Amazon Caught Destroying up to 40 Billion Dollars a Year

[Shofercia]

Sauces:

https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-warehouse-destroys-destroy-items-returned-week-brand-new-itv-2021-6

One Amazon warehouse destroys 130,000 items per week, including MacBooks, COVID-19 masks, and TVs, some of them new and unused, a report says

https://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-report ... warehouse/

Amazon is destroying thousands of goods, some returned items and some unsold, at one of its warehouses every week, according to a report from UK outlet ITV News. The report included an interview with a former Amazon warehouse employee, who said a fulfillment center near Glasgow, Scotland, destroyed around 130,000 items a week. Footage from inside the warehouse showed a power drill, a book and face masks in their original packaging in carts reportedly headed to a "destruction zone" in the facility. "There's no rhyme or reason to what gets destroyed: Dyson fans, Hoovers, the occasional MacBook and iPad," said the employee, who was unnamed in the report.

https://nypost.com/2021/06/22/amazon-wa ... ek-report/

Amazon warehouse destroys 130,000 unsold items per week: report

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/amazon-w ... 000-items/

ITV, a British news outlet, reports that an ex-employee of a warehouse in Dunfermline said there was target of destroying or throwing out 130,000 items per week. Over the course of a year, that would be millions of items being destroyed.

https://fba.help/list-of-amazon-fulfillment-centers

Amazon currently has 110 active fulfillment centers in the US and 185 centers globally.

So that's 130,000 items, per warehouse, per week. With 295 warehouses, and 52 weeks, that's 1,994,200,000 items. Even taking the value of items on the low end, that's almost $40 billion a year, destroyed, instead of donated, of perfectly usable goods. Amazon is allegedly doing this to keep the prices up, supply, demand, basic economics. So what does NSG think?

I think it's time to break up Amazon. This is wrong, disgusting, and amoral. $40 billion. Every year. Destroyed. Not donated to the needy, not given to entrepreneurs, or family businesses, nope, just destroyed. Plain and simple. In the US, the average rent was roughly $1,100 and roughly 554,000 homeless people. So to end homelessness, for a year, with two people per one bedroom apartment, that's roughly $0.61 billion, or 1.5% of Amazon's waste. Wow, just wow.

So Western Consumerists, how long are you going to tolerate all of it? When's enough, enough? Yes, I know you that we're also required to pay for medical care of some of the homeless, and feed them, but rent is the number one expense, so even with medicine and food, ending homelessness in the US would still be below a whopping 5% of Amazon's global waste.

What does NSG say?

Moar Sauces:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state ... t-by-state
https://endhomelessness.org/homelessnes ... ort-legacy

[Ethel mermania]

You are assuming all warehouses are destroying stuff at the same rate. They may be shipping returns to just a few sites for destruction.

If they donated the stuff they could, with the tax write-offs they already get, the government would have to write them refund checks every year

[The Black Forrest]

Well? What’s the solution? You have somebody elses goods which don’t sell and probably won’t due to age.

I remember my last company where I found HP servers sitting on the docks for five years. Due to amort/tax rules; I had to retire them.

Amazon probably has similar issues.

[Porflox]

Seeing how all the cited reports seem to be pointing towards a single warehouse, it seems to be the outlier and not indicative of an overall trend across the entire company. Breaking the company up would probably further exacerbate the problem as well, given that larger corporations have greater ability to maintain inventory for extended periods of time.

[The Dauntless Union]

This isn't Standard Oil, breaking it up would in no form solve the problem, also from what it seems, it's a singular location. I also ask you, what'd be the point of donating random crap? I mean, what's a five year old orphan going to do with a five hundred dollar back scratcher?

[Galloism]

This isn't Standard Oil, breaking it up would in no form solve the problem, also from what it seems, it's a singular location. I also ask you, what'd be the point of donating random crap? I mean, what's a five year old orphan going to do with a five hundred dollar back scratcher?

<Goodwill seen crying into their beer>

[The Black Forrest]

This isn't Standard Oil, breaking it up would in no form solve the problem, also from what it seems, it's a singular location. I also ask you, what'd be the point of donating random crap? I mean, what's a five year old orphan going to do with a five hundred dollar back scratcher?

Why do you hate people having jobs? Think of the people who created that back scratcher! Also, how do you know the five year old orphan wouldn’t like a back scratcher.

What’s donated is probably usable and wanted. The laptops and ipads…….

[Saiwania]

Nothing should be destroyed unless it absolutely won't ever sell. Where possible, I'm sure Amazon has unsold inventory wait in limbo until someone out there buys it. Tons of stuff that gets used, eventually gets thrown out anyways, where it has to be destroyed or remade into something else in the case of recycling.

[Washington Resistance Army]

What does NSG say?

Capitalism is the problem, not Amazon. Sure it sucks they're destroying all this stuff but that's really just a symptom of rampant consumerism. Our constant need to buy, consume etc is going to be the death of us.

[Tinhampton]

All I will say about this is that Shofercia's calculations are based on the unproven assumption that every single Amazon warehouse destroys as much as the Dunfirmline warehouse does.

[Nilokeras]

It is interesting that we've managed to replicate the worst excesses of Soviet productivism in terms of pointless quotas for production, consumption and product movement that lead to colossal waste in order to keep up the facade, except privatized and worse.

[The Black Forrest]

What does NSG say?

Capitalism is the problem, not Amazon. Sure it sucks they're destroying all this stuff but that's really just a symptom of rampant consumerism. Our constant need to buy, consume etc is going to be the death of us.

If I want a My Little Pony backscratcher; it should be available!

[The Black Forrest]

It is interesting that we've managed to replicate the worst excesses of Soviet productivism in terms of pointless quotas for production, consumption and product movement that lead to colossal waste in order to keep up the facade, except privatized and worse.

Haven’t we been borrowing their ideas? Doesn’t Homeland security look the KGB?

[Galloism]

It is interesting that we've managed to replicate the worst excesses of Soviet productivism in terms of pointless quotas for production, consumption and product movement that lead to colossal waste in order to keep up the facade, except privatized and worse.

Haven’t we been borrowing their ideas? Doesn’t Homeland security look the KGB?

Excuse me, could you come with us sir? We need to ask you a few questions.

Don't worry about the black bag. It's really for your safety more than anything.

[The Black Forrest]

Haven’t we been borrowing their ideas? Doesn’t Homeland security look the KGB?

Excuse me, could you come with us sir? We need to ask you a few questions.

Don't worry about the black bag. It's really for your safety more than anything.

It’s ok. I have a hangover so thank you!

[Washington Resistance Army]

It is interesting that we've managed to replicate the worst excesses of Soviet productivism in terms of pointless quotas for production, consumption and product movement that lead to colossal waste in order to keep up the facade, except privatized and worse.

Haven’t we been borrowing their ideas? Doesn’t Homeland security look the KGB?

Hell no, we blow the old USSR and ComBloc out of the water. Der Spiegel did an interview some years ago with a former Stasi guy after the Snowden leaks and he was floored by how wide reaching our surveillance state is and how nobody cares. We even carry around things to monitor us, we're doing their job for them.

[The Black Forrest]

Haven’t we been borrowing their ideas? Doesn’t Homeland security look the KGB?

Hell no, we blow the old USSR and ComBloc out of the water. Der Spiegel did an interview some years ago with a former Stasi guy after the Snowden leaks and he was floored by how wide reaching our surveillance state is and how nobody cares. We even carry around things to monitor us, we're doing their job for them.

Oh that’s ever so true. I am always surprised how the younger generations are ok with tracking.

One of the sales guys of my old company once asked me to tag along and talk about security stuff when needed. They used a tool which, took their logins, domain name, the password in hash form, ip addresses, hostname and shipped it back to the HQ. The vendor said it was about tracking usage and making sure there wasn’t license abuse. Started to argue with them about host assignments and the VP said it wasn’t a big deal. I was uhm ok. Why are we here then…..

What’s funny? Some of my more conservative and Trumpist friends and family are stunned the FBI used the smartphones GPS to tell if a person was on site for Jan 6th. Uhm………duh…..do you know that’s on your phone?

[Victorious Decepticons]

Returns are a plague for merchants, and there's no good way to deal with most of them. You can't just put most things back on the shelf, even if never actually used, because if you do, customers will see the non-pristine packaging and whine that the things were "actually used, but sold as new!" as if that's a crime of the same magnitude as committing a massacre - and send them back again right before leaving you a 1-star review. Heaven help you if the thing has visibly been used, rather than just having a packaging flaw, too - then, you have to admit that it's used and everyone wants a 90% discount or else they won't buy it.

Other overstock, such as stuff that people just aren't buying, is even worse in some ways. If nobody's buying it, it means that nobody wants it anyway - the market has spoken, and it says that the stuff sucks! Poor people won't be glad to get that. They'll chuck it, too. After all...that stuff is the stuff that just plain sucks. Whether it's ugly, low quality, doesn't fit any real people's sizes, or whatever other reason, it is genuinely unwanted and really does belong in a recycling center or a landfill.

Donating often isn't an option, because the places that work to serve the poor only want a small variety of items. Those rejected iPads, tulip bulbs that will die in 2 months if they're not planted, and that lawnmower blade leveling thing that will never be used? They don't want any of that. Clothes, shoes, and nonperishable food only!

That leaves the thrift store as a place to chuck out reject merchandise without just throwing it away. However, they typically only put out bins for clothes and shoes. This means that giving them anything else is going to be a huge pain in the butt, requiring someone to take stuff over there while they're open and then wait until it's accepted. On top of that, some of these stores are surprisingly picky, and will go over everything as if they're actually customers instead of being glad for the gift.

Finally, thrift stores and other local outlets don't have anywhere near the amount of physical space needed to handle donations from a behemoth like Amazon. They couldn't handle the volume even if they wanted to!

As a merchant, it doesn't take long to learn that the only real solution is to just smack almost all returns straight into the dumper and try not to think about it. I used to sell things online, and I can only think of one type of thing I ever donated - shower curtains in patterns that the market rejected, and one twice-returned one that the second un-customer had surely intentionally damaged just to claim that "it was damaged" and demand a refund (it had mysteriously gotten a couple of minor pulls in it, that it didn't have on the way out).

I didn't find any place that said they'd accept those. I anonymously threw 'em in a thrift store's "clothes and shoes" bin and let whoever was on the other end sort it out. I would be surprised if they didn't just throw them into their dumper, but at least the stuff had a microchance of making it to a physical store shelf.

I only had a few items to ditch, so it wouldn't have been a real bother for the thrift store either way. But I'm quite sure that none of these help-the-poor places would be remotely happy if Amazon just rocked up with a convoy of semis and started unloading all of the crap it can't sell.

[Shofercia]

You are assuming all warehouses are destroying stuff at the same rate. They may be shipping returns to just a few sites for destruction.

If they donated the stuff they could, with the tax write-offs they already get, the government would have to write them refund checks every year

I highly doubt that Amazon would ship items for destruction, as that would impede Amazon's profits. As for taxes: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/04/amazon- ... -2016.html

That’s because Amazon actually owed money to the federal government in 2019. After two straight years of paying $0 in U.S. federal income tax, Amazon was on the hook for a $162 million bill in 2019, the company said in an SEC filing on Thursday... The federal corporate tax rate is 21%, but as in the past, Amazon likely employed various tax credits and deductions to reduce its federal tax bill. Amazon also reported $280.5 billion in total revenue in 2019.

Doesn't look like Amazon needed the write offs. That's the problem when everything's driven to make a profit, you have perfectly good materials going to waste.

Well? What’s the solution? You have somebody elses goods which don’t sell and probably won’t due to age.

I remember my last company where I found HP servers sitting on the docks for five years. Due to amort/tax rules; I had to retire them.

Amazon probably has similar issues.

I highly doubt that most of the 130,000 products won't be able to find a home if donated.

[Thermodolia]

Nationalize Amazon and arrest Bezos for sedition.

[Shofercia]

Nationalize Amazon and arrest Bezos for sedition.

And force him to work as an intern for the New York Times

[Page]

Surplus economy and artificial scarcity will only become more prevalent in the future. It's an essential survival mechanism for late stage capitalism.

[Shofercia]

Surplus economy and artificial scarcity will only become more prevalent in the future. It's an essential survival mechanism for late stage capitalism.

How so? Please expand the post.

[Thermodolia]

Nationalize Amazon and arrest Bezos for sedition.

And force him to work as an intern for the New York Times

I like your punishment ideas

[New yugoslavaia]

Surplus economy and artificial scarcity will only become more prevalent in the future. It's an essential survival mechanism for late stage capitalism.

Behold! The horrors wonders of free market capitalism!
Imagine adopting a circular economy.