H&M, Wal-Mart Destroy Unsold Clothing

This is disgraceful. I have seen bookstores destroy books that go unsold as well by ripping them to pieces instead of donating them to shelters, libraries, and old folks homes.

Originally posted by woodwardjnr
It's called capitalism, you will always have a surplus of the goods you produce, to give the goods away would be called socialism, which i know most people dont really like

Agreed, people just don't understand!!!

Originally posted by Akkadian

Originally posted by woodwardjnr
It's called capitalism, you will always have a surplus of the goods you produce, to give the goods away would be called socialism, which i know most people dont really like

Agreed, people just don't understand!!!

I think people understand the greed and profit motive. I'm a small business owner and love the free enterprise system but what big business has developed into is repulsive in their wastefulness when people are hurting.
Helping people isn't socialism.....it's compassion!

Don't let your ideology get in the way of your common sense.

[edit on 7-1-2010 by whaaa]

Instead of socialism, why not just call it charity. Nobody loves to be socialist, but everyone should love to be charitable. It is a positive character trait and a cornerstone of Christian and Islamic doctrine. Yes charity is something that Christians and Muslims agree on.

reply to post by groingrinder


In the UK the old people are buying books up cheap from charity shops cos they are cheaper than coal!

Now I'm never for burning books - but if they need to do that then go for it - if I knew any one like that I'd go over and help them tomorrow... In fact in this weather maybe I should ring around find out how I can go round and help out a bit - I can nail a draft excluder in place same as anyone else.

reply to post by whaaa


I know why they do it, and I don't think it's right so don't think that what I'm about to say is something I agree with.

These companies who practice this, don't want homeless people, charity cases etc. wearing their clothes. For those who can afford the clothes, they don't care if they wear them, but for those who cannot, do they really want to see a homeless man with a new jacket from H&M but with raggy jeans, gloves and a hat? No they do not want people to see this, it isn't going to help them in the real world, or so they think.

I think it would show compassion, but they do not think this.

Screw them, so many people can not afford clothes right now, let alone food & healthy water, and yet these people feel the need to ruin clothes they cannot sell. If I believed in a hell and such, these people would be going there in my book.

Originally posted by JIMC5499

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 was going to bring that point up. There are health laws preventing food from being donated. It is a shame. Just recently I was in the type of situation where eating old bread was the only option. Day old fast food would have been heaps better. When you're in a desperate situation, you're not picky.

Until those laws are fixed, food will be thrown out.

Whatever happened to people just minding there own business? Is this stuff yours? Did you buy it or pay for it? Why should a "BUSINESS!!" have to give anything away? If they decided to donate then great good for them if not get over it, its not yours so stop telling everyone what they should be doing. If all these places are so EVIL then you know what go start your own company, and at the end of the day you have unsold goods go give them away, they will be yours to do with as you please.

As for the donateing of foods, go and try to give up leftovers. As it was all ready posted, plenty of laws in place to damper that.

Do I agree with how everything is done? No, im not a fan of all the waste, but like I said, it is not mine to begain with, nor mine or anyone elses place to tell someone else what to do with there stuff.

I think the point the OP was trying to make, is that we have the resources to help those in need, but we don't use them. I feel the general population gets preached to a lot regarding charity, but it seems so rare we actually see mega corporations reaching out in ways other than money.

Why "mind your own business" when it's a needed change? This is important to address and it infuriates a lot of people.

It isn't telling a business what to do as much as it is pointing out a problem we can remedy. We care because helping someone in need really benefits everyone.



[edit on 7-1-2010 by fbnks]

People can be very wasteful, yes, but the larger problem is that we have a society with people in it that have fallen through the cracks. But, there are also those who have begged their way through life, and willingly lived off the efforts of others.

True, while we shouldn't just waste things, we also need to correct the problem of people getting to the point where they are needy.

We can give and give and give to the needy, this is good, but only a temporary solution. We need to pick those people up, who will allow themselves to be picked up, help them, then transition them back into society, where they can be productive again.

Stimulus packages, donations, and all that stuff is useless unless we put America back to work. Homelessness and poverty ends when we get those folks back to work.

Corporate downsizing, budget cuts, all that crap. That's one of our problems, trying to "cut" our way out of a recession. The recession ends when we get ourselves back to work. Produce those goods, and advertise our products more, so we can make more income through more sales, and hire more staff to keep up with demand. If corporations want to crumble because of ignorance, then we create new corporations.

Sorry, tangent. But, yeah, I'm not homeless, but I don't have a problem with an hour old Big Mac. I'll take it. Yes, make it so perfectly good food and clothing can be donated from places like Wal-Mart, yes.

Recap; nothing wrong with helping someone in need, but we don't truly help them unless we help them help themselves, so they can dust themselves off, and get back on their feet again, and not rely on others anymore. Now, children are obviously different, needy children will need help until they are old enough, then we can put them on their way.

Troy

reply to post by whaaa


Shame on them!

There are many people in the world in need of clothes, people who do not care about waering the latest fashion.

Companies like these give money to charity which they can reduce of their taxes. It doesn´t cost them anything!

Double shame that they waste unsold clothes like this!

Peace!

You are right. Currently my SO and I are jobless and have been for months. Now we're homeless with our first baby on the way. All anyone wants to do is try handing us money.

We want to work. We sucked this place dry. Itried KFC - fast food is a sure thing, supposedly. Epic fail at maybe 8 hours a week. So, now we're forced to move.

We've come to realize many sad things about the people we thought were friends. You ask for a job contact and get snubbed, you hint you're hungry and maybe get leftovers.

It's a sad realization - to try so hard to make it on your own and to do so welk, and then it all crashes at once. It's life, of course, but a helping hand really helps you feel better about your siruation in unexpected ways.

I also went on a tangent. Basically, I'm trying to say that help in any form really motivates a person. A warm jacket feels so good after getting the cold shoulder from yoyr "friends" and even fellow church goers. So surprising.

Going back to the original topic, there is something that people forget to think about.

Put yourself in the shoes of one of those fat cats sitting at the top of H&M or Walmart (or any other chain, plenty culprits out there).

They must be seeing it from a profit perspective and more importantly looking to protect their brand - end of the day why would they want to give away their products that they would rather have sold?

Too many on the market could also mean they lose some of their perceived brand identity and status but I think it's also their arrogancy where these people don't want certain people within certain class sectors having access to products they would have happily sold for a few hundred dollars.

It's a eff'd up world and the OP's post is an example of what's wrong with the world - everyone is so busy sewn up in their own BS they haven't got time to use common sense and actually give a damn about the world.

All it takes is one act of kindness being repeated over and over by many people to sort 50% of the worlds problems and importantly, giving those people hope to then go on and help others.

The point that seems to have been missed here is that it's the "CORPORATE" idea that is wrong.

We need to get back to community living. In a community, we don't go out and buy anything we think we want. Instead, we take only what we need, and any surplus is shared.

There are a number of cultures that practiced this throughout the world, and because it didn't fit in with the "corporate policy", they have been systematically persecuted and eliminated.

It's time we realised this, only then can we reach our true potential.

Originally posted by nixie_nox
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.

Somebody may have already suggested this...but I couldn't proceed without replying.

You can't put your current product out into the public for free.

These pieces would have to be specially marked with an indelible ink so you wouldn't get killed at the RETURN window.

That would cost a lot more than feeding them into a shredder and recyling.

And they wouldn't be flipping a proverbial bird to the millions of people who paid good money for something they suddenly read was given away for free.

Not smart business.

This is a big reason why, if I do have to go to a big box store for something, i go to Target. I dont know if it's just here in Michigan, or elsewhere, but anything clearance that doesnt sell, store displays, returns is all donated to Goodwill. It is recycled in a way, because the store is considered a charity group, employs a lot of disabled people who normally would be discriminated against [supposedly illegal], and sells their donations for prices that underprivelaged families can afford.

seems fairly noble for a corporate store, if you ask me.

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.

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.

Yeah but unfortunately there are laws that make the ones distributing/selling those foods held responsible for any case of food poisoning/intoxication by their food. Since in the US a mere slip in a sidewalk results in a multi-million suit, private companies don't want to take the risk of having to pay millions of dollars to someone that felt bad -- or pretended -- after eating something that they gave for free.

So I would say that's more of an issue for the government to fix by adjusting some laws than a arrogant posture of corporations on the food business.

I certainly wouldn't put my business at risk and the work of everyone working for me for trying to help someone that sees that as a breach and a easy way to make some money.

Regarding clothes on the other hand I have to say that the owners and shareholders of those companies should be arrested and have their business closed by authorities. There are billions of people around the globe in need of cloths to survive. Throwing those away is just too stupid to be forgiven.

If companies don't want to see homeless people wearing their cloths using the argument that it would devalue their products they could very well send them to Africa at least.

I thought this would fit well here. Charles Moore, on the Colbert Report last night, found the Pacific waste float.

www.colbertnation.com...

I couldn't figure out how to embed the video, so please follow the link to view the interview.

[edit on 7-1-2010 by For Truth]

Originally posted by [davinci]
In the end, it is the weight of our bureaucracy collapsing upon us that creates these situations.

Nail on head davinci.

We can talk about it until doomsday but it does come down to pure bureaucracy.

what the fudgicle aRE they doing!!!! i need those clothes