn. They don't carry pop secret any more. I've bought the other brands, but pop secret has the least amount of husk and is my favorite. So I end up going to another grocery store to find it. Actually there are several brands that they don't carry any more. Now they are really pushing their own brand. Before long they will only be carrying their own brand. I bet if you look where it the products are manufactured it's overseas. They pay these people next to nothing. It also takes our jobs away too.
Are you people serious? Wal-Mart is not a charity, it is a business. Why would they give away the very same items they are trying to sell? They have one of the most liberal return policies and people would definitely take advantage. The irrational hatred for Wal-Mart is one of the silliest campaigns in this country.
They are the ultimate Mom and Pop store that just did it better than anyone else. It's just a store, if you don't like them, don't shop there.
I dont shop there and did the mom & pops get special deals through all the cities for land and roads and such? Hell no they didnt. Did mom & pop stores enslave the Chinese workers, hell no they didnt. Its not just a store, its a MONOPOLY.
Some people obviously have never worked retail or they would know this happens with all kinds of products.
I used to be a merchandiser for a few different companies. One was a greeting card company. You would not believe how much gets thrown away and/or destroyed which includes the cards, candles, bags, ribbon, wrapping paper, flags, all the stuff you see in the card dept.
I used to also do resets in grocery stores and the home improvement stores. I did quite a bit in Lowes and Food Lions stores and you just would not believe how much gets trashed but in Food Lion the only thing I was ever told to trash was product outdated. If it was in date, it usually went into boxes in the back room for the Maryland Food Bank.
Lowes was a whole different story. I would reset a section and they would damage every piece of product so they could RTA (return authorization) the piece to get their money back from the manufacturer.
As I said, most of you have NO clue.
Giving away expired food could get the entire store chain sued but I guess you'd rather see someone get sick from the outdated food than to have them toss it out?
The solution to the return issue is to remove the tags. With no tag and no reciept there would be no return.
Most stores who do not give these items to charity instead sell them to "bargain retailers" such as Big Lots, Tuesday Morning, Ollies and the like for pennies on the dollar to recover some of their money.
As an accountant however I can explain destroy versus donate from a corporate perspective:
For income tax purposes lost i.e. destroyed inventory is a 100% write off for the company and thus saves them money on their taxes.
Charitable contributions however are limited to 50% of the companies adjusted gross income and in some cases 20-30% based on the organization receiving the donation. In addition to this, a full list of all items donated must be kept and a receipt must be received from the organization receiving the donations acknoweldging that the donation has been received at the value that the company claims. They have to pay for transport of said items as well. And before someone says "why don't they just donate them and say they were destroyed?" The Charitable organization receiving the items must also file with the IRS stating the value of items received and from whom.
From a corporate standpoint it is more beneficial for them to destroy and elimate these items than to go through the trouble of donating them.
Of course, this could cause more damage by way of reputation thus causing lowered revenues due to social conception of the company.
3:29PM, The Chinese workers will tell you that they are grateful for the work they get-there are 2 billion of them. Walmart gets special deals from politicians, be mad at the politicians. Walmart provides jobs and low priced items to most of the poor people around here so stop hating. Walmart is not a charity it is a business and if they gave this stuff to charity, then who would buy? I think they should sell it for next to nothing to Ollies and have Ollies mark it up, poor people wil go there to get decent items for lowered costs and everyone wins. Giving stuff away doesn't help anyone because people like anon bloggers complain doesn't help anyone because they need to decide to do what's right for them first and foremost and then if it's right for others. BTW for all the tax-write off people, when they receive and pay for the goods it's a business expense which is a writeoff in itself.
4:31 you are incorrect with regard to tax write-offs. When inventory is received and paid for it is listed as an asset on the company balance sheet, not an expense, and has no affect on the company income statement or taxable income. It is not expensed until the items are either sold, stolen or otherwise disposed of. Assets do not have any affect on taxes as exchanging cash - which is an asset - for inventory, also an asset, is an even exchange.
You are however correct in saying that the companies are just that; businesses in the business of making money. They are not in the charity business as they are for-profit corporations. That said, as a business they also have a social responsibility. Throwing these items away has even more consequence than the simple fact that charities aren't receiving them... it is also filling up our landfills and contributing the overabundant pollution of the world. Reduce-reuse-recycle comes to mind here.
To the person who said WalMart had to do this baloney.
They are not required to throw Deli food away. That is their product. They will not allow employees any of it nor will they donate it. If they give to a charity they know some people will not buy the item at WalMart. They will get it at the Charity. Even if only .01% do this it adds up. Employees buy less food if they can get it for free even occasionally.
WalMart has perfected treating employees like machines. I know I worked there as did many of my relatives.
Home Depot and Lowes do this all the time. If the vendor does a buyback on old product, it is usually field destroy. You would be suprised how many people bring those donated items back to the store. Now remember the customer is always right which means they either get their money back or a store credit. In turn, the store loses money.
There is a simple solution to this! I used to be a retail mgr yrs ago for a store owned by The Limited. All their chains owned by Limited would have mgrs slash through the tag inside the clothing (neck or waist area) w/a black marker and/or cut it w/scissors. This is a disgrace that Walmart is practicing such irresponsibility to our communities w/the state our country is in! And the irony is they have those clothing drop sheds right in their dept store! How hypocritical and disgraceful! There was a jewelry store at the mall Afterthoughts that used to throw stuff in the dumpster as well. All this costume jewelry could be donated to children's charities or other charities for door prizes for fundraisers. What an outrage!
I used to work in retail and experienced this first hand on several occasions. Once year around xmas, the store i worked at in the mall was told to destroy and discard boxes upon boxes of brand new stuffed animals... instead of donating them to toys for tots like humans (with hearts) would do. Even though our store manager pleaded with corporate our jobs were threatened if we didn't comply. In stead of all of us quitting on the spot it occurred to us that we could do more damage from the inside, so for the rest of the year, all of the other low level employees and i would watch people shoplift thousands and thousands of dollars of merchandise and not do a single thing about it. By the end of that year, our location had the highest shrink rate in the nation, Payback is a bitch.
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