[float4]

This has been known for years, at least in Europe. German article from 2018: https://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/handel/das-ist-ein-riesengro...

Edit: people replying seem to think that I'm saying that:

1. only Amazon does this; 2. it can be prevented but Amazon just chooses not to.

I didn't say any of those things.

[ajross]

ALL retailers destroy unsellable inventory. Items can be defective, counterfeit, damaged, under legal injunction like a trade dispute, incorrectly licensed, or just plain unwanted. If you trade in any item anywhere eventually you're going to end up with something in stock you can't sell.

I mean, what do we want to happen? These things to sit idle forever in a warehouse taking up space?

[silicon2401]

Give them away for free. we should incentivize under-production, not over-production. charge more for waste disposal

[ajross]

You can't give counterfeits away, you'll be sued. You can't give unlicensed or embargoed products away, you'll be fined. Give away damaged or defective goods and you'll see even worse PR than this story.

You can only give away the stuff you "could" sell but can't find a buyer for, which (1) pretty much means no one wants it and (2) will poison your relationship with the people who sell you the stuff you *can* resell!

[romwell]

Yes, that's why we need to removing the externality of destroying goods (and all of us enjoying the environmental damage) by making it cost more to destroy something than to give it away (which may include refurbishment, repackaging, etc).

What, you tried selling a made-for-landfill thing that works half the time? Should've done your research. Choose your loss.

[kleiba]

No producer can predict with absolute accuracy the number of items they are going to sell. If you produce too many items that you don't end up selling, you overspend on production costs. If you produce too few, you cut your revenue. Optimizing the balance between these two extremes is part of running a successful business.

[nradov]

Charging more for waste disposal results in illegal dumping.

[gruez]

>Give them away for free. we should incentivize under-production, not over-production

...and that's how you end up with shortages.

[twiddling]

I worked in an electronics store in the '80s. Once a month we would have "TV day", where all the warehouse guys would smash old TVs and other gadgets. Great way to relieve stress...

[soheil]

> Germany's largest online retailer also offers external providers who use the “Dispatch by Amazon” logistics service the opportunity to dispose of unsold inventory.

This implies those providers can dispose of the unsold inventory how they see fit, possibly by selling it wholesale or for parts, etc. This doesn't seem like a huge crime.