TAMPA - A regular Victoria's Secret shopper, Marie Wolf brought an unworn pair of "Pink" brand sweatpants back to the store at Westshore Plaza a few weeks ago, and planned to buy something else.
The clerk happily gave her a refund, then took a pair of scissors and started cutting the pants in half.
"I was shocked, because, mind you, these were $70 sweatpants, and there's nothing wrong with them," Wolf said. "The clerk just said, 'I know, but it's our policy.' "
Outraged, Wolf confronted a store manager, then called the parent company and found, indeed, Victoria's Secret does cut up some returned items so they can't be resold — even if they're in fine condition.
Apparently, the clerk's only mistake, Wolf said, was to cut up the clothes in front of customers, and not in a back room out of sight.
"I asked about donating them to Salvation Army, what about Goodwill, what about all the people who lost everything in the tsunami?" Wolf said. "I told them I won't ever shop with them anymore, and neither will anyone in my family."
Officials with Victoria's Secret owner Limited Brands declined to comment on the record about their return policy and procedures, though calls to local stores confirmed the practice. And they're not the only big retailer that destroys some items that customers return.
And while Macy's Inc. tries to put new-condition items back on the shelf for resale whenever possible, company officials confirmed some other items are destroyed.
Though cutting up perfectly good clothes may appall customers such as Wolf, retail experts say the practice keeps cropping up and remains a dirty little secret in the retail industry.
Destroying returned clothes isn't illegal, though it's definitely not standard practice among retailers, said Suzanne Long, retail practice leader at the consulting company SSA & Company.
Target officials say they donate many of their returned items to charitable groups on an approved list.
* * * * *Of course, a retailer might not want to risk any health issues with items such as bras, panties or thongs, Long said. But retailers may harbor other motivations for destroying outerwear. "Sometimes you don't want items going out for resale on the secondary market at all," Long said. "Some stores may take last season's golf clubs and bend them in half so someone couldn't easily pick them from the trash and resell them."
And some clothing designers may tell a retail store that sending back the clothes is not worth the money, "and if the retailer feels it's unsalable, they'll just agree to go ahead and destroy it."
The fast-growing fashion retailer H&M, which plans a store in Tampa, recently was caught up in controversy after students found trash bins full of cut-up clothes behind stores in New York City.
H&M officials said it was not their standard practice and would make sure to donate any returned items that could not be sold in stores.
And Victoria's Secret was among several retailers that endured criticism last year after the "Today Show" ran an undercover video showing employees taking back underwear stained with baby oil and the tags removed and placing them back on the shelf for resale.
Victoria's Secret operates about 1,020 stores in the United States and Canada.
* * * * * Big retailers can face something of a bind with returns, said Doug Stephens, owner of the Toronto-based Retail Prophet consulting company. On one hand, they're doing everything they can to retain customers, with as high a level of service as they can provide in a cost-cutting era.
"But their fear is that clothing finds its way to resellers and secondhand stores," Stephens said. "If I'm Kenneth Cole, I don't want my stuff sold down the street for $5 a unit if it sells for $85 on the rack."
Some reselling is bound to happen anyway, Stephens said, as customers take their clothes to secondhand stores, and retailers and designers may try to stem that flow however they can.
"Every time a story like this crops up, consumer sentiment against the store is just overwhelming," he said. "People walk out and wonder, are we really so rich as a nation that we throw perfectly good stuff in the garbage?"
Stephens hopes retailers turn the practice around and create a marketing opportunity by announcing, "This is a lousy industry practice, and we're not going to do it anymore — we'll make sure these clothes are re-used."
source :www2.tbo.com the tampa tribune
The clerk happily gave her a refund, then took a pair of scissors and started cutting the pants in half.
"I was shocked, because, mind you, these were $70 sweatpants, and there's nothing wrong with them," Wolf said. "The clerk just said, 'I know, but it's our policy.' "
Outraged, Wolf confronted a store manager, then called the parent company and found, indeed, Victoria's Secret does cut up some returned items so they can't be resold — even if they're in fine condition.
Apparently, the clerk's only mistake, Wolf said, was to cut up the clothes in front of customers, and not in a back room out of sight.
"I asked about donating them to Salvation Army, what about Goodwill, what about all the people who lost everything in the tsunami?" Wolf said. "I told them I won't ever shop with them anymore, and neither will anyone in my family."
Officials with Victoria's Secret owner Limited Brands declined to comment on the record about their return policy and procedures, though calls to local stores confirmed the practice. And they're not the only big retailer that destroys some items that customers return.
And while Macy's Inc. tries to put new-condition items back on the shelf for resale whenever possible, company officials confirmed some other items are destroyed.
Though cutting up perfectly good clothes may appall customers such as Wolf, retail experts say the practice keeps cropping up and remains a dirty little secret in the retail industry.
Destroying returned clothes isn't illegal, though it's definitely not standard practice among retailers, said Suzanne Long, retail practice leader at the consulting company SSA & Company.
Target officials say they donate many of their returned items to charitable groups on an approved list.
* * * * *Of course, a retailer might not want to risk any health issues with items such as bras, panties or thongs, Long said. But retailers may harbor other motivations for destroying outerwear. "Sometimes you don't want items going out for resale on the secondary market at all," Long said. "Some stores may take last season's golf clubs and bend them in half so someone couldn't easily pick them from the trash and resell them."
And some clothing designers may tell a retail store that sending back the clothes is not worth the money, "and if the retailer feels it's unsalable, they'll just agree to go ahead and destroy it."
The fast-growing fashion retailer H&M, which plans a store in Tampa, recently was caught up in controversy after students found trash bins full of cut-up clothes behind stores in New York City.
H&M officials said it was not their standard practice and would make sure to donate any returned items that could not be sold in stores.
And Victoria's Secret was among several retailers that endured criticism last year after the "Today Show" ran an undercover video showing employees taking back underwear stained with baby oil and the tags removed and placing them back on the shelf for resale.
Victoria's Secret operates about 1,020 stores in the United States and Canada.
* * * * * Big retailers can face something of a bind with returns, said Doug Stephens, owner of the Toronto-based Retail Prophet consulting company. On one hand, they're doing everything they can to retain customers, with as high a level of service as they can provide in a cost-cutting era.
"But their fear is that clothing finds its way to resellers and secondhand stores," Stephens said. "If I'm Kenneth Cole, I don't want my stuff sold down the street for $5 a unit if it sells for $85 on the rack."
Some reselling is bound to happen anyway, Stephens said, as customers take their clothes to secondhand stores, and retailers and designers may try to stem that flow however they can.
"Every time a story like this crops up, consumer sentiment against the store is just overwhelming," he said. "People walk out and wonder, are we really so rich as a nation that we throw perfectly good stuff in the garbage?"
Stephens hopes retailers turn the practice around and create a marketing opportunity by announcing, "This is a lousy industry practice, and we're not going to do it anymore — we'll make sure these clothes are re-used."
source :www2.tbo.com the tampa tribune
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