Amazon found to be sending millions of unsold items to a 'destruction zone' at a UK warehouse

[Redaktion]

Amazon may be running its Prime Day sales, but ITV News has revealed the extent to which the company sends unsold products to landfill and recycling centres. According to the report, Amazon only donates a fraction of unsold products and sends up to 200,000 items for destruction every week, just at one of its two-dozen Amazon UK warehouses alone.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Amazon-found-to-be-sending-millions-of-unsold-items-to-a-destruction-zone-at-a-UK-warehouse.546947.0.html

[LostInSpace]

This is the way tax law works. The company who owns the goods wants its full tax loss writeoff, to get that the items must be unusable, that means no donations, give aways, etc. Blame the tax law and accountants if you will.

[kek]

Amazon could sold those items at 50% off if they wanted to.

That way, they get some money back, and gain new customers in the process

[t4n0n]

Amazon could sold those items at 50% off if they wanted to.

That way, they get some money back, and gain new customers in the process

No, this is exactly the point. The reason why they destroy the items is to make sure the price remains at a level that is profitable for them. It costs them less in the long run to take a loss one month, if they can still turn a profit the following one.

Allow the price to drop by 50%? That will wipe out all their margins and put them out of business. Better to take the hit, so they can continue to operate.

[_MT_]

No, this is exactly the point. The reason why they destroy the items is to make sure the price remains at a level that is profitable for them. It costs them less in the long run to take a loss one month, if they can still turn a profit the following one.

Allow the price to drop by 50%? That will wipe out all their margins and put them out of business. Better to take the hit, so they can continue to operate.

The product might not even belong to Amazon. Amazon might be simply fulfilling orders. In that case, they wouldn't be able to give it away or sell it at a steep discount even if they wanted to. Retailer will typically clear stock using discounts, to recover as much money as they can. But manufacturer gets product at manufacturing cost. The loss isn't as high. To them, it might be more important to protect value. Discounted old product puts pressure on pricing of new product. If you have product that you believe nobody will buy, then why pay for storing it? Even if you do offer a discount, perhaps you're not expecting to clear stock completely.

[Miro]

This is an enormous waste of resources. It should be forbidden to do this.

[VaruLV]

Now, this is terrible, this should stop, way too much pollution is coming from producing these goods and now they simply send them to landfills?! Its unacceptable.