What happens to clothes that don’t sell at local retailers?

Burghbaby wrote a blog post about what she’d heard from various sources about what H&M does (and it seems other retailers too based on the comments she’s received)…. they destroy them in the stores and then chuck them in the dumpsters.

I find that shocking, but it got me wondering about what happens here.

I can’t say what happens at other retailers but when I worked at Woolworths years ago; if the stores didn’t sell a range, it was sent to another store where it was selling. If that wasn’t an option, or it didn’t sell there, it was put on sale. If it didn’t sell on sale, after a number of markdowns, all the end of sale items were sent to one of the inner city stores, where they were sold for a pittance.

I have no idea what happened after that. But, I’m almost sure it wasn’t destroyed.

What a waste of good clothing if that’s what actually happens in South Africa too!