5 ms·

>I don’t want it, but what am I supposed to do? It will end up in the garbage one way or another. I stuff it in my bag. This seems to be the common thread here

>I don’t want it, but what am I supposed to do? It will end up in the garbage one way or another. I stuff it in my bag. This seems to be the common thread here - judging by the pictures, the stuff in these bins seems to be 95% junk. It's trash brand new in the package. Hard to believe anyone would pay any amount for it. Almost seems like you're losing money by not dumping it directly into the ocean. Apparently, I'm wrong enough that there's hundreds of these stores in business.

citizenpaul 1y ago
>Apparently, I'm wrong enough that there's hundreds of these stores in business. The stuff in the bins is from amazon returns. Its not a business of its own supply choices. The people that run the stores go to amazon pallet auctions where they buy the stuff unseen and hope to turn a profit on the arbitrage of what they pay vs the worth of the pallet.
- alistairSH 1y ago
  What's really amazing is that enough people buy absolute crap from Amazon, then return it, that this business model exists at all. It's downright dystopian.
  - throwawaymaths 1y ago
    well on the flip side god bless capitalism for finding a way to give this junk a second chance at avoiding going straight to the landfill. ... i perceive the proliferation of so much junk more of a result of zirp, low interest rates/inflation/central banking devaluing the past over future "growth" and china and the west playing the goodhart game with GDP and juicing production/consumption, than something necessarily a part of "capitalism" for one definition of capitalism.
    - munificent 1y ago
      I suspect that a very large fraction of purchases at the bin store are impulse buys that provide a temporary serotonin hit. Then the purchaser gets home and realizes that no, in fact they do not need a frog-themed toaster whose mouth is too small to fit a normal slice of bread, and they throw it out. You could look at this as an abitrage opportunity where a business throwing out bulk waste has to pay for it, but if you distribute it to individual citizens whose trash bin still has a bit of room in it, you can throw it out for free.
      - radpanda 1y ago
        > You could look at this as an abitrage opportunity where a business throwing out bulk waste has to pay for it, but if you distribute it to individual citizens whose trash bin still has a bit of room in it, you can throw it out for free. Yeah, that’s what I figured was going on here. Reminds me of pizza delivery (in the US anyhow), which relies on pizza delivery guys not paying attention to the cost of vehicle wear-and-tear and proper insurance so your pizza is cheaper than if every pizza place owned properly maintained and insured vehicles.
- mrweasel 1y ago
  It's still mostly junk. The issue is do you really want to spend time returning a $5 junk purchase? For most people the answer is no. This is just the stuff that was returned or didn't sell, imagine how much of the stuff is thrown away by the buyers. Some things are just made to cheaply, to hit a price point people will pay. When people then buy the item and realise that it's garbage, it gets tossed. Just maybe you can't make a good air-fryer for $50, but people will see it and think "For $50 I can give it a go". They then conclude that it's rubbish and take it to the junk yard. No, most of this stuff should never have been made in the first place. We need to stop making products that has to hit a price point, regardless of quality. We need to stop making one-time-use novelty items. Then you have the secondary effect: Some clever business people sees this trend and starts ordering junk in bulk on Wish, AliExpress or Temu, dumps it in big boxes with a few good items (maybe) and starts their own "fake" Bin Store.
  - mastazi 1y ago
    I can see your argument in relation to minimizing waste and the fact that many low-price items should not exist because they are not sustainable. But I'm confused by the first part of your comment because first you said > It's still mostly junk. But then you go on to say > do you really want to spend time returning a $5 junk purchase? For most people the answer is no. This is just the stuff that was returned or didn't sell so basically you're saying that the stuff in the bins is not garbage after all if I understand correctly?
    - mrweasel 1y ago
      It's not garbage as in it's not thrown in the trash bin. Perhaps I'm a little to happy to use the word "junk", I mean it as in terms of quality.
  - rizzom5000 1y ago
    > Some clever business people sees this trend and starts ordering junk... Similar to lower quality made-for-outlet products produced by major brands. With the bins it seems to approach gambling on some level. Like raffle tickets, except when you lose you also have to dispose of some trash.
- parpfish 1y ago
  I feel like if there were a sustainable business in this, Amazon would just do it themselves and set up outlet stores. But instead Amazon takes the easy money of just auctioning stuff off. that should be a red flag for people starting these businesses.
  - bombcar 1y ago
    This is just a variation on "outlet" stores (the unofficial ones, that have always sold crushed inventory, etc, the stuff the stores don't want to even clearance, or can't sell on clearance). The one near me amuses me because they always list everything at half list price - $50 doodad from Target is set at $25. But sometimes you can still see the $5 clearance sticker from Target on it! Target likes it because they turn a pallet of returned crap and other crush into some cash, and the stores like it because they buy a pallet for $1000 and sell it for $2000 over a few weeks. Bin stores have just sped that up - but Goodwill outlets have been doing "by the pound" for ages. Go there and buy books, clothes, microwaves, all at a set price per pound. The key is you don't have to pay anyone to think about pricing. (And of course, you skim any of the really great stuff off before it hits the floor.)
  - lotsofpulp 1y ago
    > But instead Amazon takes the easy money of just auctioning stuff off. Employing 1.5M people to operate hundreds and thousands of warehouses, trucks, and planes is not easy money. If it is, you are welcome to throw your hat in the ring.
  - JKCalhoun 1y ago
    Not necessarily; bottom-feeding appears to be a business model.
sct202 1y ago
It's basically scavenging. My parents are sort of hoarder-ish and love to go buy random things that show promise on $0.25 day. I don't stop them because at least it was already going to be trash and keeps them from buying more expensive trash at the regular store.
dylan604 1y ago
If you don't want it, don't buy it. The problem is that things are too cheap, so people don't hesitate to ask themselves if they really want it. It's just too cheap to not try it. It's also one of those things where the picture doesn't match the actual item similar to fast food advertising. If the shopper was looking at the item in person, most things would not be purchased. Dumping it directly in the ocean is just skipping a few steps as much of it does end up there. It would be better to just dump it into a landfill instead of the ocean though
fortran77 1y ago
You're not wrong. This store is not good.
_carbyau_ 1y ago
You are not alone in being wrong, count myself and many others also... "I laughed at the Lorax, You poor stupid guy! You never can tell what some people will buy." - The Lorax By Dr. Seuss

citizenpaul 1y ago

>Apparently, I'm wrong enough that there's hundreds of these stores in business. The stuff in the bins is from amazon returns. Its not a business of its own supply choices. The people that run the stores go to amazon pallet auctions where they buy the stuff unseen and hope to turn a profit on the arbitrage of what they pay vs the worth of the pallet.

alistairSH 1y ago
What's really amazing is that enough people buy absolute crap from Amazon, then return it, that this business model exists at all. It's downright dystopian.
- throwawaymaths 1y ago
  well on the flip side god bless capitalism for finding a way to give this junk a second chance at avoiding going straight to the landfill. ... i perceive the proliferation of so much junk more of a result of zirp, low interest rates/inflation/central banking devaluing the past over future "growth" and china and the west playing the goodhart game with GDP and juicing production/consumption, than something necessarily a part of "capitalism" for one definition of capitalism.
  - munificent 1y ago
    I suspect that a very large fraction of purchases at the bin store are impulse buys that provide a temporary serotonin hit. Then the purchaser gets home and realizes that no, in fact they do not need a frog-themed toaster whose mouth is too small to fit a normal slice of bread, and they throw it out. You could look at this as an abitrage opportunity where a business throwing out bulk waste has to pay for it, but if you distribute it to individual citizens whose trash bin still has a bit of room in it, you can throw it out for free.
    - radpanda 1y ago
      > You could look at this as an abitrage opportunity where a business throwing out bulk waste has to pay for it, but if you distribute it to individual citizens whose trash bin still has a bit of room in it, you can throw it out for free. Yeah, that’s what I figured was going on here. Reminds me of pizza delivery (in the US anyhow), which relies on pizza delivery guys not paying attention to the cost of vehicle wear-and-tear and proper insurance so your pizza is cheaper than if every pizza place owned properly maintained and insured vehicles.
mrweasel 1y ago
It's still mostly junk. The issue is do you really want to spend time returning a $5 junk purchase? For most people the answer is no. This is just the stuff that was returned or didn't sell, imagine how much of the stuff is thrown away by the buyers. Some things are just made to cheaply, to hit a price point people will pay. When people then buy the item and realise that it's garbage, it gets tossed. Just maybe you can't make a good air-fryer for $50, but people will see it and think "For $50 I can give it a go". They then conclude that it's rubbish and take it to the junk yard. No, most of this stuff should never have been made in the first place. We need to stop making products that has to hit a price point, regardless of quality. We need to stop making one-time-use novelty items. Then you have the secondary effect: Some clever business people sees this trend and starts ordering junk in bulk on Wish, AliExpress or Temu, dumps it in big boxes with a few good items (maybe) and starts their own "fake" Bin Store.
- mastazi 1y ago
  I can see your argument in relation to minimizing waste and the fact that many low-price items should not exist because they are not sustainable. But I'm confused by the first part of your comment because first you said > It's still mostly junk. But then you go on to say > do you really want to spend time returning a $5 junk purchase? For most people the answer is no. This is just the stuff that was returned or didn't sell so basically you're saying that the stuff in the bins is not garbage after all if I understand correctly?
  - mrweasel 1y ago
    It's not garbage as in it's not thrown in the trash bin. Perhaps I'm a little to happy to use the word "junk", I mean it as in terms of quality.
- rizzom5000 1y ago
  > Some clever business people sees this trend and starts ordering junk... Similar to lower quality made-for-outlet products produced by major brands. With the bins it seems to approach gambling on some level. Like raffle tickets, except when you lose you also have to dispose of some trash.
parpfish 1y ago
I feel like if there were a sustainable business in this, Amazon would just do it themselves and set up outlet stores. But instead Amazon takes the easy money of just auctioning stuff off. that should be a red flag for people starting these businesses.
- bombcar 1y ago
  This is just a variation on "outlet" stores (the unofficial ones, that have always sold crushed inventory, etc, the stuff the stores don't want to even clearance, or can't sell on clearance). The one near me amuses me because they always list everything at half list price - $50 doodad from Target is set at $25. But sometimes you can still see the $5 clearance sticker from Target on it! Target likes it because they turn a pallet of returned crap and other crush into some cash, and the stores like it because they buy a pallet for $1000 and sell it for $2000 over a few weeks. Bin stores have just sped that up - but Goodwill outlets have been doing "by the pound" for ages. Go there and buy books, clothes, microwaves, all at a set price per pound. The key is you don't have to pay anyone to think about pricing. (And of course, you skim any of the really great stuff off before it hits the floor.)
- lotsofpulp 1y ago
  > But instead Amazon takes the easy money of just auctioning stuff off. Employing 1.5M people to operate hundreds and thousands of warehouses, trucks, and planes is not easy money. If it is, you are welcome to throw your hat in the ring.
- JKCalhoun 1y ago
  Not necessarily; bottom-feeding appears to be a business model.

sct202 1y ago

It's basically scavenging. My parents are sort of hoarder-ish and love to go buy random things that show promise on $0.25 day. I don't stop them because at least it was already going to be trash and keeps them from buying more expensive trash at the regular store.

dylan604 1y ago

If you don't want it, don't buy it. The problem is that things are too cheap, so people don't hesitate to ask themselves if they really want it. It's just too cheap to not try it. It's also one of those things where the picture doesn't match the actual item similar to fast food advertising. If the shopper was looking at the item in person, most things would not be purchased. Dumping it directly in the ocean is just skipping a few steps as much of it does end up there. It would be better to just dump it into a landfill instead of the ocean though

fortran77 1y ago

You're not wrong. This store is not good.

_carbyau_ 1y ago

You are not alone in being wrong, count myself and many others also... "I laughed at the Lorax, You poor stupid guy! You never can tell what some people will buy." - The Lorax By Dr. Seuss