Presumably there is a reason these products are being destroyed, safety recalls etc., but the article doesn't seem to have any mention of that?
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Amazon destroying millions of items of unsold stock in one of its UK warehouses
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Re: Amazon destroying millions of items of unsold stock in one of its UK warehouses
#12Why? The article seemed to focus more on the "what" and "how".
This article doesn't but the original itv article mentions it:
> Why are hundreds of thousands of products being destroyed in this way? The answer is Amazon’s hugely successful business model. Many vendors choose to house their products in Amazon’s vast warehouses. But the longer the goods remain unsold, the more a company is charged to store them. It is eventually cheaper to dispose of the goods, especially stock from overseas, than to continue storing the stock
https://www.itv.com/news/2021-06-21/amazon-destroying-millio...
Re: Amazon destroying millions of items of unsold stock in one of its UK warehouses
#13Why? The article seemed to focus more on the "what" and "how".
Tons of 3rd party sellers use the Fulfilled by Amazon program where they have Amazon store and handle all logistics on their items.
It's not cheap, and iirc cost increases over time. Amazon doesn't want their warehouses full of shit that doesn't move.
If the 3rd party stops paying and doesn't want to pay to have it shipped back to their own facility, then they need to get rid of it.
Re: Amazon destroying millions of items of unsold stock in one of its UK warehouses
#14Presumably there is a reason these products are being destroyed, safety recalls etc., but the article doesn't seem to have any mention of that?
it's just cheaper for the manufacturer to make a new product than to check returns, due to the way amazons fees and policies work.
Re: Amazon destroying millions of items of unsold stock in one of its UK warehouses
#15Why? The article seemed to focus more on the "what" and "how".
A lot of products are returned in used state, or have very slight use marks like scratches, tiny dents, protective foil that's been removed, etc. These items therefore can't be resold as new. Finding out exactly which items are and are not good enough is expensive, and therefore the items are just discarded.
But then why waste resources on shipping back the items if they are going to be destroyed? Is it because if customers find out this is happening there'd be a spike in returns?
Re: Amazon destroying millions of items of unsold stock in one of its UK warehouses
#16Why? The article seemed to focus more on the "what" and "how".
My guess would be about inventory space, shipping costs, returns, and stranded inventory.
Amazon has been fiddling with sellers inventory space on Amazon fulfillment centers for some years, and they keep reducing it, and penalizing sellers who don't sell enough (either by increasing their inventory fees, or reducing their storage volume).
For some sellers destroying inventory is probably the best option. Some product returns can't be sold, so you pay to have them destroyed.
So it's not just Amazon decision (I mean, if you leave stranded inventory and you don't move it, Amazon will warn you, and if you don't do anything then they'll destroy it).
Re: Amazon destroying millions of items of unsold stock in one of its UK warehouses
#17I very rarely return stuff I have bought but don't end up liking (and I try to only buy stuff I know I want), and stories like this make it even more likely that I will instead resell them on local auction websites instead. Might get a little less money out of it but at least I can be more certain that the product is actually going to be used.
Re: Amazon destroying millions of items of unsold stock in one of its UK warehouses
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of products are returned in used state, or have very slight use marks like scratches, tiny dents, protective foil that's been removed, etc. These items therefore can't be resold as new. Finding out exactly which items are and are not good enough is expensive, and therefore the items are just discarded.
Amazon Warehouse attempts to get some value out of things that are easy enough or worth it to do a cursory inspection - but if you go to return some small value items Amazon tells you to just keep it/throw it away. The amount of retail "wastage" that occurs would be surprising to many - one you may have seen is the "book without cover has been reported destroyed" you sometimes see - it's not worth it for publishers t…
> but if you go to return some small value items Amazon tells you to just keep it/throw it away.
Anecdotally, this isn't always true. I have only returned a handful of things over the years, but among them was a microphone windscreen that didn't really fit. It cost maybe €6 or so and they did have me send it back.
Re: Amazon destroying millions of items of unsold stock in one of its UK warehouses
#19This has been known for years, at least in Europe. German article from 2018: https://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/handel/das-ist-ein-riesengro... Edit: people replying seem to think that I'm saying that: 1. only Amazon does this; 2. it can be prevented but Amazon just chooses not to. I didn't say any of those things.
ALL retailers destroy unsellable inventory. Items can be defective, counterfeit, damaged, under legal injunction like a trade dispute, incorrectly licensed, or just plain unwanted. If you trade in any item anywhere eventually you're going to end up with something in stock you can't sell.
I mean, what do we want to happen? These things to sit idle forever in a warehouse taking up space?
Re: Amazon destroying millions of items of unsold stock in one of its UK warehouses
#20This is not ideal, but par for the course in the CPG sector. You’d be shocked how much food your local grocery store throws out each week too.
Also the quality of the reporting is very poor and mostly seems intent at just making Amazon look bad. How much do others destroy? It’s a lot. There’s no ability for the reader to understand if this is bad (relatively speaking) or not.