You’re Getting Screwed By Free Returns | Climate Town (feat. @Danny-Gonzalez)
Resumo
TLDRVideoen undersøger den massive affaldsproblem, der er skabt af online shopping og gratis returneringspolitikker. Mens gratis returnering appellerer til forbrugerne, fører det til en epidemi af returnerede varer, som ofte destrueres eller deponeres. En betydelig del af disse returnerede varer behandles aldrig på en måde, der gavner nogen—de destrueres simpelthen, hvilket er både dyrt og skadeligt for miljøet. Videoen fremhæver eksempler som Amazon og andre store detailhandleres praksis. Der fokuseres på det store netværk af liquidationscentre, som forsøger at genbruge returnerede varer, men dette anses ikke som en reel løsning på problemet. Forbrugerne opfordres til at ændre deres købsmønstre og vælge kvalitet over kvantitet for at reducere spild. Videoen understreger også, hvordan returneringspolitikker, der oprindeligt skulle øge forbrugertilliden, nu resulterer i betydelige økonomiske og miljømæssige omkostninger.
Conclusões
- 📦 Gratis returordninger leder til massivt affald.
- 🔄 Mange returnerede varer genbruges aldrig.
- 💰 Det er dyrt at håndtere returner.
- 🌱 Miljøet lider under affaldsproblemer.
- 🛒 Forbrugere spiller en rolle i problemet.
- ♻️ Købsecondhand mindsker affald.
- 👗 Tøjretur er en stor synder.
- ⚖️ Kvalitet over kvantitet hjælper miljøet.
- 🌍 Problemet er globalt, ikke kun i USA.
- 🔍 Transparens fra virksomheder er vigtig.
Linha do tempo
- 00:00:00 - 00:05:00
Internettet har måske sine negative sider, men det har gjort online shopping til en fornøjelse med gratis forsendelse og returnering. Imidlertid fører det til en stor mængde spild, da 8 milliarder pund returnerede varer ender på lossepladser hvert år. Forhandlere opretholder gratis returpolitikker for at konkurrere, selvom det er dyrt og kompliceret.
- 00:05:00 - 00:10:00
Tidligere var returneringer enkle; man kunne bytte varer i butikken. Men internettets fremkomst ændrede dette, og for at få folk til at handle online introducerede Zappos gratis retur, hvilket blev udbredt. Amazon købte Zappos, og gratis retur blev normen, hvilket førte til en stigning i returneringer og affald.
- 00:10:00 - 00:15:00
Med introduktionen af gratis retour var der en eksplosion i mængden af returnerede varer, især i USA. Denne stigning i returnerede varer har ført til en betydelig stigning i transportbehovet, hvilket påvirker miljøet negativt. Samtidig gør den labyrintiske returproces det svært for varer at nå tilbage til hylderne.
- 00:15:00 - 00:20:00
Når varer returneres, bliver de ofte ikke genudsolgt og ender som affald. Mange virksomheder finder det urentabelt at bearbejde returneringer, hvilket fører til, at nye produkter destrueres. Liquideringsgiganter køber returnerede varer billigt og sælger dem videre, men det løser ikke sløsseproblemet.
- 00:20:00 - 00:25:00
I likvidationscentrene kan folk finde gode tilbud eller bokses med blandet indhold, herunder nye varer blandet med brugte eller defekte genstande. Dette fænomen understreger den absurde mængde affald, der skabes af gratis returer, da mange varer er næsten nye, men alligevel overskydende.
- 00:25:00 - 00:30:00
Tilbagekaldte varer gennemgår ofte en kompliceret rejse til returneringscentre, hvor de bliver sorteret. Størstedelen bliver dog ikke ført tilbage til hylderne på grund af omkostningerne ved at genoparbejde og genbruge dem. Dette resulterer ofte i affald eller en billig vidersalg via likvidationskanaler.
- 00:30:00 - 00:35:00
Returordninger betragtes som en eksternalitet med omkostninger, der påvirker miljøet negativt, men som ikke betales af producenterne. Gratis retur skader også produktkvaliteten, da varer masseproduceres af lav kvalitet for at holde udgifterne lave, mens virksomhederne øger priserne for at kompensere for returudgifter.
- 00:35:00 - 00:40:00
Forbrugere bliver næret en falsk forestilling om "gratis" retur, mens virksomheder i virkeligheden overproducerer og skjuler omkostningerne ved at inkludere dem i produktprisen. Adskillige nye initiativer forsøger at mindske denne praksis ved at reducere returvinduerne og indføre omkostninger ved retur.
- 00:40:00 - 00:45:00
Udover økonomiske omkostninger medfører returer også store klimamæssige konsekvenser, da de involverer omfattende transport og ofte ender som unødvendigt affald. Der skal etableres bedre systemer til at håndtere returnerede varer, så flere kan genbruges i stedet for at gå til spilde.
- 00:45:00 - 00:52:41
Der er initiativer i gang, som prøver at uddanne forbrugere om konsekvenserne af fri retur og opfordre virksomheder til at ændre deres praksis. Ved at øge bevidstheden og stille skarpt på problemet kan både forbrugere og virksomheder arbejde hen imod en mere ansvarlig og bæredygtig model for returnering.
Mapa mental
Vídeo de perguntas e respostas
Hvorfor bliver så mange returnerede varer smidt væk?
På grund af de høje omkostninger forbundet med håndteringen og videresalget af returnerede varer.
Hvor mange returnerede varer ender som affald?
Det anslås, at mellem 10% og 25% af returnerede varer ender som affald.
Hvordan beskriver videoen systemet for returnerede varer?
Videoen illustrerer et system, hvor det er mere rentabelt at smide varer væk end at genbruge dem.
Hvordan påvirker forbrugerens opfattelse af gratis returnering prisen og kvaliteten af produkter?
Forbrugerne oplever tilsyneladende billige varer og fordelagtige returpolitikker, men betaler i sidste ende for det gennem højere priser eller lavere kvalitet.
Hvorfor bør vi være opmærksomme på problemet med returnering?
For at reducere det affald og de omkostninger, der er forbundet med retursystemet, og for at opfordre til mere ansvarlige købsvaner.
Hvad kan forbrugere gøre for at mindske affaldet fra returnerede varer?
Ved at købe secondhand, vælge kvalitet frem for kvantitet og være opmærksom på sine købsvaner.
Hvor meget affald fra returnerede varer blev der skabt i 2023?
8 milliarder pund affald fra returnerede varer blev sendt til lossepladser i 2023 alene.
Hvad er nogle løsninger på problemet med affald fra returnerede varer?
Det foreslås, at ændre forbrugeradfærd, fremme genbrug og genbrug, samt øge gennemsigtigheden hos virksomhederne.
Hvilken rolle spiller liquidation-centre i håndteringen af returnerede varer?
De hjælper med at videresælge returnerede varer billigere, men løser ikke selve problemet med overproduktion og affald.
Hvad er hovedbudskabet i videoen angående returpolitikker og affald?
At overproduktion og dårlige returpolitikker fører til affald og skjulte omkostninger for forbrugerne og miljøet.
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CLEANING OUT MY CLOSET (zero effort but good enough)
- 00:00:00sure the internet might be radicalizing
- 00:00:02our grandparents and eroding our mental
- 00:00:04health and destroying the fabric of
- 00:00:06society but God damn is it made buying
- 00:00:09stuff online an absolute Delight we're
- 00:00:12talking free shipping next day delivery
- 00:00:15and the Crown Jewel free returns did you
- 00:00:18just impulse buy a $200 above ground
- 00:00:20pool I don't think so brother cuz with
- 00:00:23the click of a button you can send it
- 00:00:24right back to the shelf for someone else
- 00:00:26to buy no harm no F millions of
- 00:00:29perfectly good products each year sent
- 00:00:31to be destroyed shelves filled with
- 00:00:33unwanted Amazon returns 50% of all items
- 00:00:36seem to be unopened and still in their
- 00:00:38shrink M the destination a landfill and
- 00:00:41recycling site unsold laptops marked
- 00:00:44destroyed oh of course no unfortunately
- 00:00:49when you return something even if it's
- 00:00:51brand new the chances of that item
- 00:00:54actually making it back to the shelves
- 00:00:56are depressingly low in modern shopping
- 00:00:59you can pretty reasonably think of a
- 00:01:01return as a long winding drive to the
- 00:01:04trash and oh my God what a lot of trash
- 00:01:08it is in 2023 alone we sent over 8
- 00:01:11billion pounds of returns to the
- 00:01:13landfill that's approximately 1 pound
- 00:01:16for every seagull in this Getty Images
- 00:01:18clip of a landfill now you might be
- 00:01:20thinking wow how could trashing billions
- 00:01:23of dollars of basically new products
- 00:01:25possibly be profitable for companies
- 00:01:27well retailers are doing a sort of deal
- 00:01:29with the capitalism devil here everyone
- 00:01:32else offers free returns so they offer
- 00:01:34it too but since it's expensive and
- 00:01:36complicated to actually get a return
- 00:01:38back to the shelves they mostly just
- 00:01:41don't and as you can imagine this is
- 00:01:43costly so businesses slash their
- 00:01:45production and labor costs and or just
- 00:01:48bump up their prices to account for
- 00:01:50refunding nearly 15% of everything
- 00:01:53Americans purchase in an attempt to get
- 00:01:56back some of the money that's getting
- 00:01:57thrown away with returns retail ERS have
- 00:02:00begun selling their returned items for
- 00:02:02pennies on the dollar to what is known
- 00:02:04as a bulk item Liquidator wow listen to
- 00:02:07this baby purr with companies trashing
- 00:02:11billions of dollars worth of merchandise
- 00:02:13every single year an interesting
- 00:02:15phenomenon has occurred a gigantic
- 00:02:17network of aftermarket Liquidators has
- 00:02:20sprung up to try to resell some of that
- 00:02:22returned merchandise rather than letting
- 00:02:24it go to the dump the amount of wasted
- 00:02:26value is so enormous that liquidation
- 00:02:29makes money simply by tossing returns
- 00:02:31into Giant open to cardboard boxes and
- 00:02:34then selling them off to the highest
- 00:02:36bidder or if you're in the area you can
- 00:02:38drop by and buy a mystery box for
- 00:02:40yourself it's a great way to spend an
- 00:02:42afternoon or if you're a content creator
- 00:02:45it's a really fun way to make some
- 00:02:46unhinged side hustle grind culture
- 00:02:49videos about selling returns as a cool
- 00:02:51way to make some cash you can buy
- 00:02:53people's Amazon returns for super cheap
- 00:02:56the treasure box ended up being
- 00:02:58$993 of stuff you're chicking but that's
- 00:03:01not my style brother I make punishingly
- 00:03:03long videos full of context that no one
- 00:03:05asked for 8% 10% 20% 20 to 30% 40% 75%
- 00:03:1220% but I'm not a robot okay I
- 00:03:15understand the appeal of those kinds of
- 00:03:16videos they're fun I get it and as an
- 00:03:19olive branch to people who've been
- 00:03:21trying to get me to make more fun videos
- 00:03:23I'm bringing in the a team that's right
- 00:03:25the big guns I'm talking about internet
- 00:03:27historian Danny Gonzalez
- 00:03:30hey thanks for having me Ry thank you
- 00:03:31for crouching behind that box for way
- 00:03:33longer than I think you thought you were
- 00:03:35going to yeah my legs hurt we're in a
- 00:03:37giant Liquidation Center what's your
- 00:03:38first impression of the place uh there's
- 00:03:40definitely a lot more birds living in
- 00:03:42here than I would have thought there are
- 00:03:43an alarming amount of birds in the
- 00:03:45Rapters I will check with the manager
- 00:03:46but I don't think those are for sale but
- 00:03:49if they are you're going home with a
- 00:03:50whole pallet full of birds today I'm
- 00:03:52just struck by the sheer sense of
- 00:03:54mystery so many possibilities in these
- 00:03:57unopened like nondescript boxes there
- 00:04:00could be anything in these boxes not
- 00:04:04just a Queens siiz bed top sheet mhm or
- 00:04:10a giant piece of foam that's actually
- 00:04:12mine I left that here earlier s all
- 00:04:14right let's take a look at the Colossal
- 00:04:16amount of waste that is created by
- 00:04:18online shopping by getting Dany his very
- 00:04:20own palette of other people's basically
- 00:04:23new return stuff now Danny what's your
- 00:04:25strategy for hunting down one of these
- 00:04:27palletes I'm hoping to find a palette
- 00:04:29that I can rehome each individual item
- 00:04:31to find it a forever home but if I'm
- 00:04:34doing all this work I'd also like to
- 00:04:36make a couple bucks while I'm at it as
- 00:04:38well you should it's your right as an
- 00:04:40American all right Danny what God Bless
- 00:04:44America I'm not sure if we have the
- 00:04:45rights to sing that song but go
- 00:04:49ahead all right why don't you uh take a
- 00:04:51look around and see what there is to see
- 00:04:52and let's pop this thing off hi I'm
- 00:04:55Raley Williams a guy with a climate
- 00:04:56science and policy degree and a brand
- 00:04:58new friend and this is a video about the
- 00:05:01mountain of trash that's created from
- 00:05:03free returns featuring Danny Gonzalez
- 00:05:06welcome to climate town
- 00:05:12[Music]
- 00:05:32now there was a time when returns were
- 00:05:34really very simple you would buy a
- 00:05:36hammer from the General Store only to
- 00:05:38remember that you already had a hammer
- 00:05:40and since you're not some kind of two
- 00:05:41Hammer owning millionaire you march
- 00:05:44right back to that store look the
- 00:05:45shopkeeper dead in the face and tell
- 00:05:47them sir I do not want your Hammer
- 00:05:49anymore and they'd refund you then
- 00:05:51they'd take the hammer walk at 10 ft to
- 00:05:54the Hammer shelf and another customer
- 00:05:56could come by and buy your Hammer
- 00:05:58instead and that was basic basically the
- 00:06:00process at the original JC Penny stores
- 00:06:03a generous returns policy from a guy
- 00:06:05named James cash peny in a store that
- 00:06:08looked like this and it basically went
- 00:06:10on like that for decades until the
- 00:06:12Glorious
- 00:06:13invent the Glorious invention
- 00:06:17of invention of the internet You've Got
- 00:06:20Mail yes the internet may have been
- 00:06:22criminally slow and constantly getting
- 00:06:25disconnected but retailers immediately
- 00:06:27saw the potential in online sh shopping
- 00:06:30but how do you get people to buy stuff
- 00:06:32without seeing it first sure you can get
- 00:06:35some absolute suckers to buy things
- 00:06:37sight unseen but shoes no shoes you need
- 00:06:40to feel shoes you need to try on shoes
- 00:06:42you need to measure perfectly by
- 00:06:44cramming your foot into this metal thing
- 00:06:46shoes simply must be bought in person
- 00:06:49and it was this kind of thinking that
- 00:06:51almost doomed the idea of Zappos but
- 00:06:54zapo founder Nick swinburn had a really
- 00:06:56good card up his sleeve not a ace that's
- 00:06:59too obvious a Jack the Jack of free
- 00:07:03returns absolutely free no questions
- 00:07:05asked can I return it next month [ __ ]
- 00:07:08your month how about a year 365 days
- 00:07:10free returns and we won't ask you why
- 00:07:13experience true shopping the zapo way a
- 00:07:15generous return policy got my gear and
- 00:07:18my kick the best z
- 00:07:20a.com so now instead of trying on
- 00:07:23different shoes in the store and putting
- 00:07:25the ones that don't fit back on the
- 00:07:26Shelf they'll just ship you as many
- 00:07:27shoes as you could possibly imagine and
- 00:07:30then you just return the shoes that you
- 00:07:32don't want and the reason we're talking
- 00:07:33about it is because this idea worked
- 00:07:36really well
- 00:07:53zaposlitev was disappearing into the
- 00:07:57Vortex of free returns they were also
- 00:07:59getting blasted by the twin guns of free
- 00:08:02shipping and having to rent out massive
- 00:08:04warehouses to store the millions of
- 00:08:06shoes including this little green alien
- 00:08:08shoe from when the little guy jumped
- 00:08:10over the big
- 00:08:13guy he used back up but this is the big
- 00:08:17Tech year a baby we don't give a [ __ ]
- 00:08:19about money we want growth Jackson so a
- 00:08:29I still can't believe that sentence
- 00:08:31leads to this guy but it
- 00:08:35does you can hear him coming a mile
- 00:08:38away as long as we're going to be
- 00:08:40watching back clips of Jeff Bezos let's
- 00:08:43do this thing
- 00:08:44right okay Danny we found some footage
- 00:08:47of American heartthrob Jeff Bezos from a
- 00:08:50little over 20 years ago and I just feel
- 00:08:52like I want to get your perspective on
- 00:08:54who is arguably America's most
- 00:08:57successful citizen yeah I would love to
- 00:08:59see this footage you know I know that he
- 00:09:02today is America's heartthrob obviously
- 00:09:05going around on Yachts looking so damn
- 00:09:08strong jacked out of his mind and I'm
- 00:09:10sure that TW 20 years ago he's probably
- 00:09:13doing much of the same you'd imagine
- 00:09:15he'd be even more in his prime when he
- 00:09:17was just coming up so let's check it
- 00:09:20[Music]
- 00:09:27out do you think you could recreate that
- 00:09:30laugh I feel like a good imitation of it
- 00:09:33has to get the sound right but you also
- 00:09:34have to get like the crazed look in his
- 00:09:36eyes
- 00:09:38right wow that was really really good I
- 00:09:41think my net worth just Rose by $100
- 00:09:46million no I didn't have it I didn't
- 00:09:48have the you got poorer when that
- 00:09:49happened the 35-year-old founder and CEO
- 00:09:53of Amazon 35 in that wow that's just 5
- 00:09:56years older than me and he's already
- 00:09:58worth they said millions of dollars
- 00:10:00that's crazy you could get there you
- 00:10:01could get there all you got to do is
- 00:10:03found a groundbreaking company that
- 00:10:05utilizes a new burgeoning technology to
- 00:10:08undercut all your competitors okay um
- 00:10:11yeah if you if all of you guys are cool
- 00:10:13with me doing that just go ahead and
- 00:10:14leave a comment down in the comments
- 00:10:16below smash that like button if you're
- 00:10:17cool with Danny taking over commerce for
- 00:10:19the next decade or so he saw early on
- 00:10:22the power of those letters
- 00:10:25www the website that they showed was
- 00:10:27just www. worldwide. web my favorite
- 00:10:32website dude that's that was the
- 00:10:33original Google people would worldwide.
- 00:10:35web it if they had a question so you're
- 00:10:37driving out here in what '94 was it July
- 00:10:40of '94 is when we arrived in Seattle
- 00:10:42month after I was born July of '94 I was
- 00:10:45born on the day of the OJ Simpson murder
- 00:10:48wait
- 00:10:49hang the laugh does kind of come off to
- 00:10:52me like he's barely holding it together
- 00:10:54and you're getting these like little
- 00:10:56glimpses into his dark and twisted mind
- 00:10:59what yeah man this is a kind of a nice
- 00:11:02look back at what Amazon Fulfillment
- 00:11:05centers used to look like kind of like
- 00:11:07libraries yeah like shelves where a real
- 00:11:11human being could reach the top of it a
- 00:11:14real human being could see from one wall
- 00:11:16to the other all the way across I don't
- 00:11:18see any bottles of piss anywhere
- 00:11:20actually This was oh that's just for
- 00:11:21sale that's just for sale Amazon fired
- 00:11:24150 people in January 2% of its
- 00:11:26Workforce to cut down on costs last year
- 00:11:29a few employees complained publicly in a
- 00:11:32Washington Post article about what they
- 00:11:34said is excessive overtime and low pay
- 00:11:36at Amazon okay so oh my friends it's
- 00:11:40going to get so much worse than that
- 00:11:42your response to uh to that sweat shop
- 00:11:45accusation well it's he suddenly seems a
- 00:11:48lot more pissed the interviewer yeah the
- 00:11:50whole time he's been laughing along with
- 00:11:52them and then he's like so what the [ __ ]
- 00:11:54is going on with that what we're trying
- 00:11:56to do isn't easy and it's not for
- 00:11:58everybody that's for sure and look the
- 00:12:00money is not for everyone either the
- 00:12:02money is for me
- 00:12:05smile terrible oh man anything gets this
- 00:12:08guy he just took a picture in his cack
- 00:12:10tell me what the joke is smile took a
- 00:12:13picture of a guy what is the comedy
- 00:12:15there now I have part of your soul okay
- 00:12:17the last thing I wanted to show you you
- 00:12:19know what's not to love you order the
- 00:12:21groceries online and we deliver them to
- 00:12:22your
- 00:12:25door what is the joke there he just
- 00:12:27described his business
- 00:12:29I kind of sort of work for you so I'm
- 00:12:31not eager to ask question barely ever so
- 00:12:35barely I've never heard that combination
- 00:12:37kind of nice I pay all of my employees
- 00:12:39ever so barely I think I've grown a bit
- 00:12:42of a greater appreciation for the guy
- 00:12:44you know now I know a little bit of his
- 00:12:46history now I know that he always
- 00:12:47laughed like that it makes sense that he
- 00:12:49would laugh like a 200 billionaire
- 00:12:52because he is a 200 billionaire but
- 00:12:54before you know in that first video he
- 00:12:56only had like what a billion dollars
- 00:12:58yeah 6 billion tops and he still left
- 00:13:00like that so it's just kind of
- 00:13:01interesting to see thanks so much Danny
- 00:13:03let's get back to 2009 when Jeff bezos's
- 00:13:06nation state Amazon purchased zapo for a
- 00:13:09little less than a billion dollars which
- 00:13:12honestly doesn't sound like that much
- 00:13:14considering Zappos was selling more than
- 00:13:16a billion dollars of shoes every year
- 00:13:18but again
- 00:13:24[Music]
- 00:13:29free returns the practice went
- 00:13:31mainstream fellow hot [ __ ] corporations
- 00:13:33Target and Walmart established their own
- 00:13:35free returns policies to keep up and
- 00:13:37soon virtually every major online
- 00:13:39retailer from the 2010s got sucked in
- 00:13:42right along with them and just like
- 00:13:59they won't shop at a store that doesn't
- 00:14:00have them the free returns stayed for
- 00:14:02online businesses this meant eating [ __ ]
- 00:14:05on returns so they could also eat the
- 00:14:07delicious and 100% shipfree sandwich of
- 00:14:10an army of online consumers clicking
- 00:14:12that buy button with Reckless abandon
- 00:14:15and as you may have guessed America
- 00:14:17embraced free returns like Lenny from of
- 00:14:19M men embraced Animals by 2023 something
- 00:14:22like 39% of consumers returned an online
- 00:14:25purchase at least once a month habitual
- 00:14:28return beh behaviors emerged like
- 00:14:30bracketing where customers purposely
- 00:14:32order multiple sizes of the same item
- 00:14:34and then return the ones that don't fit
- 00:14:36and wardrobing where they buy an item
- 00:14:38wear it and then return it and just like
- 00:14:40that the cost of free returns was
- 00:14:42spiraling out of control and if you
- 00:14:44combine all those returns with the free
- 00:14:46shipping that got that stuff to you in
- 00:14:48the first place you suddenly have an
- 00:14:50insane amount of packages moving around
- 00:14:52the country on big big trucks UPS now
- 00:14:55delivers 2 billion more domestic
- 00:14:58packages than it did did in the year
- 00:14:592000 and in that same time frame the
- 00:15:01United States Postal Service tripled its
- 00:15:03package deliveries and then there's
- 00:15:05Amazon who only started delivering their
- 00:15:07own packages in 2018 and now they
- 00:15:10deliver more packages than either UPS or
- 00:15:12FedEx in 6 years UPS has been around for
- 00:15:16117 years and Amazon beat it in
- 00:15:22six no I didn't want it bad enough and
- 00:15:25while today's customers are still
- 00:15:27treating returns like bringing a Hammer
- 00:15:29back to James cash Penny today's sellers
- 00:15:32are living an extremely different
- 00:15:33reality for starters when you return
- 00:15:36something it does not go back to the
- 00:15:38store yeah when you slap a return label
- 00:15:41on a basketball or a video game or a
- 00:15:44pair of pants that didn't fit because
- 00:15:46actual quote from my tailor you got a
- 00:15:48big butt man that item is almost never
- 00:15:51addressed to the place that you bought
- 00:15:52it from even if you physically take a
- 00:15:55return back to the brick and mortar
- 00:15:57store it almost certainly gets added to
- 00:15:59a big pile of other returns in the back
- 00:16:01room and when that pile gets big enough
- 00:16:03it gets put in a truck and driven to
- 00:16:05meet up with its other return friends it
- 00:16:08may even make two or three more trips on
- 00:16:10trucks until all the returns in the
- 00:16:12region gather at what's known as a
- 00:16:14return center picture a massive
- 00:16:17Warehouse with low ceilings actually you
- 00:16:19know what don't picture it CNBC did a
- 00:16:21huge story on this here's what it looks
- 00:16:23like return centers are packed to the
- 00:16:26absolute gills with the millions of
- 00:16:28items that people like you and me send
- 00:16:31back for a full refund now I want to
- 00:16:33stress that there's not a ton of good
- 00:16:35statistical information about returns
- 00:16:37for reasons that will become clear
- 00:16:39companies don't really like to advertise
- 00:16:41how they move returned items around but
- 00:16:43don't worry cuz the information that is
- 00:16:45available is extremely depressing let's
- 00:16:48start with the purpose of a return
- 00:16:50center it's not to get each item safely
- 00:16:52back to the cell you bought it from the
- 00:16:54job of a return center is to assess how
- 00:16:56valuable each item actually is and then
- 00:16:59sort them all into five basic
- 00:17:02categories
- 00:17:05Li if reselling the return isn't going
- 00:17:07to be worth the shipping and labor cost
- 00:17:09it would require to get it back to the
- 00:17:11store or back to the warehouse then [ __ ]
- 00:17:14it throw it away we'll just make a whole
- 00:17:16new one from scratch with about $740
- 00:17:19billion in returned items every year the
- 00:17:22fraction that gets sent to the dump is
- 00:17:23hard to pin down but experts put it
- 00:17:25somewhere between 10% and 25% % of all
- 00:17:30returned items and it's probably way
- 00:17:32higher than that for apparel and that
- 00:17:35sucks an Amazon employee SL
- 00:17:37whistleblower SL certified cool dude for
- 00:17:40Life captured some incredibly shaky
- 00:17:42hidden camera footage from inside an
- 00:17:44Amazon warehouse we get to witness
- 00:17:46unsold laptops being marked for
- 00:17:48Destruction boxes full of electronics
- 00:17:50like cordless drills and headphones
- 00:17:52getting carded off to a landfill and
- 00:17:54even a manager spreadsheet noting more
- 00:17:56than
- 00:17:57124,000 items getting destroyed in a
- 00:17:59single week sometimes companies will try
- 00:18:01to avoid dumping returns by shredding
- 00:18:04them and seeing if they can recycle some
- 00:18:05of the scraps or diverting them to what
- 00:18:07is known as energy recovery where they
- 00:18:09light the Returns on fire to generate
- 00:18:12electricity and remember this is tens of
- 00:18:14billions of dollars of returns getting
- 00:18:16trashed every single year just in the US
- 00:18:19because it was unprofitable or too much
- 00:18:22of a hassle to try to get them back into
- 00:18:24circulation absolutely brutal moving
- 00:18:27right along to category
- 00:18:30too
- 00:18:31it when a return is too expensive to
- 00:18:34deal with but they don't want to just
- 00:18:35throw it away sellers can choose to
- 00:18:38donate it to a charitable organization
- 00:18:40it's hard to pin down exactly what
- 00:18:41percent of returns are donated but in
- 00:18:442022 Amazon hit the 100 million returned
- 00:18:47items donated Mark so it's not nothing
- 00:18:50but before you go padding these Noble
- 00:18:52Heroes on the back just remember that
- 00:18:54donating something does not mean it'll
- 00:18:56get used this is an over production
- 00:18:58problem which means thrift stores are
- 00:19:00increasingly swamped with lowquality
- 00:19:02donations so returns still manage to
- 00:19:04find their way to the landfill after
- 00:19:06taking a couple extra trips on a truck
- 00:19:08now I'm not saying donations are bad
- 00:19:10please keep donating just know that
- 00:19:13online retailers sending Goodwill the
- 00:19:15mountain of stuff that they deemed
- 00:19:17worthless is probably not a sustainable
- 00:19:19solution by itself moving right along to
- 00:19:22category three back to the
- 00:19:26sh okay if a return is a pris unopened
- 00:19:30basically in new condition item it can
- 00:19:33sometimes be resold as new but as you
- 00:19:35can probably guess from the amount of
- 00:19:37qualifiers I had to add to the word item
- 00:19:39reselling is new is pretty rare every
- 00:19:42company has their own way of determining
- 00:19:44if an item is new or not but according
- 00:19:46to this list of seven different industry
- 00:19:48standards five classifying item is used
- 00:19:50if the package has been opened at all
- 00:19:52apparently companies would rather send a
- 00:19:54100 innocent returns to a landfill than
- 00:19:57let one guilty return go to a customer
- 00:19:59in an incredible twist Amazon is
- 00:20:02actually better than a lot of other
- 00:20:03companies at reselling an item is new
- 00:20:05because they control so many elements of
- 00:20:07the supply chain but still this is a
- 00:20:09rarity in returns which brings us
- 00:20:12to we have
- 00:20:14it if an item is in great condition but
- 00:20:17not pristine in the package it can get
- 00:20:19sent back to the warehouse for
- 00:20:21rehabilitation and restocking it's very
- 00:20:23category dependent but if we're talking
- 00:20:25about high-end clothing roughly 70% of
- 00:20:28the time return can be dry cleaned and
- 00:20:29resold as new if we're talking about
- 00:20:31electronics that number is more like 30%
- 00:20:35same goes for HomeGoods to their credit
- 00:20:37sellers are taking advantage of the open
- 00:20:39box discount where they mark down the
- 00:20:41price and resell the item as refurbished
- 00:20:43before we started researching for this
- 00:20:44video I kind of assumed that almost all
- 00:20:47returns were rehabed and reshelved but
- 00:20:49unfortunately that is not the case which
- 00:20:52brings us to the final category the
- 00:20:55Liquidation
- 00:20:57Center when companies do the math and
- 00:20:59they realize it's not going to be
- 00:21:00profitable for them to resell a returned
- 00:21:03item but they still want to make a
- 00:21:04little bit of money on it they can
- 00:21:06choose to sell that item to a liquidator
- 00:21:08Liquidators will buy it for pennies on
- 00:21:10the dollar pay to truck them from the
- 00:21:12return center to a liquidator Warehouse
- 00:21:14like this one then try to sell or
- 00:21:16auction off huge pallets of returns for
- 00:21:19slightly more Pennies on the dollar
- 00:21:21sometimes those Market places are online
- 00:21:23like liquidation.com Walmart
- 00:21:26liquidations or amazing bargains USA but
- 00:21:29sometimes they'll just let regular ass
- 00:21:31people show up and roll the dice on a
- 00:21:33random pallet of returns regular people
- 00:21:36like Danny Gonzalez regular sorry
- 00:21:40extraordinary what have you found so far
- 00:21:42in this liquidation center so there's a
- 00:21:44few different levels of product palettes
- 00:21:47I would say you've got the Amazon
- 00:21:49mystery boxes which are totally closed
- 00:21:51off total mystery I have no idea what's
- 00:21:54in those boxes it could be anything and
- 00:21:55it's tantalizing you you're leaning
- 00:21:57towards the mystery box I'm a tantalized
- 00:21:59then you've got one level down a little
- 00:22:01bit of mystery those boxes you can kind
- 00:22:03of see like the top layer of stuff so
- 00:22:05you can get a sense of what might be in
- 00:22:06the rest of the box but it could be
- 00:22:08anything there could be Tom Cruz from
- 00:22:10the movie Collateral waiting to put two
- 00:22:12in your head and one in your throat yeah
- 00:22:13I was going to say two in the head one
- 00:22:15in the throat maybe two in the one in
- 00:22:17the eye but it's going to be bullets
- 00:22:19it's going to be in you now you are
- 00:22:21holding what looks like a tiny castle
- 00:22:23for a baby yeah I think that these are
- 00:22:25for fish bowls so this is another type
- 00:22:28of pette that's just like one item
- 00:22:31multiplied by 140 if I'm not mistaken
- 00:22:34this is a brand new fish Castle I think
- 00:22:37so never touched by human hands maybe
- 00:22:39lightly touched by fish hands now I'm
- 00:22:41noticing this is $600 have you seen
- 00:22:42other prices uh and have you been
- 00:22:44surprised by any of the prices you've
- 00:22:46seen here I saw a box over there that
- 00:22:48looked like I don't know maybe like a
- 00:22:50million flip-flops that was like $2 $300
- 00:22:52so that seems like a pretty good deal
- 00:22:53that's an incredible deal they pay you
- 00:22:55to take those flip-flops off their hands
- 00:22:58on their
- 00:23:00feet all right are there any pallets
- 00:23:02that you are immediately not going to be
- 00:23:04selecting here today oh yeah um this one
- 00:23:07okay uh I think that I want to go for a
- 00:23:10palette that has a decent amount of
- 00:23:11variety if I'm trying to sell these and
- 00:23:13make a profit I'd really be betting all
- 00:23:17of my money on one product if I get some
- 00:23:19more variety then maybe some items won't
- 00:23:21do as well but some items might so I'm
- 00:23:24hedging my bets a little bit better with
- 00:23:25one of those boxes okay Danny you know
- 00:23:27the rules okay we can only afford to buy
- 00:23:29one pallet here so you got to Choose
- 00:23:32Wisely but you are of course the
- 00:23:33hometown hero I think this building is
- 00:23:36where you went to high school is that
- 00:23:37correct that's right go boxes go boxes
- 00:23:40baby you go out there and do some fun on
- 00:23:43camera Antics and I'll do what I do best
- 00:23:46we is tell you a little bit more about
- 00:23:48the context of
- 00:23:50liquidations there's a lot of different
- 00:23:52ways an item could find itself in one of
- 00:23:54these boxes rather than on the original
- 00:23:56shelf or in the dump but the original
- 00:23:58retail value is a major factor it might
- 00:24:01make sense to run that $2,000 laptop
- 00:24:04back through the entire reverse supply
- 00:24:05chain but those same shipping and
- 00:24:07handling costs could be too high for a
- 00:24:09$25 blender so we're going to find a lot
- 00:24:12of new items with lower price tags
- 00:24:14ending up in these boxes Danny's also
- 00:24:16going to be running into a lot of new
- 00:24:18clothing here since fashion trends
- 00:24:20change so quickly clothing is basically
- 00:24:22the fruits and vegetables of the return
- 00:24:24World an item can be in transit or
- 00:24:26sitting in a return center for a couple
- 00:24:28of weeks or a couple of months before
- 00:24:30the clothing even has a chance of
- 00:24:32getting back to the shelves it could be
- 00:24:34out of fashion or just out of season
- 00:24:36because clothing is made for next to
- 00:24:38nothing it's almost always cheaper to
- 00:24:40sell your returns to a liquidator and
- 00:24:42make a completely new shirt from scratch
- 00:24:44than it is to ship an existing shirt
- 00:24:46back to the factory and we've already
- 00:24:48done two videos about fast fashion so
- 00:24:50I'm not going to belabor that point
- 00:24:52again but just know that a lot of new
- 00:24:54clothing ends up in places like this or
- 00:24:57places like cut to
- 00:24:59[Music]
- 00:25:04landfill and it's not just clothing and
- 00:25:06cheaper returns items that retail for a
- 00:25:09lot more money can also find themselves
- 00:25:11in pallets for a variety of reasons due
- 00:25:14to the sheer volume of items that return
- 00:25:16centers receive employees get maybe a
- 00:25:19minute per item which means if a razor
- 00:25:21Scooter's got a scuffed Tire or a pair
- 00:25:24of shoes has had the laces undone or an
- 00:25:26electronic has been removed from its box
- 00:25:29at all it might find itself in one of
- 00:25:31these pallets the point is a lot of this
- 00:25:34stuff should be able to be sold for
- 00:25:36almost full value but because there's
- 00:25:38not a better system in place to reclaim
- 00:25:40these returns basically new items are
- 00:25:43getting packaged into mystery boxes and
- 00:25:45then sold to people who may end up
- 00:25:47throwing the majority of the contents
- 00:25:48away if they can't end up reselling the
- 00:25:51items themselves and we're back folks
- 00:25:54and Danny you've had a chance to look at
- 00:25:55all these palletes are you ready to make
- 00:25:57a final ision you know there's a lot of
- 00:26:00really interesting stuff here so it's
- 00:26:01been really tough but I think I've
- 00:26:03narrowed it down what I'm basing this
- 00:26:05off of is just kind of the vibe of the
- 00:26:08palette and the potential like what how
- 00:26:11are these boxes shaped you know like
- 00:26:13what could this be based on the shape of
- 00:26:15this box uh maybe like a heavy yoga mat
- 00:26:19could be a heavy yoga mat could be maybe
- 00:26:21uh like a vanilla long Johan oh it's you
- 00:26:25think this is a perishable food item
- 00:26:26could be like a big donut it could it
- 00:26:28could could be a big donut and that's
- 00:26:29why you don't want you say it like that
- 00:26:31you don't think it could be a vanilla
- 00:26:32long do you I was trying to yes and you
- 00:26:34but I really didn't believe it was going
- 00:26:35to be a big donut this is not a big
- 00:26:36donut what's that yeah so take a look at
- 00:26:38this this is a telescope box and it by
- 00:26:41the looks of it it looks like a pretty
- 00:26:42fun telescope honestly if you mean see
- 00:26:44the moon nearly as good as this picture
- 00:26:46implies let's buy this right now that's
- 00:26:48right I've never even seen the moon this
- 00:26:49is an Amazon return right and sometimes
- 00:26:52you return Amazon returns in the
- 00:26:54packaging they came in but sometimes
- 00:26:56you've destroyed the Amazon Packaging
- 00:26:58you're so excited you rip it open like
- 00:27:00it's Christmas that's right so this
- 00:27:02could be a telescope okay but it could
- 00:27:04also be just some random junk that some
- 00:27:07guy got from Amazon and then he just put
- 00:27:09in his telescope box that he already had
- 00:27:11laying around it could be a vanilla Long
- 00:27:13John could be a
- 00:27:15bomb so we don't want this one the box
- 00:27:18I'm actually going with is down here but
- 00:27:19you'll notice along the way there's like
- 00:27:20a lot of a lot of bedding products I
- 00:27:23don't know what that's about it seems
- 00:27:25like people return a lot of bedding when
- 00:27:27you buy
- 00:27:28and you return it ain't nobody using
- 00:27:31that beding again not rolling the dice
- 00:27:33on that yeah cuz it's like I don't know
- 00:27:35if you have bed bugs I don't know if you
- 00:27:37have leprosy yeah and you do I got both
- 00:27:40of them okay the leprosy is attacking
- 00:27:42the bed bug so it's kind of keeping
- 00:27:44itself at Bay right now but I could I'm
- 00:27:46a ticking time much like 30% of these
- 00:27:49boxes but I think this is the box I'm
- 00:27:51going to go with right here okay and
- 00:27:52what what led you to this decision I
- 00:27:54like the variety of box shapes m take a
- 00:27:58look at this one I don't know what could
- 00:27:59be in here but I'm interested to find
- 00:28:02out it could be a picture frame and I
- 00:28:04would want to know what the picture is
- 00:28:05what if it's a picture of you that would
- 00:28:08be like so scary that would be a pretty
- 00:28:10awesome thing for us to do to like put
- 00:28:13this picture of you in here that'd be a
- 00:28:15crazy prank yeah are you guys becoming a
- 00:28:17prank channel oh yeah we're pivoting
- 00:28:18hard okay sick and then there's some
- 00:28:20stuff you know there's clues of what
- 00:28:21might be in here there's a chewy box oh
- 00:28:24okay you know the pet food pet toy
- 00:28:26company or not that it could not be that
- 00:28:30too but either way I'm going to give
- 00:28:31whatever's in there to my dog this feels
- 00:28:34like a box that's got two poster frames
- 00:28:36in it and I can even see actually
- 00:28:39see life hack a clue we can we can tear
- 00:28:43open all the kind of bite the edge of
- 00:28:45the Box until you can see what's inside
- 00:28:47you can taste what's inside and then
- 00:28:49what's this totally [ __ ] up box yeah
- 00:28:51this one is an enigma to me it is
- 00:28:55crushed it is light like there's only
- 00:28:57one small item in here and yet if you
- 00:29:01were to shake it around give it a little
- 00:29:03jostle nothing I heard a little
- 00:29:06something I shake it really hard I'm
- 00:29:08super strong maybe there's like an air
- 00:29:10pouch in there m or maybe it's taped to
- 00:29:13one side like some kind of bomb would
- 00:29:16Jesus Christ you ready to lock this in
- 00:29:18brother let's lock it
- 00:29:23in Jesus
- 00:29:25[Applause]
- 00:29:26[Music]
- 00:29:31[Applause]
- 00:29:36all right here we are at Danny's house
- 00:29:38with a pallet full of mystery items you
- 00:29:42just hear like a thousand glasses
- 00:29:44shatter what's your strategy of getting
- 00:29:47this back out into the world I'm
- 00:29:48thinking if I want to find these things
- 00:29:50a forever home I'm going to just need to
- 00:29:52get each individual product in front of
- 00:29:54as many eyeballs as possible so I'm
- 00:29:56talking put it on Facebook Marketplace
- 00:29:58get them listed on eBay I don't care
- 00:30:00what nefarious purposes they have with
- 00:30:02these products just get them off my
- 00:30:04hands and get money back into the my the
- 00:30:07hands even if there's like bombs and
- 00:30:10guns we'll sell them to the highest
- 00:30:11bidder even if that's Al-Qaeda but look
- 00:30:14we're only in Chicago for another 24
- 00:30:16hours I've genuinely just like thrown
- 00:30:18the Hot Potato of this job at Danny and
- 00:30:20now I'm leaving yeah I'm uh actually for
- 00:30:23the first time really kind of scared and
- 00:30:26not looking forward to this at all so
- 00:30:28all that's going to be over on Danny's
- 00:30:29YouTube channel go ahead and visit that
- 00:30:31it's Danny Gonzalez on YouTube and he'll
- 00:30:33have the pallet video unboxing
- 00:30:36redistribution and also like a thousand
- 00:30:39other fantastic videos some of my
- 00:30:41favorite videos on the internet are
- 00:30:43Danny Gonzalez videos and yes I'm
- 00:30:45including grap stomp lady so don't even
- 00:30:48ask but look unboxing is fun okay and
- 00:30:52I've been promising to have a little
- 00:30:53more fun in these videos so in the
- 00:30:56interest of fun we got to at least open
- 00:30:58something in this video right that's
- 00:31:00right and I've got a creative solution
- 00:31:02for us I went online to a liquidation
- 00:31:04company called liquidation.com where
- 00:31:07they'll sell you a box of absolutely
- 00:31:09random returned items for like 150 bucks
- 00:31:12it's basically a mystery box and when I
- 00:31:14say basically a mystery box that was the
- 00:31:16literal description of the item what's
- 00:31:18inside these packages is unknown because
- 00:31:20they have not been open to examine the
- 00:31:22content so as a big thank you to Danny
- 00:31:24for taking time out of his day to do a
- 00:31:26video about reverse leg Logistics I got
- 00:31:29him one of these mystery boxes so thank
- 00:31:31you so much this is for me oh yeah so
- 00:31:34you personally and morally stand behind
- 00:31:37every single item in this box that's
- 00:31:39right and not only that but I thought
- 00:31:41you would need it let's get into it
- 00:31:45[Music]
- 00:31:46baby ooh wow more boxes I guess I should
- 00:31:52have known this I assumed it was just
- 00:31:53going to be full of loose items it's
- 00:31:55just all boxes
- 00:31:58you want to do the honors of slicing
- 00:31:59that bad boy open what did you get
- 00:32:02me wow it's a big purple rug wow this
- 00:32:07really soft actually we could lay this
- 00:32:09down and lay some items on it at the
- 00:32:11very least we're getting some nice like
- 00:32:13presentation points for this video and
- 00:32:15it is nail
- 00:32:18clippers ooh those look like a pet nail
- 00:32:21clippers kind of extra long Sure Grip
- 00:32:24handle for
- 00:32:25ferrets who
- 00:32:28this long box must be a fet well I got
- 00:32:31NBA 2K1 okay for the Xbox 360 do you
- 00:32:35have a Xbox no I got rid of it oh okay
- 00:32:38well this just so happens to be a CD the
- 00:32:41ink J Rule is it yeah wait why
- 00:32:46is original cover art original back art
- 00:32:52uh and then they just wrote jar rule the
- 00:32:54Inc on it it is
- 00:33:00poison oh it's um it's like pet safe uh
- 00:33:04salt for your dry point this is great
- 00:33:06you have pets and a driveway I literally
- 00:33:08have this stuff over there I could just
- 00:33:10put it over there I'm just going to go
- 00:33:11put it over there real Qui put over
- 00:33:12there whoa oh my God a dog was in this
- 00:33:16box the whole time how did he get lost
- 00:33:18in
- 00:33:20there can you make an incision right
- 00:33:22here please stop flirting with me doctor
- 00:33:25that's gr's Anatomy I assume that's how
- 00:33:27all doctors are I'll take it from here
- 00:33:29okay where did you go to medical school
- 00:33:31a heater space heater these are great
- 00:33:34moms love these uh you can actually read
- 00:33:36the address of the original Shopper
- 00:33:39right on here so should we go is it
- 00:33:41close by what if we went
- 00:33:43and redeliver to them okay obviously
- 00:33:47there was like all these items in there
- 00:33:48so we only we only cut together the fun
- 00:33:51ones if you are like I got to see more
- 00:33:54mhm go on over to Danny's Channel we got
- 00:33:57the whole we're to unbox this whole
- 00:33:58goddamn box I'll scratch that unboxing
- 00:34:01itch that you have deep inside your skin
- 00:34:03and if for some reason you still have
- 00:34:05the need to watch more unboxing we did
- 00:34:08the whole unedited [ __ ] 40 minute
- 00:34:11take it'll be a little bit edited so it
- 00:34:13might be like 25 to 30 minutes of
- 00:34:15unboxing this whole thing uh that'll be
- 00:34:17on our patreon page the climate Town
- 00:34:19patreon page and if that doesn't satisfy
- 00:34:22your unboxing needs you're honestly sick
- 00:34:24and you need to go to the doctor finally
- 00:34:27a big thank thank you to Danny for uh
- 00:34:29for for doing these videos and you got
- 00:34:31your video to do I got my video to do so
- 00:34:33I'll see you next
- 00:34:35time
- 00:34:37yeah now as much fun as it is to open
- 00:34:39mystery boxes with my new friend Danny
- 00:34:42the fact that you can buy warehouses
- 00:34:44full of brand new unused items for dirt
- 00:34:46cheap is kind of a huge red flag for the
- 00:34:49way we do Commerce we have walked our
- 00:34:51way into a system where it's more
- 00:34:53profitable to overproduce a bunch of
- 00:34:56lowcost items and then them off when
- 00:34:58they don't sell so companies just do
- 00:35:02that and unfortunately the billions of
- 00:35:05dollars lost to landfills and
- 00:35:07liquidation centers is largely being
- 00:35:09transferred to you yes I'm talking to
- 00:35:11you the consumer and brace yourself for
- 00:35:14some nuclear powered get off myON energy
- 00:35:18but one result of over production and
- 00:35:20free returns is that they don't make
- 00:35:22stuff like they used to yeah profit
- 00:35:25margins are basically the only things
- 00:35:26corporations can about and a big way
- 00:35:29sellers are able to trash those returns
- 00:35:31is if they use cheaper materials in
- 00:35:33lower quality Productions and wow I
- 00:35:35sound like my dad here but the proof is
- 00:35:38in the pudding Furniture used to last
- 00:35:40decades and herniate every disc in your
- 00:35:42back whenever you tried to move it and
- 00:35:44now it's mostly made of wood chips glue
- 00:35:46and plywood appliances used to be built
- 00:35:49like a brick sh house and now they've
- 00:35:51given way to replaceable lower quality
- 00:35:53models that break down sometimes
- 00:35:56intentionally after only a couple of
- 00:35:58years and I know I've said this before
- 00:36:01but clothing used to be made from higher
- 00:36:03quality natural fibers and now almost
- 00:36:05everything you put on your body is
- 00:36:07mostly plastic now I'm not saying
- 00:36:09plastic automatically means bad but the
- 00:36:12fashion industry is mostly built on
- 00:36:14overproducing cheap lowquality apparel
- 00:36:17that you can throw away after only a
- 00:36:19handful of wees and the real kick in our
- 00:36:22Collective dicks is that free returns
- 00:36:25aren't even really free yeah we're
- 00:36:28losing quality and in some cases we're
- 00:36:30also just secretly paying for the return
- 00:36:32upfront many companies just add the cost
- 00:36:36of the return to the price which means
- 00:36:38you're actually getting more screwed if
- 00:36:40you don't return the item and we haven't
- 00:36:43even talked about the climate
- 00:36:45implications yet and I'm sure you've
- 00:36:47already got an intuitive sense that
- 00:36:49piles of unused [ __ ] rotting in
- 00:36:51landfills isn't great for the
- 00:36:53environment but this channel is called
- 00:36:55climate town so we got to talk about it
- 00:36:57it's bad folks let's take just the
- 00:37:00shipping Logistics of a single return in
- 00:37:02many cases an item is transported via a
- 00:37:05fossil fuel powered truck multiple times
- 00:37:07between the buyer's home and the return
- 00:37:09center then multiple more times between
- 00:37:11a return center and a liquidator and
- 00:37:13then even more times after getting
- 00:37:14purchased CBC News did a fun little
- 00:37:16James Bond style investigation which
- 00:37:19they bought a bunch of items off of
- 00:37:20Amazon and then immediately returned
- 00:37:22them in mint condition except with GPS
- 00:37:24tracking devices inside the hidden
- 00:37:26trackers follow the the items as they
- 00:37:28were driven around hundreds of miles
- 00:37:30they even tracked a brand new backpack
- 00:37:32all the way you know what I watched a
- 00:37:35bunch of clips for this episode and the
- 00:37:37CBC investigation was easily the
- 00:37:40greatest thing I watched so I got to let
- 00:37:42them tell you would you buy this I for
- 00:37:44sure would like you would buy it from me
- 00:37:46right now of course okay so we took one
- 00:37:49just like this and just as good
- 00:37:52condition and returned it to Amazon and
- 00:37:54where do you think Amazon sent it
- 00:37:57I would love to guess right here that
- 00:38:00garbage location across the
- 00:38:06street that's
- 00:38:08insane oh my
- 00:38:10God I'm not happy I'm I'm just truly
- 00:38:14shocked by that so for it to end up in a
- 00:38:16Waste Management Facility um to me is
- 00:38:19truly
- 00:38:24shocking and the numbers here are
- 00:38:26terrifying in 2022 alone reverse
- 00:38:30logistics company optoro estimates that
- 00:38:32returning merchandise in the US had the
- 00:38:35impact of adding 5.1 million gas
- 00:38:38powerered cars to the road and as bad as
- 00:38:41it is wasting millions of gallons of gas
- 00:38:43ubering backpacks to landfills that's
- 00:38:46like the least bad part the amount of
- 00:38:49energy and raw materials that we are
- 00:38:51cramming into these items only to wave
- 00:38:54them directly into the garbage is
- 00:38:56staggering remember less than a third of
- 00:38:58returned electronics are actually sent
- 00:39:00back to the shelves and those little
- 00:39:02sons of [ __ ] contain plastic made
- 00:39:04from fossil fuels and a ton of different
- 00:39:06Metals including aluminum silver lithium
- 00:39:09copper and precious gold they found gold
- 00:39:13in the hills gold gold B these Metals
- 00:39:17need to be mined out of the earth using
- 00:39:19human labor and fossil fuel powered
- 00:39:21equipment transported refined
- 00:39:23transported again shaped the list goes
- 00:39:26on and every step puts more greenhouse
- 00:39:29gases in the atmosphere researchers
- 00:39:31studying electronic waste found a 53%
- 00:39:34rise in CO2 emissions between 2014 and
- 00:39:372020 and while recycling efforts are
- 00:39:40underway we're only actually recycling
- 00:39:42about 20 to 30% globally and even that
- 00:39:45is often carried out using methods that
- 00:39:47have serious human health and
- 00:39:49environmental consequences and speaking
- 00:39:51of consequences students of
- 00:39:55Economics will call the unre regulated
- 00:39:57waste of free returns an externality or
- 00:40:00a cost that's being absorbed by The
- 00:40:03World At Large communism style instead
- 00:40:05of the corporations that are actually
- 00:40:07making the products and sure the concept
- 00:40:10of free returns is an incredible deal
- 00:40:12for customers a store that shows up to
- 00:40:15my house refunds a purchase and takes it
- 00:40:18back for free yeah baby sign me up or or
- 00:40:21or send a QR code or whatever just give
- 00:40:24me the deal of the century but of course
- 00:40:26this is America so if you think you're
- 00:40:28getting a generous deal from
- 00:40:30corporations worth trillions of dollars
- 00:40:32whose only goal is to make as much
- 00:40:34profit as physically
- 00:40:36possible well I mean if you watch the
- 00:40:39entire episode up to this point and you
- 00:40:41still think free returns are awesome and
- 00:40:43that you'll never pay a price for the
- 00:40:44insane carbon emissions and resource
- 00:40:46depletion and constantly decreasing
- 00:40:49product
- 00:40:50quality uh yeah dude I guess take a
- 00:40:53break why watch this why don't you check
- 00:40:55out love is blind I hear there's a bunch
- 00:40:57of sociopaths trying to trick each other
- 00:40:59into getting married hang
- 00:41:01on
- 00:41:04what just too
- 00:41:07much just a little
- 00:41:10bit I never thought I could care for
- 00:41:12someone that would bring me into tears
- 00:41:14but for the rest of you I'm happy to
- 00:41:16announce that we've officially entered
- 00:41:18the what we're going to do about it
- 00:41:20section first off just being aware of
- 00:41:22how [ __ ] up free returns are is
- 00:41:24actually a big step part of the problem
- 00:41:26here seems to be that consumers want to
- 00:41:29believe free returns work and companies
- 00:41:31are too afraid to publicize what's
- 00:41:33actually going on and this whole we're
- 00:41:35totally returning it dance actually ends
- 00:41:38up biting consumers so next time you go
- 00:41:40to make a purchase that doesn't have
- 00:41:42free returns that might actually be a
- 00:41:44good thing it could mean that the
- 00:41:46company is not sacrificing quality to
- 00:41:49pay for the return and in a rare
- 00:41:50Switcheroo it seems like buyers and
- 00:41:53sellers are actually kind of aligned on
- 00:41:55this one except for behemoths like
- 00:41:57Amazon companies would really love to
- 00:41:59reduce the amount of returns they're
- 00:42:01doing according to one industry report a
- 00:42:03return on a $100 item costs the company
- 00:42:06$25 to $30 to cover shipping and
- 00:42:10customer service and reverse Logistics
- 00:42:12they don't really like it either now
- 00:42:14companies have started trying to
- 00:42:15discourage returns by introducing
- 00:42:17barriers like reducing the return window
- 00:42:19or charging for shipping and look I'm
- 00:42:22not completely convinced they won't just
- 00:42:24cut free returns and then keep producing
- 00:42:26cheap crap but at least now goodfaith
- 00:42:28sellers won't have to light 15% or more
- 00:42:31of their revenue on fire even Amazon has
- 00:42:33begun charging a dollar for returns that
- 00:42:35ship through ups but that may have more
- 00:42:37to do with trying to take down a
- 00:42:39competitor and also they're not coming
- 00:42:41to the rescue they're the ones that did
- 00:42:44this to us that's really cool and I
- 00:42:47don't know when you're actually watching
- 00:42:48this video but we're dropping it around
- 00:42:50the holidays cuz that's like the Super
- 00:42:52Bowl of returns the national retail
- 00:42:55Federation estimated us Shoppers return
- 00:42:57turned over $170 billion in Holiday
- 00:43:00merchandise in 2021 and UPS alone ships
- 00:43:03almost 3 million returns per day in the
- 00:43:06holiday aftermath it's insane and one
- 00:43:09thing you personally can do to not be
- 00:43:12part of the problem is to just be
- 00:43:13mindful of what you buy and return
- 00:43:16another thing everyone can do is buy
- 00:43:18secondhand give this dining room chair a
- 00:43:21second life while simultaneously paying
- 00:43:23a fraction of the price and sending a
- 00:43:25really Choice market signal that you
- 00:43:27don't need to buy a bunch of new [ __ ]
- 00:43:29all the time and if you're in Brooklyn
- 00:43:31please come on down to the big reuse
- 00:43:33it's my favorite thrift store in the
- 00:43:34entire world great selection and they
- 00:43:37let us shoot this video here actually
- 00:43:39they let us use their composting sites
- 00:43:41for the food waste video you know what
- 00:43:42big reuse 10 out of 10 no notes and if
- 00:43:46you can afford The Upfront cost of a new
- 00:43:48highquality item that's also a
- 00:43:50reasonable choice just know it might
- 00:43:52take some research just because
- 00:43:53something is expensive does not mean
- 00:43:55it's wellmade or that the workers were
- 00:43:57paid a living wage sometimes it's just
- 00:44:00expensive because corporations you know
- 00:44:03really love money on the policy side
- 00:44:05France passed an anti-waste law in 2020
- 00:44:08targeting waste promoting reuse and
- 00:44:10trying to eliminate single-use Plastics
- 00:44:12and that's been vaguely positive way to
- 00:44:15go France and while the US has struggled
- 00:44:18with this on the federal level our
- 00:44:19friends at climate change makers have
- 00:44:21put together a Playbook with
- 00:44:22step-by-step instructions you can follow
- 00:44:25to do something about this yourself Link
- 00:44:27in the bio and finally we can put a
- 00:44:29little pressure on companies by talking
- 00:44:31openly and honestly about what a free
- 00:44:34return really means this may be you
- 00:44:36talking to your friends and family or
- 00:44:38getting loud about it online or if
- 00:44:40you're someone who works at a major
- 00:44:41retailer and you're trashing free
- 00:44:43returns Blow That Whistle oh yeah we're
- 00:44:47officially endorsing snitching on major
- 00:44:49corporations in fact if you're a
- 00:44:51whistleblower who comes forward because
- 00:44:52of this video you get a pizza party
- 00:44:55that's right baby I'm buying for you and
- 00:44:57up to 20 of your friends maybe here
- 00:45:00maybe not here if it doesn't make
- 00:45:01geographical sense I get it any pizza
- 00:45:04parlor in your neighborhood it's on me
- 00:45:06that's an official climate Town promise
- 00:45:08provided I check with my lawyer and it's
- 00:45:09not illegal and at this point you might
- 00:45:12be wondering what happened to Danny we
- 00:45:14missed that guy we need closure well
- 00:45:17first of all let me just say that we are
- 00:45:19not anti- Liquidation Center here at
- 00:45:21climate town but let's not confuse what
- 00:45:23a Liquidation Center is it is a Band-Aid
- 00:45:25on the head wound that is online
- 00:45:28shopping waste and it's a multi-million
- 00:45:30dollar industry because there's actual
- 00:45:32value being disposed of but if you're
- 00:45:34tempted to think of liquidation as the
- 00:45:36perfect solution let's check back in
- 00:45:37with Danny to see how it went thanks for
- 00:45:40asking guys it was awful if you've ever
- 00:45:43tried to sell anything on Facebook
- 00:45:44Marketplace you know it can be kind of
- 00:45:46frustrating dealing with all of the
- 00:45:48messages people trying to undercut you
- 00:45:50scam you trying to negotiate some kind
- 00:45:52of public Meetup so that you don't get
- 00:45:54kidnapped or murdered at your own house
- 00:45:56well imagine doing that for 34 items at
- 00:46:00the same time and mind you these are 34
- 00:46:03items that someone already decided they
- 00:46:05didn't want don't get me wrong it wasn't
- 00:46:06all junk there was some decent stuff in
- 00:46:08the box there were rugs that seemed like
- 00:46:10they hadn't been used at all there was
- 00:46:11this cool AI bird feater but then there
- 00:46:13was broken stuff like a cure egg and a
- 00:46:15hedge trimmer toy that both just didn't
- 00:46:17do anything and then there was stuff
- 00:46:19that like I didn't even know what it was
- 00:46:20when I first unboxed it so like how am I
- 00:46:23supposed to sell something on Facebook
- 00:46:24Marketplace I don't even know what it is
- 00:46:25if I had to do this all again I could
- 00:46:27probably do it a little bit more
- 00:46:28efficiently if I had like a better
- 00:46:29storage solution and maybe I could kind
- 00:46:31of figure out a way where I don't have
- 00:46:33to put every item up on Facebook I could
- 00:46:36have people come to me and there were
- 00:46:37certain hours where people knew they
- 00:46:39could come every day and you might
- 00:46:40notice I'm just describing a store this
- 00:46:42would be better if I was just a store
- 00:46:43doing this as just one guy as a side
- 00:46:46hustle I was hoping I would feel like
- 00:46:47I'm solving the problem you know I'm
- 00:46:49getting rid of all this junk but it was
- 00:46:51really hard and I'm not going to do it
- 00:46:54again and at the end of it all I only
- 00:46:56made
- 00:46:58$23 back to you wow thank you so much
- 00:47:02Danny and just for the record I had no
- 00:47:04idea how big of a pain in the ass that
- 00:47:05was about to be for you I thought it was
- 00:47:07going to be like we got you a box of
- 00:47:09pool noodles and Venetian blinds why
- 00:47:12don't you have a nice fun wacky garage
- 00:47:13sale that is my bad and if you want to
- 00:47:16see just how deep the rabbit hole goes
- 00:47:18check out the video over on Danny's
- 00:47:20Channel as he slowly descends into
- 00:47:22madness trying to liquidate the box of
- 00:47:24stuff we got it's a fantastic video but
- 00:47:26more importantly it was clearly a lot of
- 00:47:28work and so Danny I hereby offer you
- 00:47:31this coupon good for one extremely
- 00:47:33annoying task that I will do on your
- 00:47:36behalf no expiration
- 00:47:39date but you know what's better than
- 00:47:41buying a bunch of cheap crap online
- 00:47:43nebula nebula is an independent
- 00:47:46streaming service that's Creator owned
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- 00:47:56Ghetto away where six contestants drove
- 00:47:58cross country doing challenges to win a
- 00:48:00cash prize while also trying to figure
- 00:48:02out which one of them was the snitch and
- 00:48:04then they done Twisted it by secretly
- 00:48:07making everyone the snitch resulting in
- 00:48:09all six contestants playing 4D chess
- 00:48:11against each other for five episodes and
- 00:48:14it's seriously so good and the best part
- 00:48:16is that the getaway contestants are also
- 00:48:18nebula creators which means you can
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- 00:48:22ton of other Heavy Hitters like legal
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- 00:48:27is out of control also on the list is a
- 00:48:29nasty little Creator who goes by the
- 00:48:31name of climate town so you know pretty
- 00:48:34cool so why don't you go see if my real
- 00:48:36life friend and host of the hit series
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- 00:49:12nebula.com do yourself a favor it's the
- 00:49:15deal of the century wow we did it
- 00:49:18congratulations thank you so much for
- 00:49:20watching feel free to like And subscribe
- 00:49:22and if you want to support the channel
- 00:49:24the best way to do that is through our
- 00:49:26patreon page page we got a bunch of
- 00:49:27stuff on there including the full Dany
- 00:49:29unboxing clip plus a bunch of other cut
- 00:49:32footage and behind the scenes you get
- 00:49:34access to the climate Town landline
- 00:49:35where you can actually call in it's like
- 00:49:37call in your favorite pizza restaurant
- 00:49:39and I'm hearing people don't do that
- 00:49:41anymore well they used to do it and it
- 00:49:42was pretty fun we got clips from our
- 00:49:44live show you know we just got a whole
- 00:49:46lot of stuff and subscribing to the
- 00:49:48patreon also has the added benefit of
- 00:49:50helping keep the channel afloat so thank
- 00:49:53you a million times in advance we've
- 00:49:55also got t-shirts made by a company
- 00:49:57called TS designs in North Carolina the
- 00:49:59shirts are entirely made in the
- 00:50:01Carolinas with a short and completely
- 00:50:02trackable supply chain from the cotton
- 00:50:04farmer to The Cutting and sewing to the
- 00:50:06printing and dying honestly you might
- 00:50:08already have plenty of shirts and that's
- 00:50:10good great even but if you're looking
- 00:50:12for a nice shirt to wear I think these
- 00:50:14are pretty great shirts fully cotton no
- 00:50:17plastic featuring art from margarite
- 00:50:19Cutler and made by people who are
- 00:50:20actually paid a decent wage right here
- 00:50:22in the US and if you're looking to make
- 00:50:24your own shirts let me suggest TM
- 00:50:26designs love those guys and also our
- 00:50:29partners ethics merch links down below
- 00:50:32and we just wanted to give a quick shout
- 00:50:33out to nice find wholesale if you're in
- 00:50:36the Chicagoland area and you're looking
- 00:50:37for a liquidation wholesaler this is the
- 00:50:40spot look at how many boxes they have
- 00:50:42look at all the neat stuff we climbed
- 00:50:44around all over the place we got our
- 00:50:46sticky little fingerprints on the boxes
- 00:50:47Raleigh got stuck inside one for hours
- 00:50:50could find they find me I wasn't making
- 00:50:51a sound though for the first time ever I
- 00:50:53felt free yeah must and I owe it to nice
- 00:50:55fine wholesalers and they've got a
- 00:50:57YouTube page so check out their YouTube
- 00:50:59page give them a like and a subscribe
- 00:51:01for all your liquidation wholesale needs
- 00:51:03check out nice find wholesale and of
- 00:51:06course thank you so much to The Experts
- 00:51:08and reverse Logistics gurus we talk to
- 00:51:10while making this episode I'm talking
- 00:51:12about Christian pillar from pollen
- 00:51:14returns Brandon dupy a super duper guy
- 00:51:16and the owner of backtrack I'm talking
- 00:51:18about Jordan McBain from McBain
- 00:51:20recoveries and I'm talking about Danny
- 00:51:22Gonzalez from
- 00:51:26thank you so much and if you're still
- 00:51:28starving for Content we got a newsletter
- 00:51:31baby it's written by climate Town writer
- 00:51:33director Matt Nelson and me that's a lot
- 00:51:36like these episodes except written out
- 00:51:38and then sent to you in your email
- 00:51:40address and of course we got a great
- 00:51:42podcast called the climate deniers
- 00:51:44Playbook featuring me and my childhood
- 00:51:46friend/ Daily Show writer Nicole Conlin
- 00:51:49and executive produced by Ben bolt we
- 00:51:51put an insane amount of work into every
- 00:51:53single episode it's really quite
- 00:51:54something so I encourage you to check
- 00:51:56check it out if you feel like it all
- 00:51:58right that's actually the end of the
- 00:52:00whole thing links in the bio to
- 00:52:01everything and as always
- 00:52:10okay okay I have not tried
- 00:52:15marijuana uh I have never used it at any
- 00:52:18time
- 00:52:19[Applause]
- 00:52:22[Music]
- 00:52:25[Applause]
- 00:52:28[Music]
- 00:52:30[Applause]
- 00:52:31[Music]
- 00:52:34[Applause]
- 00:52:36[Music]
- 00:52:38did you hear that goodbye
- online shopping
- affald
- gratis returnering
- miljø
- forbrugeradfærd
- liquidation centre
- returpolitik
- overproduktion
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- kvalitet vs kvantitet