H&M, Wal-Mart Destroy Unsold Clothing

www.huffingtonpost.com...

Amid the recession and the cold winter months, Cynthia Magnus made a shocking discovery at the H&M in Manhattan's Herald Square. It wasn't a sale on the season's hottest trends--it was garbage bags upon garbage bags of unsold merchandise, most of it slashed with razors to ensure that no one would ever wear or sell it, the New York Times reports.

"Gloves with the fingers cut off," Ms. Magnus said, reciting the inventory of ruined items. "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." The jackets were tagged $59, $79 and $129.

And right around the corner from this particular H&M is a popular collection point for New York Cares' coat drive. The organization's spokeswoman Colleen Farrell told the Times, "We'd be glad to take unworn coats, and companies often send them to us."

While H&M's destroy-and-discard policy is a missed opportunity in this time of need, the fast fashion retailer isn't the only one to practice these extreme measures. Magnus also found bags full of clothes priced with Wal-Mart tags, and each item had a hole punched through it.

Melissa Hill, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart told the Times that the company typically donates its unsold pieces to charity and would investigate why those bags was discarded.

This is not to explicitly rag on WalMart on my part but to show the arrogant corp. attitude prevalent in America.

Does this make sense to destroy clothes during a time when people are financially hurting, coldest winter on record in some states and the homeless population growing daily? I think it's time for companies to contribute to the tough economic times. Fast food restaurants should not throw uneaten food in the dumpster but donate it to a distribution point to those in need. Farmers and dairymen should not destroy food to keep the price up. There is an abundance of "stuff" in this country being destroyed in the quest for increased profit.

IMO it's criminal for repoed houses be boarded up to keep people out by the banks while people sleep in tents and cardboard boxes under bridges, and homeless shelters. And there are those here that will applaud such injustice. America has lost her way!



[edit on 7-1-2010 by whaaa]

starred and flagged

About time someone pointed the finger to the insane waste of good food
and other recyclable items that are thrown out as garbage


How can a anyone throw away food/clothing
when their neighbors(People in their community )
are cold and hungry


there are many charities that would be glad of such stuff
and all it takes is a phone call to find out ...which charity needs what

I have to star and flag this because it is completely disgusting.

I am one of the fortunate ones who doesn't have to worry about losing my job, what/when I will eat next, or where I'll sleep at night. I have to say that wasting anything that can be given away to people who don't have much displays absolute idiocy, carelessness for humanity, and a coldness of the heart colder than Antarctic winters... When are the people on top of the ladder going to wake up and realize that if they would ever be in that situation, they would appreciate the help from these rich pigs (the ones who don't care about anything except $$$)... Maybe someone should show them what it's like to be cold, hungry, and in need of the basic requirements to live...

After so many minutes McDonalds throws its unsold food away as well as other food chains. There is Nothing wrong with this food.

Hospitals make tons of food each day that go to the garbage because they don't sell it all.

There should be a law against this.

These places if they don't want to sell the food could store it in a refrigerator and give it to the homeless at the end of the day.

This is a Crime and Should be a Crime.

There is No Law that says these places cannot store the food and resell it at another time as long as it is kept fresh.

But the willful waste of good food is just not right.

I go to a restaurant that has a daily menu, but if you want something from the day before if they have leftovers, they will heat you some up for free. - no extra charge because this place is a buffet.

For way too long now we've been producing more than is possible of being consumed and creating waste.

Too many cars, too many textiles, too much food.

It cant go on like this for long.

I imagine as the credit lock outs move up into commercial and industrial areas there will be some significant production cuts.

Then, of course, the people will complain they have lost their job. A job that by all rights never should have existed in the first place as it was founded in the fantasy of credit.

Then we wont be able to just sit and wait out a real correction. Not a simple market correction but a real tangible lifestyle correction. Possibly involving an awful lot of death. Cant do that. So we'll delay it another 5-10 years by jacking inflation with more "bailouts.'

Until people get over their manufactured splendor and crash back down to the real reality of life none of this will ever repair itself.

Blame the corporate lawyers . What if someone breaks a nail while putting on a donated pair of pants then it's the companies fault for dumping the defective clothing on the poor innocent homeless people and their children. Our company went thru something like that and now everything gets destroyed and you can get fired for trying to keep it from happening.

Originally posted by JohnPhoenix
After so many minutes McDonalds throws its unsold food away as well as other food chains. There is Nothing wrong with this food.

Yhea we used to have to do this at McD's, we would wheel the bin out the back with another empty one, one would pull the food out and another would tally it up on a chart and then the bag was tossed in the skip (behind a locked gate).

It was a really naff job after you'd done it a couple of times - we used to dare each other to eat bin food as we called it -- that's how you get out of having to do that job! - Either get caught eating bin food or maybe tossing it around or tallying up a really daft amount of food so the numbers were all screwed up.

I miss being 16

Liability issues aside, the wrong people are being blamed here. You need to take a look at the store's contract with the manufacturer of these items. Many manufacturers have a policy that unsold items must be destroyed. The store is usually required to return a tag and a certain part of an item to the manufacturer to recieve credit. Sometimes all that is required is a picture of the destroyed items.

I'm going to piss alot of people off with my next statement. Too bad if I do. Untill an item is purchased by the end user, it is the property of the store or manufacturer. They can do with it as they see fit. They are under no obligation to donate it to some charity. If they choose to do so, fine. If they choose not to, I have no problem with that either.

Food is an entirely different matter. There are too many laws prohibiting commercial establishments from donating left over food to local charities. I belong to an organization that holds dinners once a month to raise funds. We had about 20 pork chop dinners left over one time and took them across the parking lot to a church that has a shelter in it's basement. These dinners were freshly made and were only in their containers for about five minutes. The church told us that they were not allowed to accept them because of local health laws. The next day we had a spot inspection of our kitchen from the Health Department and were cited for not having a certified food handler in the kitchen for our dinners.

I wonder how someone who would need donated clothing would afford a lawyer to sue toe corporation if they broke a nail?

I worked at Wal-Mart (I know I know I am a horrible person what can I say lol) and some of the above posters are right. We had little say over what was to be done with unsold products. We had the CVP program for reducing items that weren't selling but apart from that donating clothing wasn't really an option though our store if I remember correctly did donate to local charities though I dunno how much it helps.

I agree entirely with the idea that we waste far too much and if threat of a a lawsuit is what is keeping companies from donating their clothing to those who need it in these troubled times then I say grow a back bone. Walmart especially makes 244 Billion alone each in canada. people need help and it isnt likely their gonna have the money to sue for a nail caught in a zipper.

Cheers

Because they receive money from the loss or the recycled materials.

The problem is a society that wants so many items for so little money that a company uses practically slave labor to produce it in third world countries, that they have too much to sell and is more cost effective to throw away.

I was under the impression that this was standard practice for all retailers...but yeah its messed up but I can see why they do it, someone could easily pick up all the tossed away goods and sell them, I think these retailers really should donate unsold clothing ...im sure there would be a tax break for it...

Short on time here.

When I worked at a grocery store I couldn't believe all the food that goes to waste. Cans of food with the label torn or a little dent would be thrown out like it had cooties. SO MUCH GOOD FOOD is was/is put to waste!

I don't understand why they don't donate this stuff to charity for a tax deduction. Everybody loves to cheat the tax man, why don't they?

Or is it a bigger deduction to just declare it as a loss and then toss it away?

If that's the case, they need to revise the tax codes. They won't though, there's nothing the government loves more than waste.

[edit on 7-1-2010 by FortAnthem]

The movie Wall-E was from the future i swear.

Unfortunately, they are't wrong to do this and here is why. My ex-wife used to work at Sears and they did the same thing. She enquired about it and the reason was this: they used to give it away to charity. Then the people who received it, came back to the store with these "new" items and asked to be refunded. At the time Sears would give you a refund even without a receipt. So, this time around (and believe me, I honestly think that the only way to save our civilisation is to get rid of corporations), the corps are not to blame; they were the victims of trying to help out.

I found out about this type of thing in my hometown about four years ago. It's appalling. If the reason given for this is that people are bringing donated stuff back without receipts to try to get refunds, then the stores should stop taking refunds without receipts, period. It's not worth it to throw all that stuff out for that reason. I know Target Stores in my town donate their stuff to Goodwill. I respect them for that. I'm sorry, but Wal-Mart is just evil.

This is America's problem in general. We are an INSANELY wasteful society. It's sickening to know that these retailers and food companies throw away things that can be used.

The saddest part about all of this, is that I could almost guarantee that ANYONE in need of clothing would still take these, holes and slashes and all. Do you know what NYC is like on a cold winter night? Windy and effing freezing. Don't think for one second that a homeless person or family in terrible need wouldn't give a finger for a sweater with a few holes or a coat to drape over them as they sleep.

America is becoming a disgusting and repulsive nation...

Walmart is not the only company that destroys clothes. Many companies do this. My sister works for Madewell, which is like J. Crew or Abercrombie and they destroy clothes for some reason rather than send them to Goodwill or something. Its naive to think this is just an American problem. Yes we as Americans are wasteful, but this transcends into many other countries. Its just one of the many problems with the world.

Its just like with the Rose Bowl. They already have shirts for both Texas as champions and Alabama as champions. And its up to the company whether the losers' shirts will be destroyed or sent out for the less fortunate.

I used to work at Sears and they destroyed all returns etc.
I thought it was such a waste but the reason they gave me is that
it's way too easy for people to return the used items for cash, so basicly
because of a few, many have to do without great items that store any would have loved to donate.

As far as food goes it's kind of the same deal; if someone should get sick the donators are open to be sued.

reply to post by xsheep


wow, thats unbelievable!
they should just give all their unused clothes to goodwill or salvation army! :/

i just returned a perfectly good clothing item at target, it was the wrong size. they immediately tagged it for goodwill upon my returning it, strange, but nice.