Corporations and the discarding of (gaming) Product.

[MrPopo]

There comes a point where ethics and responsible use of the planet's finite resources HAVE to come into play regardless of whether it's better for "business" to break something or give it away.

When it comes to retail, no there isn't.

[flojocabron]

A few years ago, the store where I worked at decided that they had too many fixtures in the back stockroom.

They all went to the compactor. Wire shelving, metal joining plates, Wooden peg boards and other various shelving items. destroyed.

A few months ago, the appliance department got remodeled and the older fixtures were needed by other stores nearby and were sent out to them by the delivery trucks.

So its just random business practices. If they dont need it right away, its just taking up space and therefore in the way, ready to be destroyed.

Even now when stuff gets returned, some stuff gets destroyed outright in the store and not even returned to the warehouse.

I've seen damaged pool tables that were returned by customers stay in the back for a few days before they are finally taken out by the dock workers sledgehammer. and the pool balls go into the compactor along with the rest of the pieces of the table.

All of this stuff went through the proper procedures and had been taken out of the "system". They even had a destroy label on it too.

Stuff I've seen destroyed at my job: Matresses, Pool tables, Dressers, Furniture,Gas Grills, exercise equipment.

so It really is nothing new.

[Mechblue]

This is unfortunately really common as pointed out by every one and really sucks. I recycle a lot of stuff especially plastic. All junk sports games I get like really old disc based ones I recycle the disc and save/recycle some of the inserts/manuals. Use the cases for other games I get that don't have one.

I figured most companies destroyed extra product as a write off as a loss versus give it away or sell it for $1. It's likely worth more as a write off than $1. I saw a guy at Blockbuster walking out to the dumpster with a HUGE bag full of discs and cases. He said it was all stuff they needed to clear out as they had tons of extra copies of movies and they needed to be disposed of. They run the discs through a machine that destroys them and then throw it all in a dumpster. From what they guy said they do it frequently. Imagine the number of stores across the country that do this all the time! You wonder why the landfills get so big...

Some stores do donate their junk items but even the places that receive the stuff some times don't want it as it is junk to them to and eventually they stop donating and start dumping. I know one local retailer has been donating returned stuff as the local goodwill gets some awfully new stuff to sell.

It would be nice if there was a better process and it is good to see some employees "destroy" items but there isn't much that can be done unless this kind of stuff is brought to the attention of some one that can change this business practice.

[flex wood]

Anyone else reminded of the muffin top episode of Seinfeld after reading through this thread?

[Cronozilla]

Local game shops around here actually offload their unsold stock they want to get rid of (it's illegal to throw this kind of stuff away in my state!) I'm sure GameStop and some other retailers use the garbage as their best friend ...

Something I don't understand is why they don't donate it or even give it away. I mean seriously ... just put a bin outside the store that says "free" and people can take whatever they want from it. I know there might be the stigma to "wait until it's free" but it's such a rare occurance I don't think that'd really be an issue.

However, donating it would make the most sense, I mean at least they could claim it on taxes under charitable donations ... and even if they can't (due to other donations) then it's still a better option.

I think the real issue is they have the mentality of if I can't get money for it, then no one can. And that's shitty.

[the7k]

Local game shops around here actually offload their unsold stock they want to get rid of (it's illegal to throw this kind of stuff away in my state!) I'm sure GameStop and some other retailers use the garbage as their best friend ...

Something I don't understand is why they don't donate it or even give it away. I mean seriously ... just put a bin outside the store that says "free" and people can take whatever they want from it. I know there might be the stigma to "wait until it's free" but it's such a rare occurance I don't think that'd really be an issue.

However, donating it would make the most sense, I mean at least they could claim it on taxes under charitable donations ... and even if they can't (due to other donations) then it's still a better option.

I think the real issue is they have the mentality of if I can't get money for it, then no one can. And that's shitty.

I think you just answered your own question.

No one would buy anything because they would wait until it was free. It's not that rare of an occurrence, it actually happens pretty frequently. About once a month or so.

I mean, hell, there's a lot of stuff at GameStop I don't buy anymore because, having worked there, I know I can get it for free. If everybody had the same knowledge, those products would never get sold at all.

Same for if they donated it. People would just wait until the stuff got donated, then they'd take their cash to the Salvation Army or Goodwill.

It's not a matter of "If I can't get money for it, no one can". It's a matter of shit taking up space, and doing anything else would pretty much eliminate the value of the product and hurt the bottom line over time. They also have certain obligations they have to meet with the manufacturers/publishers/etc.

The only thing they could do aside from destroy it is send to the warehouse. When the warehouse gets full, what do you think they're going to do? Might as well save on shipping and get it done there.

[Menegrothx]

No one would buy anything because they would wait until it was free.

So no one buys video games on launch date, since the price usually drops within a month or so? Hell, you can get the games for free via torrent a few days after the game has been released but many people still insist on buying their games through download services or as physical copies. You can dig out old/soon to be-expired food from convinience store dumpsters for free but still some how majority of people rather pay for their food.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Anyone else reminded of the muffin top episode of Seinfeld after reading through this thread?

I know what you thought. They don't have homes, they don't have jobs, what do they need the top of a muffin for? They're lucky to get the stumps!

[fvgazi]

No one would buy anything because they would wait until it was free.

So no one buys video games on launch date, since the price usually drops within a month or so? Hell, you can get the games for free via torrent a few days after the game has been released but many people still insist on buying their games through download services or as physical copies. You can dig out old/soon to be-expired food from convinience store dumpsters for free but still some how majority of people rather pay for their food.

I'm sure Game Stop isn't dumping 100 copies of Modern Warefare 2 every month. The games and systems we're talking about here are either defective or no one really cares to buy them. That being said, I don't think people would wait for a product to become worthless to get it for free.

If that was true, retro game collecting would be a hell of a lot cheaper and easier to do. 20 year old games are even more expensive than new ones. I don't buy into the whole "they need to account for their losses; it's standard business procedure". It's plain wrong. The problem here is money. It's the money that they are after. If these corporations (... also everybody in the world) cared about anything besides themselves they would see that this kind of practice is not good for anything except lining their pockets. They would rather exploit some sort of loophole where they can destroy product and account for losses or whatever than just give it away. You know what that is almost like? Setting your business on fire and collecting the insurance, except they still have the store to operate out of.

[MrPopo]

I figured most companies destroyed extra product as a write off as a loss versus give it away or sell it for $1. It's likely worth more as a write off than $1.

Since shelf space is limited there is an opportunity cost to having an item on the shelf. Why put a game up for $1 when you can put another game up for $30? That's why the cheap games lose their cases; you can fit more games into the same space, lowering the opportunity cost per unit.