So, we can bash gamestop but dont let it be just about them.
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Today My friend and I went to gamestop to browse and get some stuff. As we were checking out the store, we heard thumping and smashing sounds in the back.
Guess what they were doing? They were destroying product. While we were in line two workers along with some other guy (owner/district manager probably) with some boxes were heading out the door. I saw cords an plastic wrappers hanging off the box tops!
I know gamestop has done this before, cause in the past i've seen them ripping covers off of strategy guides in the past to be sent to the dumpster, and other workers destroying oXBOX sports games when it was discontinued.
Naturally we went out to the dumpster, and lo and behold we found a sad scene. Cut discs, snipped controllers, smashed memory cards and various other broken acessories.
We both dumpster dived, and thankfully it wasn't smelly. Our eyes were aghast with what we saw!
There were smashed PS2 and GC memory cards, NEW! Generic PS2, wii nunchucks and 360 corded controlers with the cords cut. Broken wii motes and discarded PC games with the discs cut. Some damged bluetooth headsets and 360 batteries. I also found five copies of Madden 08 en Espanol cut and useless. There was a destroyed gamboyplayer and disc too!
We took stuff to my friends place and some GC memory cards were useless. It is not known if the cards were defective from the get go or by the stomping of the workers. the same goes for the PS2 memory cards
We got one bluetooth earpiece to work!
, and another needed some time to charge. We found a wii motion plus that's its port was busted, but the sleeve was still ok. We found the cords to be cut on some DS chargers but the charger plug itself was good! I found a PSP1000 charging dock, that doesnt have its charger. But it works with the sony plug anyways. We probably got a generic wireless ps3 controller to work. I am waiting for my friend to tell me if its good or not. Its slightly damaged but it still may be able to work.To make a long story short, there was perfectly(?) good stuff destroyed by a corportate mandate.
I know I'm answering my own questions, since I do work in retail (and have done this with similar items), but If any of you have done this before, I'd like to know how you felt while doing this. There are some ex-gamestop people here, so lets get their input.
heres my theories:
1. The product is genuinely defective, and is destroyed to prevent people from retrading it to another store and getting credit for another broken product again.
2. Items are defective and its not cost productive to send back to warehouse/manufacturer. Items are written up as a loss.
3. Inventory/ income/profit reports have made products not profitable(sallable) and it would be easier to destroy product than sell it at a discount. The destroyed products are added as a loss to the company and can be reinbursed by insurance/other venues.
I think its option 3. Some of the game boxes have a $0.01 cent price on them and therefore they had a record in their inventory and could be taken at a loss. Like I said earlier with the covers pulled of for magazines/guides, theres a record of the product and the company doesnt get charged for unsold merchandise.
But Other companies do other things with old product too. If you go to a fleamarket you can find special labels on electronic items. I've been finding stuff like this for years know and I can tell if a damaged/returned item is from Walmart,K-mart, Target, or Sears. There are other labels out there but these are the main ones.
As we know sometimes these returned items are perfectly fine. Some consumers are idiots and return a perfectly fine product. We've seen the pic of the PS3 controller that doesnt work with XBOX (
). Or the other poster here that got a game cheaper cause it was missing a stylus. Things happen and as long as you have your recipt you can get an easy return.Millions of products are sold daily and some of these get damaged along the way. Some stores destroy their damaged product and some find a third party to rid themselves of this type of merchandise.
So have you seen stuff like this? Do you take a risk buying it? Are you capable enough to repair it if you do find it? Are you willing to dumpster dive to get some nice freebies? Have you pilfered said items before they've been discarded?
Feel free to use this thread to discuss!
PS: heres some pics of the stuff along with the 1 cent stickers!
