Friday, January 8, 2010

H&M and Wal-mart DESTROY & Trash unsold goods (article)

I just read the below on and I could FREAKIN' SPIT NAILS Right now!! I am so mad about this. I CAN NOT believe that a company(s) could do such irresponsible & wasteful things, all so they could be selfish, or to get right down to it, just right out JERKS about the whole thing.
For them to destroy & throw away perfectly good clothing, just so no one got there hands on them, really ticks me off. Those things could go to shelters or organizations that give people in need, clothing & coats. Especially this time of year... so many people need such things so that they wont freeze to death. You read the below & tell me YOUR thoughts on it.

H&M and Wal-Mart destroy and trash unsold goods

editor by Joanna Douglas, Shine Staff, on Thu Jan 7, 2010 8:31am PST
Cynthia Magnus holds up unworn, destroyed clothing she found in the garbage. Photo by Suzanne DeChillo/New York Times Cynthia Magnus holds up unworn, destroyed clothing she found in the garbage. Photo by Suzanne DeChillo/New York Times

This week the New York Times reported a disheartening story about two of the largest retail chains. You see, instead of taking unsold items to sample sales or donating them to people in need, H&M and Wal-Mart have been throwing them out in giant trash bags. And in the case that someone may stumble on these bags and try to keep or re-sell the items, these companies have gone ahead and slashed up garments, cut off the sleeves of coats, and sliced holes in shoes so 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. On December 7, 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.”

The New York Times points out that one-third of the city's population is poor, which makes this behavior not only wasteful and sad, but downright irresponsible. Wal-Mart spokeswoman, Melissa Hill, acted surprised that these items were found, claiming they typically donate all unworn merchandise to charity. When reporters went around the corner from H&M to a collections drop-off for 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 today, promising to stop destroying the garments at the midtown Manhattan location. They said they will 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. Hopefully that's the final word. [NY Times][Huff Post]

2 comments:

Ann On and On... said...

OH MY GOSH!!!! I think we all need to take action to make sure this isn't happening in our cities since they are going to stop in "that area". Now, off to learn more French, so I can talk to my local H&M stores. :)

Seriously....no seriously, what were they thinking.

Aubrey said...

I read about this last week and was appalled! Very irresponsible!