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

[Dark Knight]

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.

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."

After several days of no response from H&M, the company made a statement today, promising to stop destroying the garments at the midtown Manhattan location. They said they will donate the items to charity. H&M spokeswoman Nicole Christie said, "It will not happen again," and that the company would make sure none of the other locations would do so either. Hopefully that's the final word.

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/h-m-and-wal-mart-destroy-and-trash-unsold-goods-562909/

 

[Hopeful One]

How sad and greedy!!!!

 

[Opie]

DK, unfortunately this is not an isolated occurrence. Some years back, some young boys that I knew lived near a plaza and sometimes checked out the dumpsters (boys!). Behind a shoe store they found shoes sliced up and tossed out.

Sad, isn't it?

 

[lizzybeth]

Maye I'm not that financially saavy but would it be better to donate the items and then take a tax right off?

So many children go to school with holes in their shoes or without the proper coat for the weather. Sad to think of how many people they could have helped.

 

[montana_16]

I have someone close to me who checks out store (and other) dumpsters for good, usable things that she gives to people in need.

A couple examples of this same thing, is one time she found brand new clothing and other items in a dumpster behind a store and emloyees happened to come out to throw away other things and told her to get lost. Then right in front of her to make sure , they ripped up clothing and even smashed picture frames breaking the glass.

Another time a sporting goods store had a huge amount of thrown out pads of writing paper, up- to-date calendars, large, medium and small spiral notebooks, all in the original wrapping, in their dumpster. They had local team logos on them.

There are so many poor schools who could really have used those items. Sometimes teachers even buy these things for their classrooms out of their own money!

 

[hockeymom]

I'm a frequent shopper at Goodwill and I can tell you Target is one of the biggest donators. They have tags still on them. I've also seen lots of Gap and Old Navy stuff. Shame on Walmart,and all for being wasteful.

 

[Mom who cares]

My husband is a truck driver. This is just some of the stuff he has found behind stores:

16 full boxes of valentines candy in a Walgreens dumpster, day after Valentines day
A Martha Stewart wooden garden bend in a K-Mart dumpster (was missing 1 screw)
6 bottles of Paul Mitchell shampoo in a W-mart dumpster
A case of cutting boards in a W-mart dumpster
Various items of make-up, and just this week a box of 12 fingernail clippers again in a Walmart dumpster
12 cans of little friskies cat food behind an IGA store

These are just the things I remember, I'm sure there was more over the years. Just think how a little homeless kid would have loved that candy, what a waste.

 

[Cypros]

I thought this was what clearance racks and tables were used for.

Of course, I think that donating the goods is the best way to handle overstock, but if retail companies are concerned about their profits going to someone else, couldn't they set up no-frills regional warehouse stores where they send all of their overstock and out-of-seasons to sell at bargain prices? At least they would get something for such products instead of just throwing it away. Anything that didn't move from the warehouse after a certain time could then be donated to charity.

 

[mysticrose]

I have talked with people who work for Walmart and was highly disgusted at the waste they throw out !!!
I was told that they throw all electronics such as big screen tvs etc that are returned and smash them in the compactor in the back even when nothing is wrong, dont even get me started on the waste of the food there !! They were throwing out bread and things that were not even expired yet. Do you know how much our Homeless shelter and food pantries could use that stuff ..and dog food that has been tore open, it gets thrown away, our pet shelters could use it. Walmart is an agravation to me and I certainly hope with more pressure they will do the right thing ...

 

[orb4me]

I think big stores like Walmart gain more in tax deductions when things are called a total loss, where as letting anyone have it at any price would decrease their profits.

Most of us have allowed Walmarts to come into their towns and cities and ran off all the little retail places. Now we pay the price with broken hearts. JMO.

 

[yanknrebel]

I work at our local elementary school and we have to throw away milk if the kids don;t drink it. i do manage to squirrel away about 2 cartons each day, just for the few kids that come to school and don;t have any money for milk or no drink in their lunch. I was buying the kids milk when they needed but it got way to expensive. However since this milk is being thrown away, I see no reason why we can;t give it to other children who need it. Esp since it is given to another child the same day within a 2 hour time block.

I went to a pizza place one day where they have all u can eat buffet. I got there 5 minutes before the buffet time was up. I ordered the buffet for me and my 3 small children only to be told it was over. I looked at the clock on their wall and I still had 5 minutes. SO rather than argue with them, I asked if I could just buy some slices off the bar for me and children? I was told no, and that it was policy. I asked them "You would rather throw them away then sell them to me?" The manager said yes, that is our policy. Well since I LOvE this pizza, I had already promised kids pizza and my husband never takes us to this place, I decided to go ahead and stay. I had to order a whole pizza and wait for 30 minutes before we could eat, . It has been several years since then and i have not been back. Americans are some of the most wasteful people out here. So sad.

 

[Cubby]

I'm 99% sure it was Walmart I heard about doing this from my godsons grandma - 20 years ago. If it wasn't walmart it might have been Venture that has long since been out of business, but I recall specifically her telling me about these practises 20 or even as far back as 25 years ago.

Not only could it help the needy, but think about it all sitting in landfills unnecessarily or sooner than it might be.

 

[sadyjade]

I feel I must chime in on this subject as I work for a major retailer and know exactly what goes on, and believ me, we are not alone in this matter. This falls squarely on the shoulders of those in managemet.

I work for a very large company, almost 9000 stores. We are told to destroy products that have "pennied out" OR DONATE THEM. If we do not donate them, or they are items returned for a valid reason, or have expired, we are to destroy the product. This is done for litigous reasons ( or should be ) as we can be held accountable if someone injures, or harms themselves in any way. Sad but true. Then thier is the industry term "shrink" which is in large part theft. Theft by the public, theft by employee ... can be on a large scale even .. truckdrivers, for thier own profit at flea markets, truckstops ... groups of individuals stealing hot comodities, again reselling them to trades peaople, garage sales etc.. I have witnessed employees putting items into the dumpsters only to retieve them later ... leading to thier loss of jobs!

The bottom line is ... IF the MGR is lazy, disenchanted, disgruntled, greedy ... whatever ... the above mentioned WILL HAPPEN! We are encouraged to find suitable places to make donations. I personally have donated tens of thousands of dollars worth of clothing and household items to my local childrens aid home, have shoes and other like items taken on missionary trips worldwide, victims of fires & other hardships, our beloved soldiers at home and abroad.

We all need to make sure that the places we spend our money is held accountable ... Ask if you might have these items (whatever they may be) to give to your local food bank, church group, etc. All we ever need is a reciept. It is up to the MGR and sadly, the dumpsters are often full with useable items (food is the exception or should be).

One last note before I sign off lol ... when items are recalled due to a customer complaint where a person was ( or thought they may have been ) harmed in some way due to product failure and or contamination, expiration. We are by law, oredered to destroy those itmes for your safety as well as ours.

I do not work for any of the aforementioned retailers, but retail is retail and you can thank (or not) the management in thos stores ... it is they who are being lazy and irresponsible and the peeps at the top should be told!

 

[arielilane]

Yes, we have created the monster called Wal-mart.

 

[Cubby]

sadyJ- fwiw, I do recall my godsons grandmother telling me the same thing. you posted:

Then thier is the industry term "shrink" which is in large part theft. Theft by the public, theft by employee ... can be on a large scale even .. truckdrivers, for thier own profit at flea markets, truckstops ... groups of individuals stealing hot comodities, again reselling them to trades peaople, garage sales etc.. I have witnessed employees putting items into the dumpsters only to retieve them later ... leading to thier loss of jobs!

It was so long ago, and I do recall her explaining this now that you mentioned it. Thank you for the reminder.

 

[sadyjade]

The thanks go to you and the other peeps who posted about this subject in the first place, Cubby It is a big deal and I can only hope one person can gain some insight from this, don't take no for an answer ... ask to speak to a MGR and if you get no satisfaction, corprate / consumer phonelines are dedicated to listening to the consumer ... pipe up peeps If one person in each community did this ... think of the good you can do. One person really can make the difference!

I'd be curious to know if anyone does *ask* maybe if this thread shows some interest, we couls start a poll and identify thos company's who are willing and weed out the bums lol ... a little "whilstle blower" if you will

sadyJ- fwiw, I do recall my godsons grandmother telling me the same thing. you posted:

It was so long ago, and I do recall her explaining this now that you mentioned it. Thank you for the reminder.

 

[Cubby]

You're welcome sadyjade and great tips! What I now recall my godsons grandma telling me is she worked at whatever store it was and asked if she could take some things to donate to wherever she did charity work, and she did quite a bit of charity work. She did say the items they allowed her to take for charity, the store had to remove the tags to prevent employee theft and resale like you described.

I really think the conversation I had with her had to be about 22-23 years ago, because it was a short time I stayed with them between renting a room and my first apartment way back.

 

[Elphaba]

This is nothing new: I worked for Kmart in '89 and I saw unsold goods tossed in the crusher to be destroyed and put out as trash, all of the time. If you got goody-goody with management, sometimes you could get things before it went in the crusher, but most of the time, good stuff was destroyed...

 

[trillian]

I worked for a large manufacturer and for certain products they needed to be returned or destroyed. Diverted product was a big problem and it cheapened the brand if items were found going to flea markets. You'd LIKE to think that they would be donated but the truth is that most people would want to make a buck. So these retailers, many times, are not ALLOWED by the manufacturer to do anything other than return or destroy (And most of the time we made sure to take it all back and destroy it ourselves).

Also, there are times when it is a quality concern. You may THINK you have seen them throw away 100 bottles of perfectly good make-up but what you dont know is that the items in that batch code were found with glass fragments which could be harmful to the consumer.

 

[aprilshowers]

May I ask: is it legal to take items from these dumpsters? Is it the same as private trash, once on the street, it's public domain?