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Returned Online Purchases Often Sent To Landfill (www.cbc.ca) 95

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
How is the boom in online shopping influencing how much good product just goes to waste? Adria Vasil, an environmental journalist and managing editor of Corporate Knights magazine, answers: It's pretty staggering. The increase of the volume of returns has exploded by 95 per cent over the last five years. And in Canada alone, we are returning $46 billion worth of goods every year. And you think, OK, what's the big deal? Well, the problem is that -- especially when we're returning online -- a lot of these products end up going in landfills.
Why? You're returning something that's new and fine?
It actually costs a lot of companies more money to put somebody on the product, to visually eyeball it and say, is this up to standard, is it up to code? Is this going to get us sued? Did somebody tamper with this box in some way? And is this returnable? And if it's clothing, it has to be re-pressed and put back in a nice packaging. And for a lot of companies, it's just not worth it. So they will literally just incinerate it, or send it to the dumpster.
Do you have an example of something that we might all be doing that could lead to this kind of a waste?
Have you ever bought any clothes online? Further reading: The Painful, Costly Journey of Returned Goods -- and How You End Up Purchasing Some of Them Again.
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Returned Online Purchases Often Sent To Landfill More

Returned Online Purchases Often Sent To Landfill

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  • Second hand where? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Quakeulf ( 2650167 ) on Monday December 16, 2019 @11:14AM (#59524586)
    Now there's a business opportunity...

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      It could result in loss sales to the primary brand holder because discounted versions are available through such second-level markets. It may also open more conduits for counterfeiters.

      I'm not condoning the landfill behavior, only saying it could affect profits.

      • It also incentivizes consumers to return products so that they can purchase them at a lower cost through those second-level markets. The best way would just be to gather it all for charity or humanitarian aid. If the products end up in markets that wouldn't purchase them in the first place it doesn't create the same incentives for bad behavior.

        I don't know why people buy things that they wouldn't want to keep. With online clothing purchases the one time I needed to return something (shipped wrong size) I

        • Re:Second hand where? (Score:4, Insightful)

          by nightsky30 ( 3348843 ) on Monday December 16, 2019 @01:24PM (#59525216)

          Exactly, send the items to other locations across the globe where they can be donated or bought/sold cheaply in a market where they aren't usually available.

          I think people return items due to buyers remorse, stupidity (they didn't know what they needed or didn't realize what they were buying), financial hardship, etc. I'm sure in some cases the items are actually defective, or the wrong item was sent at the fault of the retailer/fulfillment warehouse.

          Sort of related:
          Bought a graphics card a while back, and what was shipped to me was some asshole's 5th gen old card. Apparently he'd kept the newer card and shoved his old ass card in the box before claiming he'd returned it. FUCKER! In this case it was not sent to a landfill, nor did any competent person bother to check if the product sent back matched the fucking picture on the box before they tried to sell it again to me. On top of being shafted with the original shipment, I had to spend my time and an extra $1 to have that shit sent back and a new card ordered. At least I got a refund on the card. But that was wasted shipping expense and materials due to some asshole consumer's selfishness and retail dumb-fuckery.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

            I'm Europe the law is that if an item ordered online is defective or not what you ordered then the seller pays the return shipping. You should not be out of pocket for their mistake.

            Sometimes they just tell you to discard the item because it's not worth then paying the postage to get it back.

        • The current method highly incentivizes consumers to buy-buy-buy, and if you don't like the product return it easily. Ie, push the red button for a one-click order (your credit card and DNA sample are already online), and you'll get stuff shipped to you automatically based upon analytics. There are a lot of people who use that approach because they're so in love with the idea of online buying. Rather than try on some clothes in the dressing room at the store, they'll buy 4 items online and try them on at ho

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by thomn8r ( 635504 )

            they'll buy 4 items online and try them on at home then return 3 of them

            There are companies that specifically offer this service

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Ranbot ( 2648297 )

            ...Rather than try on some clothes in the dressing room at the store, they'll buy 4 items online and try them on at home then return 3 of them. Absolutely stupid, lazy, and selfish behavior...

            Except that many stores have reduced inventories by not carrying all of the items/styles in the store, and direct you online. Many customers still want to see and try on the products and if they can't do it in the store, they are going to find another option. It might be shop at another store, or it might be take advantage of shipping/return policies.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Ranbot ( 2648297 )

          I don't know why people buy things that they wouldn't want to keep...

          I think a major reason if you go to the physical store to see/hold/compare an item before buying these days store inventories often do not carry all items or styles available, and they direct you to their website for more options. Then people to mimic the in-store experience at home by buying many more items to see and try them with the expectation of only keeping 1 or 2, and returning the rest. Clothing is the obvious example for this, but there are other products too.

    • Re:Second hand where? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Rockoon ( 1252108 ) on Monday December 16, 2019 @11:32AM (#59524672)
      The smart business, instead of employing people to test returned electronics, sends the returned electronics to a new customer to see if they return it also.

      This is happening. I learned of it about a decade ago when NewEgg was doing it.

      • Re:Second hand where? (Score:4, Informative)

        by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Monday December 16, 2019 @11:44AM (#59524728)
        Which works up until you get a reputation for doing exactly that and your customers start to go elsewhere.

        • Re:Second hand where? (Score:4, Informative)

          by Nethemas the Great ( 909900 ) on Monday December 16, 2019 @12:09PM (#59524808)
          The more reputable ones often label it as "open box" and offer a modest discount.
          • I've also seen "refurbished" on some electronics I bought, obviously, with a discount.

            • Re: (Score:1)

              by ebvwfbw ( 864834 )

              I often buy a refurbished over a new one. Means someone actually looked at it. I've done very well with that.

          • Or at Fry's, carefully shrink wrap that box up and sell as new, then when I open it and I find inside the original shrink wrap crumpled up into a ball next to the product. It was essentially a running joke that this happened so much; it was very common to buy games there and discover that the code had already been used. The line for returns there was sometimes as long as the line to check out. And the discount on boxes that did have the label were pretty anemic.

            • Re: (Score:1)

              by Anonymous Coward

              Fry's has now fixed that. They have no stock so they can't sell anything so they won't have any returns. It was an interesting way of solving the problem and I must say they did think (way) "outside the box" about this problem.

        • Which works up until you get a reputation for doing exactly that and your customers start to go elsewhere.

          Which works up until you get a reputation for doing exactly that and register on Amazon again with another company name and keep going.

          Fixed that for you.

      • Companies have been doing this for fifty years or more.

        When I was a kid we bought a telescope from Toys R Us. Took it home and put it together (the box had been opened.) There was a huge scratch across the main lens, which was obviously why it was returned before.

        The business model is to keep putting it back out until some customer is too stupid or lazy or scared or procrastinates too long to return it.

        Parents had ordered a fine new kitchen table. It arrived, they looked at it, a huge scratch on the top.

        • In the case of that telescope, a scratch on the lens isnt all that detrimental. It is essentially reducing the light collecting capacity by the percentage of the surface it covers, but otherwise will have little impact on the resulting image. If you have a telescope or binoculars, you can test this by putting a finger in front of the lens. It just gets slightly dimmer.

    • Re:Second hand where? (Score:5, Informative)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 ) on Monday December 16, 2019 @11:56AM (#59524756)
      Amazon and other big online retailers (including Amazon, so surprised they are mentioned in the article, I thought they did this everywhere) sell returns in bulk to liquidation companies. Those companies then break them up into lots and auction them off. Those buyers usually then go through the lots they buy to find the items that they can flip online.

      • Amazon and other big online retailers (including Amazon, so surprised they are mentioned in the article, I thought they did this everywhere) sell returns in bulk to liquidation companies. Those companies then break them up into lots and auction them off.

        So you're saying Amazon returns are the Mortgage Backed Securities of Internet retail :-P

    • Re:Second hand where? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ravenscar ( 1662985 ) on Monday December 16, 2019 @12:35PM (#59524914)

      My ex-wife's father was a retired CEO. He moved to Florida upon retirement and had plenty to live on, but he was one of those people who sees business opportunities everywhere. He started a business buying returns and unsold product from QVC. He would bid on entire pallets of stuff (often the contents were unknown). Once he had the items in his warehouse he would go through them. Some of the items were junk, but most were were in good shape or brand new. Those items would be sold to people with operations to sell them individually at big discounts. On top of that, he often came across broken jewelry and other precious metals which he would have melted down and sold for their commodity value. Sometimes he'd get really lucky. One time he came across an entire pallet of Barbie dolls that, for whatever reason, wasn't sold. They were limited editions, mint, in boxes. He made a boatload on that.

      He had to take a number of precautions to make sure that items were safe and that the people who were buying them to retail them were being honest about their origins. He also had to find outlets for all of his product (he didn't want to be bothered with sales direct to consumers). He was an upright and honest guy and he managed to do it all pretty well.

      All that to say there are absolutely people who are in this space who know how to do it profitably. If online returns are going to landfills these companies are missing a chance to earn at least a portion of their cash back.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by davidwr ( 791652 )

        He had to take a number of precautions to make sure that items were safe and that the people who were buying them to retail them were being honest about their origins

        I'm glad he went to the trouble to do it right. Unless there are consumer- and business-to-business-protection regulations or at least "best practices" that everyone is following, there is a huge opportunity for shady cost-cutting in the buy-and-resell industry.

        • Perhaps 20% of the value? vs. -5% of the value sending it to landfil.

          Apart from the bother of dealing with your father in law there will always be a chance of some come back, being sued. Who insures them? And they are cannibalizing their own sales.

          So better for them just to dump it.

    • And businesses have already jumped in that gap. BuyBay is purchasing and reselling returned goods (but not clothing). Article in Dutch here [www.nrc.nl], or watch CNN on the company website [buybay.com].

  • Probably a few product catagories (Score:3)

    by fermion ( 181285 ) on Monday December 16, 2019 @11:22AM (#59524628) Homepage Journal
    Electronics are likely refurbished.

    Mattress likely drive the landfill problem as many cannot be resold due to local laws. You order mattress, use it for the 90 days then it gets thrown away.

    Likely same thing for towels and the like. I bet clothes are donated, given the truck loads of goods I see given to the local shelters. There is an new Amazon warehouse near me and I imagine they will donate to the many local shelters for a tax break

    • Re:Probably a few product catagories (Score:4, Informative)

      by Nethemas the Great ( 909900 ) on Monday December 16, 2019 @12:20PM (#59524842)
      You can "imagine" all you like, but the lack of homeless and low income families walking around without nice clothes and food to eat suggests an entirely different reality. With rare exception it boils down to which is perceived to cost less, redistribution or incineration/landfill. You would be sickened by the sheer quantity of wholesome, nutritious food sent to landfills by grocers in spite the existence of "good Samaritan" laws that shield them from liability were they to instead donate it to food shelves and shelters.

      • Many homeless people know better than to walk around in nice clothes because it "shows" that they're "rich" and don't need any help.

      • You would be sickened by the sheer quantity of wholesome, nutritious food sent to landfills by grocers in spite the existence of "good Samaritan" laws that shield them from liability were they to instead donate it to food shelves and shelters.

        Those laws don't protect grocers as much as you think. They provide protection in both criminal and civil spheres in the absence of gross negligence or intentional misconduct. The problem is that nothing stops ambitious trial lawyers from claiming gross negligence anyway. If some homeless guy gets sick from that can of beef stew, the lawyers are just going to say that it was gross negligence on the grocer's part. A single multi-million dollar verdict far outstrips any money the grocer loses from not sellin

        • They face the very same risk from the foodstuffs they do sell. ...doesn't stop them. More over, packaged goods are clearly not ticking time bombs that detonate bacteria loads upon reaching the printed date. Neither are there legal ramifications should they chose to sell them after the "sell by," "best before," etc. dates. Exceptions exist only for "Use By" which is printed on raw meat, and similar items, neither can you sell past date baby food/formula. ref 1 [consumerist.com] ref 2 [lawyers.com]

        • But is this all just academic? Are there any actual lawsuits that have been filed? If I search for 'grocery store sued for donating food', all of the results are articles asking why grocery stores don't just donate more food.

          • It's an argument I've often heard. However, I've never found any to substantiate the fear. Those good Samaritan laws were put in place to encourage donations by removing the legal liability. The stores get away with dumping, simply because there's no real public awareness of just how massive the waste is. Take a public survey and you'll find a considerable percentage of people just assume the food is going to shelters. Most would be shocked (sickened?) to know how much perfectly good food was actually
    • If an item sells for less than ~$40, it'll be tossed after returns. The seller probably has $18-$20 into the item, and return postage/refurb/repackage/reshipment will easily cost more than that amount. So it's cheaper to just toss it.

    • If they aren't physically damaged, mattresses CAN be sanitized and resold, at least in most or all of the USA. That's how some resale shops handle donated mattresses: If it's in good enough condition to sanitize and resell, they do, otherwise they either decline the donation or if they can find a recycler, sell it to one.

      Many resale shops aren't able to do what is required so they don't accept donated mattresses at all, which probably means if you live in small or medium-sized town you may not be able to

  • Clothes - could be (Score:4, Interesting)

    by pierceelevated ( 5484374 ) on Monday December 16, 2019 @11:32AM (#59524676)
    After returning an item, the five-times-a-week emails I used to get from a major company stopped immediately. No more coupon codes for me!
    • That is interesting because clothes need to be returned a lot, and a simple visual inspection can tell quite easily whether it can still be sold as new. I wouldn't fee betrayed ordering new clothes and getting something with a few hairs on it or something from being tried on, just like at the department store.
  • It was specific to Amazon, but I swear I seen something on this earlier this year. This is not a new topic.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      The author obviously has never worked for a large retailer like Target or Walmart, because it's exactly the same story there. A very large percentage of returned goods go straight to the landfill after filing for reimbursement with the wholesaler/manufacturer.

      • Fast food has always been this way too. I remember when my brother got a job at McD in the 1980's he was surprised how much food they tossed out because somebody didn't like it, or just because the 10 minute timer expired on fries waiting to get sold, or whatever.

      • I had a similar experience with Costco. I just wanted a price adjustment on an item that I wanted to keep. A Costco manager told me that they couldn't just adjust the price. I had to return the item, which would then be trashed, and then buy a new item. Costco didn't care because they could charge the supplier. I think this is part of the problem with huge retailers who have enough power to force 100% of the cost of returns onto their suppliers.

  • Not really surprising actually in the developed world we have high labor costs. A Bean counter would do a cost analysis of labor, shipping and cost to reprocess a returned item vs straight into landfill. Whichever is cheaper that becomes the policy.

  • While some stuff is sent to the landfill, a more common response is to sell the stuff to used merchandise sellers. They sell the stuff by the pallet. Go to a site like liquidation.com where this is auctioned off.

  • If it's dumped, it got into a landfill because if it made the shelves at a Pic & Save or Dollar Store, it would show how much true worth that thing really has. That's a gig I could see the underworld doing. Diverting the landfill stuff back into an underground network of shady stores in inner cities.

  • Landfills, really? (Score:5, Informative)

    by DNS-and-BIND ( 461968 ) on Monday December 16, 2019 @11:52AM (#59524736) Homepage
    I find it doubtful that valuable merchandise is being sent to the landfill as much as they say. Amazon boxes up the returns in lots and auctions them off. There is a whole cottage industry in buying these large boxes and then reselling the contents. Youtube is full of videos like I Bought 2 BOXES of Amazon Customer Returns & Got Some AMZING Stuff (Amazon Returns Pallet Unboxing) [youtube.com] and I bought a $1,613 Amazon Customer Returns Liquidation Pallet with HUGE MYSTERY BOXES [youtube.com]. You just buy a pallet labeled "general merchandise" and it comes full of returned merchandise.

    • with amazon, its often the case (personal experience) that returns go RIGHT BACK on the shelves for unsuspecting customers.

      many times I've ordered quadcopter parts (like flight controller boards) and gotton horrible returns; non-functional, clearly shows burn marks due to fried parts, missing cables or mounting hardware. you complain, amazon credits you back and when you return it, it may go back on the shelves AGAIN.

      amazon does not seem to care. what this means is that if you need something urgently, you

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hAckz0r ( 989977 )

        My wife had just ordered an insulated/double-walled glass coffee cup from Amazon. When we received it, it had been shattered into a million little shards of glass. We took photographs of it in the shipping box but were unable to send the photograph when requesting the return. There is absolutely nothing that could be done with the return other than sending it to the landfill.

        The return process made us take the physical pieces to a Kohl's store to have them return it rather than taking it to a UPS store, li

      •     This is probably due to people lying on the returns automated system... "It didn't fit..." instead of "I broke it".. so the 'system/skynet' routes it to be resold.

            Also, Amazon "Warehouse" deals would indicate not everything gets crated up for bulk selling.

      • Yeah my first thought on reading this headline was about a phone experience I had recently: I bought a new, unopened Galaxy S8 phone. It looked perfect, but the reception was bad. It worked but only when the reception was really strong, it was almost useless inside either my home or office. They resisted the return suggesting I take it to a local cellphone store to get fixed. (This was ebay). I persisted, returned it, and bought another phone of the same kind, which works so much better.

        What are the

        • That's why I never buy open box or refurbished electronics, except for maybe something trivial like a toaster or a light bulb. There's just too many ways it can be broken but appear to be working just fine from the quick 15 second inspection that it probably got by whoever is selling it. It's just not worth it, especially since the discounts usually aren't that great either - by the time I find out why the original person returned it and that I'll have to return it too, I'm in the hole compared to if I ju

      • amazon does not seem to care. what this means is that if you need something urgently, you may have to order 2 (maybe from diff vendors, too), just to increase the odds that you get at least one good one.

        Or just quit buying from Amazon.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ibpooks ( 127372 )

      You're 100% right about this. Somewhere along the "disposal" chain, those items will be grabbed and resold and reused in some way. Hell, people pick through trash cans and dumpsters to get scrap soda cans. If there's an opportunity to get new or nearly-new brand name cloths and electronics, someone is taking advantage of it. From Amazon's point-of-view, I'm sure they just hire a company to haul away containers of used merchandise, but I guarantee those containers do not go directly to a landfill.

    • Oh, you mean loot boxes?
    • After watching those videos the only thing I can conclude is that there are a lot of assholes that buy products and then just return an empty box while keeping the merchandise. Does Amazon not even bother weighing the boxes to see if they were ripped off?

    • And what do they do with the stuff in the pallets that they don't want?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jonwil ( 467024 )

        Based on the videos I have seen (and the specific re-sellers I watch), a lot of stuff that is unsellable but still good gets donated in some way. (or in some cases packaged up and sold as bulk lots where selling the stuff individually isn't viable)

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      I find it doubtful that valuable merchandise is being sent to the landfill as much as they say. Amazon boxes up the returns in lots and auctions them off. There is a whole cottage industry in buying these large boxes and then reselling the contents. Youtube is full of videos like I Bought 2 BOXES of Amazon Customer Returns & Got Some AMZING Stuff (Amazon Returns Pallet Unboxing) and I bought a $1,613 Amazon Customer Returns Liquidation Pallet with HUGE MYSTERY BOXES. You just buy a pallet labeled "gener

  • Badly worded (Score:3)

    by Archtech ( 159117 ) on Monday December 16, 2019 @11:54AM (#59524742)

    "The increase of the volume of returns has exploded by 95 per cent over the last five years".

    It is honestly quite hard to parse what that is supposed to mean. My guess would be, "The volume of returns has nearly doubled in the past five years". But that sounds a lot less impressive.

    Whatever your preference for percentages as against old-fashioned fractions, the phrase "the increase of" is not only redundant but severely confusing. The increase in what period?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by DarkOx ( 621550 )

      "The volume of returns has nearly doubled in the past five years"

      That was how I parsed it as well; but even written that way it sounds pretty alarming to me. Just think about what it has to mean for margin.

      One way or another the contribution margin for the product that isn't returned + salvage value of the returned product has to allow for both profit at the retail and manufacturer/wholesale level.

      This means either we were dramatically over paying for stuff in the recent past. Or prices have significantly gone up. The thing is inflationary measures indicate prices have n

    • The volume of returns is worthless without knowing the increase in the volume of shipments over a similar time period. If returns have doubled and shipments are flat, that's a big deal and worth investigating further. If the volume of returns has doubled, but shipments have tripled then it seems it's just a consequence of more business being done through online merchants who have actually gotten better at solving whatever problems lead to returns.
  • My brother bought a king-size mattress online (Endy or Casper) for around $1000. It was the wrong size, so he asked to return it. A "Got Junk truck" showed up. Off to the landfill! What a waste. Could it not have been given to a shelter, a camp, or something?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bws111 ( 1216812 )

      Probably not. For example, here is NYS law on used bedding https://www.dos.ny.gov/licensi... [ny.gov]

      This law would require them to sanitize the mattress first, which requires disassembling the mattress and inspecting it at least.

    • We got new mattresses and decided to donate the old ones: the donation guys took the ok one, and the one with a tear and a spring poking out the side. The third had a toddler stain of some kind on it, and they couldn't accept it. I asked what they recommended and they suggested Craigslist, and sure enough that mattress was claimed within an hour when I listed it for free. So there are people out there that want that stuff, but the charities have a bit of red tape. Since then, anytime I have something t

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by k6mfw ( 1182893 )
      First, never accept a used mattress (don't know if it has bed bugs or other parasites). But then a king size mattress takes up a lot of landfill space, plus many others that become "disposable." I heard some landfills don't accept mattresses, the springs or strands get tangled with the dozers so it leaves the person trying to dispose it to have it conveniently fall off into the highway from the top of the car.
      • Just list it for free on Craigslist. You'd be surprised what will get taken when it's listed for free on Craigslist...

        • Yeah, I've seen that too - just about anything other than old CRT monitors will get taken.

          It was always funny with garage sales - I'll have a box of free stuff at the end of the driveway full of stuff that really had no economic value even by garage sale standards, However, since it would otherwise get landfilled, I figured if someone thought it was useful they could have it. As the main reason I'd have a garage sale is to get rid of stuff (as opposed to trying to make money), if something wasn't selling

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by k6mfw ( 1182893 )

            - a bunch of crap no one would pay a quarter for - but once it was free, it was gone almost immediately.

            It seems putting stuff curbside "for free" is equivalent to dumping, it eventually disappears but I don't know if someone grabbed it or a crew was hired to pick it up and take it to the landfill. Our condo complex is notorious for people dumping furniture where crews have to be hired to haul it away. But wait, in Santa Clara city once a year residents can put whatever stuff curbside and city will haul it away (exception hazardous chemicals). Friends set out broken microwave ovens, VHS recorders that don't

  • Cottage industry (Score:3)

    by stikves ( 127823 ) on Monday December 16, 2019 @12:19PM (#59524836) Homepage

    There is a cottage industry (i.e.: people using their own garage or warehouse), to purchase, sort thru, and resell returned inventories. For example, this is for Amazon:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    Walmart does pallets (or sometimes truckloads):
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    Target:
    https://www.youtube.com/result... [youtube.com]

    But they warn against generic "liquidators":
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    I have friends in Arizona that does similar things for books. They earn their living by browsing ex-library books, and garage sales.

    Baseline: If you are in a low labor cost state, it makes sense to work on reintegrating otherwise useful things back to society.

  • Some products can be properly refurbished.

    Some can't, including just about anything electronic that you can't cheaply put back in a "guaranteed factory-reset" state. That home router that you just returned that lets users flash the firmware with third-party firmware? For all the manufacturer knows, you flashed it with a trojan-horse "look-alike" firmware that is hard to detect and which can never be fully removed, which means it really shouldn't ever be sold without replacing the motherboard. At that poi

  • The Amazon Mindeset (Score:3)

    by LynnwoodRooster ( 966895 ) on Monday December 16, 2019 @12:41PM (#59524952) Journal
    I own a small brand, and we sell via dealers (especially overseas), direct on our website, and Amazon. We typically see around 0.5-0.6% return for dealers and direct sales - and Amazon has about 4-5%. I think a lot of people "kick the tires" on Amazon, just to try stuff out. Interestingly, sales between all 3 channels are roughly equal, in terms of revenue...
    • Probably helps that they make returns so easy relative to other online retailers. You can even drop stuff off at Kohls and get a Kohls coupon, which is some weird brand synergy...
      • Yeah, that doesn't help us much... And some products we sell are low enough cost, that it actually costs more to pay for shipping from/to Amazon and to recondition/repackage the product. It's cheaper to just toss it (well, to have Amazon toss it).

    • Amazon quite frankly has a lot of errors in their system. I've received the wrong item, or wrong color of an item many times, far more frequently than with other retailers. I would guess that much of the issue is Amazon's fault for stocking so many sketchy brands and having such a shoddy warehouse system.

      • I wonder how many times it's based upon "made up" barcodes. Brands can buy a block of 100 unique bar codes from GS for $150/year. If you just "buy a barcode" from some reseller, there's no guarantee it wasn't already sold a few times before. And you can end up having your product scanned and marked and stored as something other than what it is...
  • Not true, they are sold in bulk at a discount to someone else, who will perform the work and determine what value the items have
  • For some reason, USA and EU law have a fetish over secondhand markets. You can legally procure something made from baby seal teeth (or some other unethical environmental source) unless a specific law is passed stopping you from procuring THAT thing. But anything you sell could come back to bite you. This drives a lot of secondhand sales to places like Africa (where my recycling company operates). We see items that look brand new, pulled from shelves at Walmart or Auchon because of too many complaints / returns, which are sent back to the (often Chinese) manufacturer, who then sends the container to Africa. It has given "new" devices a very bad reputation in Africa, which drives purchases of secondhand "solid state" electronics. Which Europe bans Africans from purchasing, and sentences Africans who buy the use devices for reuse or repair to prison. See UK sentencing of Joseph "Hurricane" Benson in 2014. So more working secondhand goes to scrap as well. See Chapter 3 in Reassembling Rubbish (Dr. Josh Lepawsky) https://mitpress.mit.edu/books... [mit.edu]

  • That's what companies love to chant nowadays, with fields of blooming flowers, kids playing in that field, and cute puppies.

  • I bought a used electronic item though eBay. The listing said it was in proper working order. But when I received the item, it was not in proper working order. Not by a long shot. Interestingly enough, at several points during the transaction, I was prompted to purchase Square Trade coverage for the item, which I declined. I'm now convinced that the seller intentionally sold a defective item and I missed their "wink and a nod" to buy the Square Trade protection which would've allowed me to "upgrade" the u

  • There are a few companies (home depot, costco) who I know in the past auction off their returns on pallets. Nobody looks at them, the people buying them bid for the pallet. They get to recover their costs and the risk is offset to the purchasers of the pallets.

  • From an environmental standpoint this is clearly worse than re-using or recycling the unwanted items but, and let's not kid ourselves, burying them deep in the ground is the best alternative by far to other disposal methods. The problem then just becomes keeping them there.

    And orders of magnitude better than burning them.

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