The One Where I Point The Finger At H&M and Wal-Mart
Shame on you!
Image “borrowed” from Ponty Source
Yeah I said it. Shame, shame, shame.
Now, ya’ll know I love me some Wal-Mart. I just do. I think they sell items at affordable prices. But when I read the article saying that both Wal-Mart and H&M are purposely damaging and then throwing away unsold items from their store. All I could do was shake my head. You should be ashamed.
In this day and age when times are so hard for so many people, you are throwing away stuff that you don’t sell? That’s not even appropriate.
Once upon a time, I used to volunteer at a battered women’s shelter in Saint Petersburg, Florida and once every two weeks, I would go to a local Target and pick up donations from them. What did these donations consist of? Any and everything. Unsold items that were just sitting in a back stock room. They had been marked down and discounted and still were not sold, so they donated them to a place in need. Bikes, clothes, hygiene items- all kinds of stuff.
The H&M in Manhattan, which I used to frequent by the way, by the train station where I used to catch the A train. Yup, I’m calling you out! Right there on 35th street. They were just tossing stuff into the street. Then when interviewed about it both H&M and Wal-Mart tried to act all shocked and surprised. Psshhh.
There are people in this country who could really use those clothes. Read more about it here. I’m out of words.
Just, why? There are so many people in need. It’s hard on my wallet, but I’d rather shop mom and pop’s than support that kind of big business.
It pained me when I first heard about this. Some people have no heart or conscience.
I worked retail and this is a very common practice. It is my understanding that part of it deals with accounting rules. They are able to write off a bigger loss for “damaging” the item out than for donating it at the reduced value. It sucks but I understand that even these little things affect their bottom line also affect how many people they can hire and keep on staff as well as allows them to increase their cash donations.
So – I just say, don’t judge. While it may not look great from the outside there are always reasons. For all you know, this method of accounting allowed them the extra cash on their balance sheets to make their sizeable donation to Haiti.