Rhetorical questions for Meh shoppers
3Consumer Reports wonders where stuff goes to die after people return it to stores. Me, I just look at our homes.
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Consumer Reports wonders where stuff goes to die after people return it to stores. Me, I just look at our homes.
There is also a local place out here that buys pallets of returns from places like Wal-Mart and set up an indoor flea-market style place. They sell their stuff in one part, and rent out spaces to vendors who sell anything from garage sale stuff, to jewelry, handmade crafts, candles, etc. If I need canning jars for non-canning purposes, they are the first place I hit up.
@Thumperchick I like that idea. I don't know of any in Chicago, but I'd probably occasionally wander through one if it opened. (Although we do have at least three crafts fairs a month, so that's covered, at least.)
@Thumperchick Sounds like a great place to find a buyer for a few PB n' J Spreaders I have lying around...
I don't see open box specials in stores as often now. Maybe they're going to liquidators?
@nadroj I bet that's the case. There's got to be an economy of scale there, especially since any chain probably has regional warehouses that can take returns from all of the stores and sell 'em all to a @poppiart.
@nadroj I have seen Walmart and Target tape up returns then selling the items as new again. Since the Target in my area has high traffic, you have to check any home electronics to see if it has been opened already and if all the parts are there. (example, not the only time) I purchased an espresso maker that looked new and packged up. When I unwrapped everything, the carafe was broken and there were grounds/water in the machine..
@The_Baron That's on par with what Fry's Electronics, aka (F)requently (R)eturning (Y)our (S)hit, used to do; they've since cleaned up and label their previous returns. Some of the local Goodwill stores here do get Target and Walmart returns/overstock/damaged goods to resell, though sometimes they're priced even higher than they were before.
"Of course, there’s another option: the items end up back on the shelves. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing in some cases, but for other merchandise its somewhere between 'icky' and illegal. Specifically: underwear. Last week, an NBC investigation showed employees from Victoria’s Secret, Walmart, and Marshalls putting returned underpants back on store shelves, something that’s usually against store policies."
I used to be a GM in the retail world. I ran two stores at the same time in my market. One was a 4.1 million dollar store and the other was about 1.75 million dollar store. Our returns that were non-sellable went in back, then once a month or so we'd get a message to scan and box all of that inventory and ship it to one address (for audit purposes). Thousands of stores in my company did the same thing. From what I know from experience in my case, some items were liquidated through vendors, some were returned to manufacturer with credit given to company, and some of it they would send to our smaller stores in less busy markets at 50-75% off to get those stores some money in and out. Because in that line of business the main company tracked your store and if you got something from Department 1 (as an example) and moved all units within a week, next time Department 1 was launching something new or have new stock of a hot item you might get a couple to test your market that way. Just information, hope it helps.
And here I thought it all (well except the underwear) ended up in the meh warehouse. Silly me...
Amazon uses warehouse deals, Zappos uses 6pm, but I've always wondered about places like Target and Walmart.
I know a few stores have actually been caught destroying clothing so that it can't be resold or donated, as it would damage their brand image. Doing things like cutting off sleeves and stuff.
@Collin1000 You missed the part where Amazon owns Zappos (which of course owns 6pm).
@Cinoclav Yeah though until recently they've kept their operations separate.
@Collin1000 Target often marks things with a red "As Is" tag, similar to their clearance tags, and sticks it on an endcap to resell at a discount. Assuming the product was resellable, of course (ie, not used underwear).
Best Buy appears to have cowboom.
@walarney Indeed, I was going to make that same point.
@walarney They also have an employee site like cowboom with dealtree.
This does raise an interesting question for someone like @snapster assuming he could (or would want to) answer:
With the rise of stores, especially online, doing their own liquidating, has it been harder to find those good bulk deals? For example, I would think before the days of Cowboom, 6pm and others those retailers might have looked to Woot/Meh/OneSale etc to move their open box and refurbs but now they do it themselves it seems.
@Bingo Even Woot hasn't been around that much longer than, say, Cowboom.
@Bingo I would think perhaps yes… There is a local liquidator chain (brick and mortar) that 6 years ago when I moved here used to have fantastic deal after fantastic deal and for the last 2 years have had hardly any inventory compared to the past and and when they get something (which isn't very often anymore) it generally isn't very desirable stuff. For example 4 years ago they scored a high end shoe store and you could get $100+ shoes for $40 or less. Now they mostly get almost looks like dollar tree stuff… of course with the economy improving perhaps there are fewer deals out there to be had too...
Pier 1 sells their clearance and stuff to Big Lots.