Depressing. Seeing so much "crap" is somehow anxiety-inducing for me. Perhaps I am reflecting on it as a human on planet Earth and considering the hoards of junk we are creating. Or perhaps I see something in myself as a hoarder.
Seven Days at the Bin Store
101–110 of 116 posts
Re: Seven Days at the Bin Store
#102So these are popping up everywhere, then? I have two within five miles of my house. They've both been there over a year, probably a bit longer. I'm in a mid-western US suburb, mostly blue-colllar/manufacturing employers around here. And there's a "Red Tag" store (similar) which is very obviously trying to pass off that they sell Target returns/over-stock. It's across the street from -- surprise -- a Target! Of the tw…
We've had The Goodwill Outlet store (aka "The Bins" ) in the Portland area for about 25 years now. Maybe a bit different, they sell all of the stuff that doesn't sell in the other area Goodwill stores by the pound. It's all dumped in large bins. During the Tech Wreck when I was unemployed I'd go to The Bins when they opened and go through the book bins grabbing what I thought I could sell used on Amazon... Goodwill g…
Waiting for Carousel.
(Logan's Run reference.)
Re: Seven Days at the Bin Store
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Apparently, I'm wrong enough that there's hundreds of these stores in business. The stuff in the bins is from amazon returns. Its not a business of its own supply choices. The people that run the stores go to amazon pallet auctions where they buy the stuff unseen and hope to turn a profit on the arbitrage of what they pay vs the worth of the pallet.
I feel like if there were a sustainable business in this, Amazon would just do it themselves and set up outlet stores. But instead Amazon takes the easy money of just auctioning stuff off. that should be a red flag for people starting these businesses.
Not necessarily; bottom-feeding appears to be a business model.
Re: Seven Days at the Bin Store
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've always wondered if customer service reps have a "customer score" on their screen when evaluating whether to accept a return or not. I hardly ever return things, and on the rare occasion that I do, if I need to chat with an Amazon rep they are always very willing to bend some rules. I'm not sure if that's the case for everyone, or if they can see I hardly return things (and buy a lot) and therefore have the green…
I would totally assume that a company like Amazon has a very clear picture of the profitability of individual customers.
I'm sure all of the major retailers have found a way to make someone else eat the cost of returns, likely their suppliers (manufacturers). With the suppliers still not wanting to leave the platforms because that is where most of the customers are. It's the only way I can explain the abjectly terrible job places will do packing things, how little they care about what went wrong, and how readily they will keep on refunding/resending.
Re: Seven Days at the Bin Store
#105My elderly mom watches thrift shopping, dumpster diving, and roadside hauling on YT, so I might as well direct her to a bin store.[0] 0. https://www.binstorefinder.com
I clicked the links for a couple of bin stores near me and both of them sent me to sketchy gambling sites
Re: Seven Days at the Bin Store
#106> “You can buy stuff from here and then you can resell it,” Ahmed tells me. “Through eBay or Amazon. You can sell on Facebook market. You will get your money back in less than one day if you wanna resell it. Which is a good thing for everybody right now, for the public. A lot of people need to work.” I'd guess that probably the store itself is picking out some of the more valuable items from pallets they source, to d…
Goodwill does that and they don't even use eBay for a bunch of their stuff - they run their own auction site: https://shopgoodwill.com/home Makes sense for them, they're maximizing the money they get (and you can still get bargains, look for expensive and heavy things near you so you can pickup and save shipping).
I wonder if the Habitat for Humanity reStore chain started eBaying stuff. They've gotten way pricier in the last year and their inventory also thinned out.
Re: Seven Days at the Bin Store
#107For more detail on the returns economy, this is an excellent piece by The New Yorker from 2023:
(original) https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/08/21/the-hidden-cos...
Re: Seven Days at the Bin Store
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's still mostly junk. The issue is do you really want to spend time returning a $5 junk purchase? For most people the answer is no. This is just the stuff that was returned or didn't sell, imagine how much of the stuff is thrown away by the buyers. Some things are just made to cheaply, to hit a price point people will pay. When people then buy the item and realise that it's garbage, it gets tossed. Just maybe you c…
> We need to stop making products that has to hit a price point, regardless of quality. I’m not sure that’s what’s going on. The Temu-industrial complex seems to be driven by producing garbage as cheaply as possible, meme-ing the heck out of it, and pricing it so low people can’t believe what a deal they’re getting. That is, they’re always going to produce the cheapest possible item that resembles something of value.…
I mean you basically just described Y-Combinator and their VCs right there
Re: Seven Days at the Bin Store
#109Am I the only one that feels uncomfortable returning stuff? Took me years to get to get over, and yet I'd still prefer to forego buying something rather than returning it..
I've always wondered if customer service reps have a "customer score" on their screen when evaluating whether to accept a return or not. I hardly ever return things, and on the rare occasion that I do, if I need to chat with an Amazon rep they are always very willing to bend some rules. I'm not sure if that's the case for everyone, or if they can see I hardly return things (and buy a lot) and therefore have the green…
Yes. I have family who have been shadow-banned from customer support hotlines for exploiting generous replacement and conflict resolution policies.
Re: Seven Days at the Bin Store
#110[dead]