WAL-MART THROWING GOODS AWAY

In an unbelievable discovery, The New York Times reported a disheartening story about two of the nation’s largest retailers:  H&M and WAL-MART.

It appears that instead of taking unsold items to sample sales or donating them to people in need, H&M and WAL-MART have been throwing them away in huge trash bags.  But here’s the clincher:  Just in case someone stumbled upon these bags to try and keep or re-sell the items, these companies have slashed up garments, cut off the sleeves of coats, and sliced holes in shoes to assure they are unwearable!

This unsettling discovery was made by graduate student Cynthia Magnus outside the back entrance of H&M on 35th street in New York City.  Just a few doors down, she also found hundreds of WAL-MART tagged items with holes made in them that were dumped by a contractor.  Last month, she said she spotted 20 bags of clothing outside of H&M including, “gloves with the fingers cut off, warm socks, cute patent leather Mary Jane school shoes, maybe for fourth graders, with the instep cut up with a scissor, men’s jackets, slashed across the body and the arms. The puffy fiber fill was coming out in big white cotton balls.”

Homeless organizations, church shelters, and others could make extremely good use of these discarded items.  And with one-third of New York City’s population listed as poor, this behavior is not only wasteful and sad, but downright irresponsible.  But it appears the retailers would rather destroy them than donate them. 

WAL-MART spokeswoman, Melissa Hill, acted surprised when confronted about her company’s practices, claiming they typically donate all unworn merchandise to charity.  But when reporters went around the corner from H&M to a collections drop-off for the charity organization New York Cares, spokesperson Colleen Farrell said, “We’d be glad to take unworn coats, and companies often send them to us.”

After several days of no response from H&M, the company made a statement over the weekend, promising to stop destroying the garments at the midtown Manhattan location and will now donate the items to charity. H&M spokeswoman Nicole Christie said, “It will not happen again,” and that the company would make sure none of the other locations would do so either.  PATHETIC!