If you’re thinking of sending back a disappointing gift you just received over the holidays, the return may bring even more disappointment.
Americans have grown accustomed to free returns, but a growing number of retailers are charging fees as returns squeeze retailers’ bottom lines.
Macy’s, Abercrombie, J. Crew, H&M and other companies have all added shipping fees for mail-in returns.
And it’s not just the big mall brands, either. Eighty-one precent of merchants are now charging a fee for at least some methods of returns, according to Happy Returns, a logistics company that specializes in returns.
People were ordering five colors of an outfit, trying each one on once, then returning all but one of them. And then the rest just get thrown out because the company can’t sell the clothing that has already been tried on.
Since when can’t they sell stuff that’s been tried on? Brick and mortar stores do it literally every day. Unless it’s underwear, who cares?
With fast fashion, it’s often just cheaper to throw it out then go through even the most basic of QC steps to ensure the product is still in sellable condition.
The fact that it is fast fashion is the issue. No labor cost since it’s made by slaves. No material cost since it’s basically sewn together with hopes and wishes. All you really pay for is the shipping.
If that garment you want to buy is cheap, odds are it’s made with blood and paid for with climate change.
Yeah I realized after I said it that it was almost certainly fast fashion because those stores are all speedrunning worst practices of all time. I’m both too old and too much of a hippie to shop at any of those places, so I (try to) forget they exist.
You should avoid fast fashion not only because it doesn’t last, but also because a lot of it is made with slave labor.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2023/09/13/exploitation-forced-labor-drive-fast-fashion-supply-chain/70800035007/
I don’t understand though, because I tried doing research, what other alternatives are there? Seems every damn clothing brand and product has had slave labor involved somewhere.
https://www.npr.org/2019/12/29/792146756/report-many-returned-products-thrown-out-instead-of-resold
https://www.businessinsider.com/fast-fashion-christmas-shopping-clothes-returns-shein-zara-waste-mountain-2022-12?op=1
https://www.bbcearth.com/news/your-brand-new-returns-end-up-in-landfill
That was what all of their ads were, though: order what you like, try them on in the comfort of your home, anything you don’t like for any reason - wrong fit, bad color, whatever - just return it! You can’t get annoyed with the customers when this is literally what the merchants said they should do.
lol. Why is made up shit so popular? Don’t get me wrong, some companies have advertised this, but most aren’t pricing this into their costs. Which is why they now want to charge for it.
That happens less often than the scamazon Chinese knock off crap being sold under fake 5 star reviews getting returned. Amazon needs to go back to companies being required to own office space in the country they’re selling to in order to sell their goods there.
What do you expect with companies like Amazon, Zappos and such where their business model was buy try on and return. Then there is Walmart that would take anything back including empty paint cans if the buyer was unhappy with the color.
Knew someone that worked returns at Walmart. Customer wanted to return something. She said they can’t do that. Customer asked to speak to manager. Manager said, “just do the return”. She responded, “we don’t even sell this here. I literally can’t return it.” Manager took over. Did something at the register. Put the item in the return pile to be restocked. Customer seemed happy with the outcome.
They literally will take items they don’t even sell in the store.
To be fair, that’s a based manager lol. Sounds like they didn’t GAF about corporate
Eh, IMO that’s a crappy manager. Rather than deal with the potential outburst from an asshole customer, they’d rather just do whatever the customer wants, further reinforcing their shitty behavior. All of this puts the other employees at more of a disadvantage in future encounters.
IDGAF if you steal from a corporation like Walmart. But don’t be an asshole to the employees.
I agree. It was the companies’ fault for offering it in the first place.