This horrible trait of capitalism does not only apply to high end expensive luxury items, unfortunately. I frequent a thrift store chain called Value Village (

This horrible trait of capitalism does not only apply to high end expensive luxury items, unfortunately. I frequent a thrift store chain called Value Village (aka Savers in USA) quite a bit. So much so that I regularly talk to a lot of the employees in the few that I visit more often. And I love looking at the hoards of books they have on hand at all times. One day an employee was shuffling books around, taking the older books that hadn't sold in a few months off the shelf. I asked her what was done with those books, and she admit that they end up in the trash. Those books didn't cost them a penny. They were all donated for free. Instead of giving them away or lowering the price below their $2/book minimum they choose to dispose of them at the dump. That makes perfect sense from a business standpoint, and zero sense from a human standpoint. There are hoards of extremely impoverished families where I live. The schools are rotting from the inside out. I imagine either of those groups would gladly take a few free books for their children to read. Other more human thrift stores in the area offer books for as little as 25 cents each, and they go in the "free" bin if they haven't sold at that price after a few months but at that price they go quickly no matter the book or condition so it's a moot point.