Have you seen this??? In a nutshell, Walmart and H&M took their unsold clothing and threw it away. Not only did they throw it away, but they trashed everything - cutting fingers off gloves, slashing through winter coats, cutting holes in clothing and ruining shoes rendering them unwearable in case the items were found.
WTF is the matter with these companies? There are hundreds of thousands of needy people (probably more) across the US. How fucking hard would it be to...I don't know...maybe DONATE this stuff to shelters? I'm just sick over this - those items could have made a huge difference for families in need. I can't imagine it would have cost that much to see that this unsold clothing made its way to a shelter. They're pretty much everywhere. Hell, it could have even been a tax write-off for these companies. Despite the companies' oh-golly-gee-we-can't-imagine-how-this-happened stance, I'm betting it's a pretty common practice.
I understand that companies exist to make a profit, and it's problem for them when things don't sell, but for fuck's sake, this kind of destruction is disgusting. I don't understand how the people that make these kinds of decisions can sleep at night.
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15 comments:
I agree...and they can definitely write it off.
And just how much did they spend by paying people to sit and trash the clothes? I'm betting it was a heck of a lot more than the cost of taking the clothes to a local shelter.
I saw that, too. Further fuel on my "I'm never entering another Walmart" fire. It's been 8-10 years so far...
I hope someone loses their cushy job over THAT decision! Then maybe they'll realize the worth of donated clothing.
BTW...what's H&M?
OMG. That's sick! WHY?! If they even gave an iota of thought to public image (I'm appealing to their selfishness), you'd think the earnings as a result of generous donation would make trashing items ridiculously stupid even for their money crunchers. Donating because they CARE (clearly a foreign concept to them) would seem to be the only logical HUMAN response. Trashing their own shit to keep it out of the hands of THOSE WHO NEED IT BAD ENOUGH TO SEARCH THROUGH THE GARBAGE is just… unconscionable. WHY?! I don’t get it.
My newspaper (I'm the editor) does an annual glove, hat and scarf drive where people donate those items to be passed out through our local schools to kids in need. I'd have driven to our local Wal-Mart to pick them up if we could gotten their donation.
What a waste!
Every time I think Wal-Mart can't get any greedier, they prove me wrong. The sad part is that if the person responsible loses their cushy job, it will be because they got caught, not because they did anything wrong.
I don't go to Walmart just because I don't like it but I do agree this practice of waste is disgusting.. not uncommon though. I have a crafty streak in my and frequent Michaels Crafts. I picked something up off the shelf went to the register and was told I couldn't buy it.. (The price came up 1 cent BTW) The mark the out going product 1cent then cover it all with SPRAY paint and crush the harder stuff then trash it.. WHY? This practice has been going on for a long time. A LOT of folks have complained but to my knowledge no one has taken any real action. I imagine if people really stood up this would change but to this point I would be hard pressed to find a national chain store who does not do the same thing (think of the grocers around you.. if you live in a low income area I ask you to drive around tot he dumpster at night and there WILL be hungry folks in the garbage! I hope I never have to do that since I have a seriously weak stomach but it is perfectly good food they are trashing! SOME places do donate bakery items to shelters that I know of but I have not heard of produce being donated.. Add insult to injury if someone got caught in the dumpster picking out the food by police they would be arrested! It is still considered theft!?!
I didn't see this article, but is it every Wal-mart or just one? anyway, I had a thought, since I'm getting all these politacl e-mails about ongeress getting raises in our dpressed economy maybe Wal-mart could get some freee kudos if they gave this stuff to our underprivliaged congress people.
Yikes
Jannifer
Bad Karma. Bad Juju.
Whatever you want to call it, they've got it.
G.
Hello Bronwyn
that is disgusting
us in England have heard about Walmart being a big superstore you should e-mail your local Radio let them broadcast your findings it will let others vent there feelings
& shame the corporation.
Marie*
Yes, I saw that! WTF is right! The cost to drop it off at a shelter is negligable and yup, they could have written the donation off on their taxes and lots of good PR when that slipped.
Doesn't surprise me at all- and yes, it will be common and known practice throughout these stores. Staff won't be slashing this stuff for the fun of it, and no manager will come up with this idea. It will be company policy, and they'll be told to do it.
Blockbuster does exactly the same thing with DVDs that are so low in price that they're "cutting into rental revenue". And yes, they order staff to destroy them, even if staff don't want to and would prefer to donate them to charity shops.
It's a disgusting, wasteful, greedy practice, and I hope these companies keep getting outed and shamed.
Personally, I don't even like the practice of throwing out and destroying expired but perfectly edible food.
Disgusting.
Not to mention the complete waste of the energy that went into producing the merchandise in the first place.
I'd love to see the employees rebel. Of course, everyone is so afraid of being unemployed that no one would dare object.
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