When are returns not tossed in the trash?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's pretty common knowledge that a lot of online shopping returns are either immediately tossed in the trash by the vendor (or they tell Kohls or whomever processes the returns to toss them) or don't actually get returned to the store/made available for direct sale again, rather they get acquired by resellers/bundlers. This is widely reported on.

I try to avoid participating in this travesty. I don't buy loads of stuff from cheap vendors like Old Navy or Amazon clothes, with the expectation of returning half of it -- because i am 100% sure when i buy a $8 shirt from old navy, if i "return" it, it's not going back to Old Navy - it's going into the trash or being acquired by a reseller. Same thing with the $15 random item I bought from Amazon that ends up not meeting my needs. So i don't buy a lot from those vendors. To the extent I end up with this kind of cheaper stuff I don't want, we eventually sell in a yard sale, or put on facebook marketplace for free, or I give to my housecleaner who either keeps stuff for herself or donates to her church (which has an active donation program).

But I'm curious whether there is a level of store/price point where you can be pretty confident that your returns are actually going back to the store and actually being resold by that store. I live in a smaller metro area, and our local shopping is total crap so i buy online. Realistically, i need to return stuff that either doesn't fit or doesn't look good. And i almost always do my returns within a few days of items arriving. But I'd prefer to know that my returns aren't going in the trash pile.

If I'm buying from mid- and higher-price brands, is it pretty certain that the items are going back to them and being resold?

Like, i just bought three pairs of pants from Paige Jeans for their Black Friday 30% off sale, but only liked 1 of them on. Before 30% off, they're priced around $250 each. Can I assume Paige is taking them back and re-selling? Same thing that i just bought 2 skirts direct from Alice and Olivia in a rush for an event, and only want to keep the one that I preferred on. $250 skirt - can i assume the return is going back to A&O? What about athleisure like Vuori? What about more "mid range" brands like Jcrew? I'm thinking they also take stuff back, because that's why they basically made all their sales "Final Sale" only? Or is this all a total crap shoot and I should assume all of it is potentially headed for the trash heap? What about non-clothes stuff like brand name electronics?

Wow. You’re a saint. Saving the universe one ecru henley at a time.

[Anonymous]

As long as the return is in new condition and the item is sold in stores (not online only, not a previous season item although that might still be put on a clearance rack, depending on the item) they will usually do the return and put it back out on the store shelves. The online only items would usually get shipped back to a warehouse since there isn’t room for them in the store. Sometimes you could retag an online only item as clearance and put it on a clearance rack however.

I’m not sure how it works with stores that take Amazon returns - clearly the items are going SOMEWHERE since it’s not like Whole Foods or Amazon Fresh has a whole section of miscellany returns. But whether they get shipped back and resold or destroyed or sold in bulk to maybe a reseller or a discount store - I’m not sure. Probably some combination of the above really. But I’d say if you’re really concerned about not making clothing waste - stores like Old Navy and Macy’s and such are likely fine to order from. Just return what doesn’t fit promptly so they can put it back out at the store.

[Anonymous]

I’ve definitely received clothes from normal (not cheap) retailers that I’ve purchased online and have come with deodorant or makeup stains. Lots stores absolutely to resell returns. With that said, I always wash new clothing before wearing.

[Anonymous]

One of my relatives works near a big discount store that only sells bins of Amazon returns in Missouri. I want to know what goes there vs what goes right back to the amazon seller who sells it again.

I know that amazon sellers sell things that were returned because I've gotten many products that were clearly tried on/plugged in or are missing parts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As long as the return is in new condition and the item is sold in stores (not online only, not a previous season item although that might still be put on a clearance rack, depending on the item) they will usually do the return and put it back out on the store shelves. The online only items would usually get shipped back to a warehouse since there isn’t room for them in the store. Sometimes you could retag an online only item as clearance and put it on a clearance rack however.

I’m not sure how it works with stores that take Amazon returns - clearly the items are going SOMEWHERE since it’s not like Whole Foods or Amazon Fresh has a whole section of miscellany returns. But whether they get shipped back and resold or destroyed or sold in bulk to maybe a reseller or a discount store - I’m not sure. Probably some combination of the above really. But I’d say if you’re really concerned about not making clothing waste - stores like Old Navy and Macy’s and such are likely fine to order from. Just return what doesn’t fit promptly so they can put it back out at the store.

It's a combination for Amazon. There was a good story about this somewhere. Some items are sold again as "new", others are sold as "like new" or through their warehouse and other stuff is sent to some kind of bulk reseller. Amazon has some cheap clothes I ordered and a big percentage were all clearly returns and you sometimes see that in the reviews like they sold someone something "new" that had makeup stains.

[Anonymous]

It's difficult and we do what we can to reduce waste in our world. Meanwhile, this perfectly good palm beach mansion was torn down to build a new one, because the new owner did not like it:

[Anonymous]

Definitely a lot of it ends up trashed which is awful. But you should also read about "bin stores" where some of it ends up on cheap discount. Obviously a lot of probably not resold even once included in the bin store so still trash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As long as the return is in new condition and the item is sold in stores (not online only, not a previous season item although that might still be put on a clearance rack, depending on the item) they will usually do the return and put it back out on the store shelves. The online only items would usually get shipped back to a warehouse since there isn’t room for them in the store. Sometimes you could retag an online only item as clearance and put it on a clearance rack however.

I’m not sure how it works with stores that take Amazon returns - clearly the items are going SOMEWHERE since it’s not like Whole Foods or Amazon Fresh has a whole section of miscellany returns. But whether they get shipped back and resold or destroyed or sold in bulk to maybe a reseller or a discount store - I’m not sure. Probably some combination of the above really. But I’d say if you’re really concerned about not making clothing waste - stores like Old Navy and Macy’s and such are likely fine to order from. Just return what doesn’t fit promptly so they can put it back out at the store.

It's a combination for Amazon. There was a good story about this somewhere. Some items are sold again as "new", others are sold as "like new" or through their warehouse and other stuff is sent to some kind of bulk reseller. Amazon has some cheap clothes I ordered and a big percentage were all clearly returns and you sometimes see that in the reviews like they sold someone something "new" that had makeup stains.

There was a Wirecutter story a few weeks ago that talked about this. At least some returns are thrown into random pallets and sent to liquidators, who in turn resell the pallets.

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/mystery-amazon-pallet-unboxing/