My wife has been addicted to watching dumpster diving videos where people end up finding brand new expensive things thrown away by retailers. It made me remember reading somewhere that the reason they do this is because it’s cheaper for them to throw away or destroy their inventory than it is to give it away or sell at discount. HOW???
I don’t see how they could possibly save money by destroying inventory rather than putting it on extreme discount. Surely they could make more money selling at an extreme discount versus no money at all by destroying .
In: Economics
It’s not literally cheaper. Of course getting $1 for this tshirt is better than $0 but there is an opportunity cost to getting that $1. I have to have it on a shelf where I could have something else that makes me more money, for example.
At the point a store is willing to just cut their loss and throw it away, the item has already proven to be difficult to sell, likely even already discounted. The effort of selling it costs more than the return (which is already a loss to begin with).
Donating it still requires some effort whereas just throwing it away takes very little.
Retail stores don’t consider shelf space to be “free.” There is value assigned to the space on the floor or in inventory. If a product isn’t selling, it is occupying the space of something else that will sell.
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