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In most case the two you return are discarded. I don’t think that’s sustainable in the long run.

by gumby 3y ago

ryandrake 3y ago
That’s a choice of the retailer or manufacturer though. Whether it is sustainable is their problem. My wife buys 20 outfits and returns 19 of them. If the clothing manufacturer is really throwing them away then they are very wasteful.
- gumby 3y ago
  I’m sorry I was ambiguous. I didn’t mean “unsustainable” in the ecological sense (though I think that’s true as well). I meant that free returns, especially but not only in clothes, is expensive and of course is baked into purchase price. For some reason brick and mortar shops can resell the product (and often reject returns if not) while e-commerce do not. I feel like Amazon pioneered this for the same reason clothes sellers do, but Amazon is so dominant it could be clouding my memory. In any case, I think the inexorable downward pressure on pricing will make the overpurchase/free return in clothing too expensive, and it will be dropped. Amazon famously cuts off customers who return too much: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-permanently-banning-customers-too-many-returns-230130372.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-permanently-banning-cu... They are supposedly trying cut the returns cost: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/10/how-amazon-plans-to-fix-its-massive-returns-problem.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/10/how-amazon-plans-to-fix-its-... Apparently the term is “reverse logistics”: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/08/21/the-hidden-cost-of-free-returns https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/08/21/the-hidden-cos...
- dwaltrip 3y ago
  Thinking this through out loud... I think there's a difference between trying on the clothes in the store vs. buying online, trying on, and returning. I bet the retailer has much lower confidence that the clothes weren't compromised in some way. They have significantly less control of the situation. There's only so much wear and tear or damage that a regular person can do to clothes during a short session in the dressing room. I'd love to hear some stats from the inside on the condition of the clothes bought online that are returned.
- Gigachad 3y ago
  Sure, you can bury your head in the sand and ignore the environmental destruction you are causing. But it still happens.

In most case the two you return are discarded. I don’t think that’s sustainable in the long run.

by gumby 3y ago

In most case the two you return are discarded. I don’t think that’s sustainable in the long run.

That’s a choice of the retailer or manufacturer though. Whether it is sustainable is their problem. My wife buys 20 outfits and returns 19 of them. If the clothing manufacturer is really throwing them away then they are very wasteful.

gumby 3y ago
I’m sorry I was ambiguous. I didn’t mean “unsustainable” in the ecological sense (though I think that’s true as well). I meant that free returns, especially but not only in clothes, is expensive and of course is baked into purchase price. For some reason brick and mortar shops can resell the product (and often reject returns if not) while e-commerce do not. I feel like Amazon pioneered this for the same reason clothes sellers do, but Amazon is so dominant it could be clouding my memory. In any case, I think the inexorable downward pressure on pricing will make the overpurchase/free return in clothing too expensive, and it will be dropped. Amazon famously cuts off customers who return too much: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-permanently-banning-customers-too-many-returns-230130372.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-permanently-banning-cu... They are supposedly trying cut the returns cost: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/10/how-amazon-plans-to-fix-its-massive-returns-problem.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/10/how-amazon-plans-to-fix-its-... Apparently the term is “reverse logistics”: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/08/21/the-hidden-cost-of-free-returns https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/08/21/the-hidden-cos...
dwaltrip 3y ago
Thinking this through out loud... I think there's a difference between trying on the clothes in the store vs. buying online, trying on, and returning. I bet the retailer has much lower confidence that the clothes weren't compromised in some way. They have significantly less control of the situation. There's only so much wear and tear or damage that a regular person can do to clothes during a short session in the dressing room. I'd love to hear some stats from the inside on the condition of the clothes bought online that are returned.
Gigachad 3y ago
Sure, you can bury your head in the sand and ignore the environmental destruction you are causing. But it still happens.