why you shouldnt shop at H and M or Walmart

Shame, H&M, shame.
Last week we learned that both the trend-forward
retailer and Wal-Mart engage in the odd and wasteful practice of destroying
unsold merchandise, and throwing it in the trash. Both companies scrambled to
come up with apologetic statements, a rep for H&M vowing that it was an
anomalous error that wouldn’t reoccur: “It will not happen again. We are
committed 100 percent to make sure this practice is not happening anywhere else,
as it is not our standard practice.”
Yet when New York’s WPIX recently
returned to the scene of the crime, reporters came across an employee hauling
bag after bag of shoes into a truck. When asked where the bags were going, the
employee clearly stated, “In the trash,” as if it should be obvious. When they
questioned if he was aware of H&M’s wasteful shredding and trashing method,
he got shy, repeatedly saying, “I can’t comment on that.”
Of course, all of
us are watching this, completely appalled. Why wouldn’t H&M or Wal-Mart drop
the clothes off at a charity? It would require the same manpower and resources.
Yet, there is a reason why retailers wouldn’t want their merchandise going back
into circulation.
On Double X, Erika Kawalek, who is writing a book on this
issue, brings up a point which may recall your teenage shoplifting days (cough,
cough): “They are more concerned with their cheap merch flooding discount
channels or coming back as ‘unpaid’ returns at their cash registers.” Return
something you never bought; get the refund. One of the oldest tricks in the
book. Still, the concept of throwing out clothes remains unacceptable.