I was in the tool aisle of Home Depot today and I noticed an employee on
a man-lift taking stuff off of the top shelf and throwing it on the floor.

It was mostly those soft tool bags (more than a dozen) and mostly Home
Depot colors, but there were some other styles mixed in. They looked
brand new, still "folded" like they would be if they were on sale. There
was also some Dremel kits and other items, all of which looked new from
where I was standing.

A manager-like person came by and said to the employee "I'll get my
garbage cart."

The employee said "Do we have to throw them away? Can't we give them
away at that thing next week?"

Manager: "You mean the employee meeting? No, we can't do that. We're
doing inventory in 3 days and we have to get this stuff out of here."

That's when I spoke up. "What about donating them? I work with a couple
of youth organizations and those bags would make great awards and prizes."

Manager:
To me - "I'm sorry, sir. We can't do that."
To the employee - "I'll get the garbage cart."

What a friggin' waste.

DerbyDad03 wrote:
I was in the tool aisle of Home Depot today and I noticed an employee on
a man-lift taking stuff off of the top shelf and throwing it on the floor.

It was mostly those soft tool bags (more than a dozen) and mostly Home
Depot colors, but there were some other styles mixed in. They looked
brand new, still "folded" like they would be if they were on sale. There
was also some Dremel kits and other items, all of which looked new from
where I was standing.

A manager-like person came by and said to the employee "I'll get my
garbage cart."

The employee said "Do we have to throw them away? Can't we give them
away at that thing next week?"

Manager: "You mean the employee meeting? No, we can't do that. We're
doing inventory in 3 days and we have to get this stuff out of here."

That's when I spoke up. "What about donating them? I work with a couple
of youth organizations and those bags would make great awards and prizes."

Manager:
To me - "I'm sorry, sir. We can't do that."
To the employee - "I'll get the garbage cart."

What a friggin' waste.

Blame the lawyers and accountants, and the liability and tax laws.
Declaring something 'spoiled' to get it off the books is an old dodge. I
am not a tax lawyer, but IIRC spoiled inventory goes in a different
column on the balance sheet. And as to donating stuff- aw, that means
internal red tape and records so they can get brownie points, and if
some clueless kid hurts themselves with something with THEIR corporate
logo on it, well, the sky will fall in. I see a lot of perfectly good
stuff in the dumpsters where I work, because it 'costs too much' to jump
through the hopes to donate it to a good home.

I miss common sense. Next time you see something like that, drive around
back an hour later, and watch the employees loading it into their cars.
(Unless this is one of those really anal companies that dump the carts
straight into a compacter, which is sadly more common every year.)

--
aem sends....

aemeijers wrote:
DerbyDad03 wrote:
I was in the tool aisle of Home Depot today and I noticed an employee
on a man-lift taking stuff off of the top shelf and throwing it on the
floor.

It was mostly those soft tool bags (more than a dozen) and mostly Home
Depot colors, but there were some other styles mixed in. They looked
brand new, still "folded" like they would be if they were on sale.
There was also some Dremel kits and other items, all of which looked
new from where I was standing.

A manager-like person came by and said to the employee "I'll get my
garbage cart."

The employee said "Do we have to throw them away? Can't we give them
away at that thing next week?"

Manager: "You mean the employee meeting? No, we can't do that. We're
doing inventory in 3 days and we have to get this stuff out of here."

That's when I spoke up. "What about donating them? I work with a
couple of youth organizations and those bags would make great awards
and prizes."

Manager:
To me - "I'm sorry, sir. We can't do that."
To the employee - "I'll get the garbage cart."

What a friggin' waste.

Blame the lawyers and accountants, and the liability and tax laws.
Declaring something 'spoiled' to get it off the books is an old dodge. I
am not a tax lawyer, but IIRC spoiled inventory goes in a different
column on the balance sheet. And as to donating stuff- aw, that means
internal red tape and records so they can get brownie points, and if
some clueless kid hurts themselves with something with THEIR corporate
logo on it, well, the sky will fall in. I see a lot of perfectly good
stuff in the dumpsters where I work, because it 'costs too much' to jump
through the hopes to donate it to a good home.

I miss common sense. Next time you see something like that, drive around
back an hour later, and watch the employees loading it into their cars.
(Unless this is one of those really anal companies that dump the carts
straight into a compacter, which is sadly more common every year.)

--
aem sends....

Our government is the worst at it. I remember
working with a guy who'd been in The US Navy
in supply and he related a story of new tools
and equipment being buried and brand new trucks
being sent to the target range. I certainly
hope things have improved since then. It's a
shame that the civilian government agencies are
not much better.

[8~{} Uncle Monster

DerbyDad03 wrote:

That's when I spoke up. "What about donating them? I work with a
couple of youth organizations and those bags would make great awards
and prizes."
Manager:
To me - "I'm sorry, sir. We can't do that."
To the employee - "I'll get the garbage cart."

What a friggin' waste.

Write your local paper's letters page, with a copy to HD's main office.
They might end up donating stuff just to counter the bad publicity.

Whoa kids. Before you blow Home Depot away with your conspiracy
theories, you need to get the facts. When Home Depot buys from a
vendor, their agreement states that if a product is returned and
cannot be put back on the shelf as brand new, it MUST be destroyed.
That saves both Home Depot AND the vendor the cost of shipping it back
and repackaging it--which often costs more than the product is worth.

The same policy holds true if a new item doesn't sell well and Home
Depot would prefer to send it back to the manufacturer for credit.
Neither Home Depot nor the manufacturer wants to cover the cost of
packaging and shipping.

At the same time, no vendor wants to issue credit to Home Depot for
returned merchandise, only to find that it's been either sold or
donated. Can you imagine how much "defective" merchandise chargebacks
a manufacturer would get hit with if Home Depot could turn around and
sell it? They would be asking for credits all day long and then
selling it.

Bottom line here is that it's actually cheaper to destroy the
merchandise than it is to package it up and ship it back.

You may not like it, but if you ever start running a retail business
and see how much it costs to ship stuff back, you'd understand in a
second.

As for donating perfectly good merchandise that isn't selling and
could be donated--compain to the MANUFACTURER, not the retailer.

By the way, Home Depot is no different than any of the other large
retailers. You'll find the same procedure at every large company.

On Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:25:04 -0400, DerbyDad03
wrote:

I was in the tool aisle of Home Depot today and I noticed an employee on
a man-lift taking stuff off of the top shelf and throwing it on the floor.

It was mostly those soft tool bags (more than a dozen) and mostly Home
Depot colors, but there were some other styles mixed in. They looked
brand new, still "folded" like they would be if they were on sale. There
was also some Dremel kits and other items, all of which looked new from
where I was standing.

A manager-like person came by and said to the employee "I'll get my
garbage cart."

The employee said "Do we have to throw them away? Can't we give them
away at that thing next week?"

Manager: "You mean the employee meeting? No, we can't do that. We're
doing inventory in 3 days and we have to get this stuff out of here."

That's when I spoke up. "What about donating them? I work with a couple
of youth organizations and those bags would make great awards and prizes."

Manager:
To me - "I'm sorry, sir. We can't do that."
To the employee - "I'll get the garbage cart."

What a friggin' waste.


Many stores do the same. I used to work at a nation-wide retail
store and we would cut unsold athletic shoes in half before throwing
them into the dumpster. It is an expense to the store to donate, plus
the person who picks up the goods may just sell the items at a much
lower cost. My father owned a bakery and nuns would come by at the
end of the day to pickup unsold goods for the convent. I doubt the
nuns were selling doughnuts on the side, but if they did it was for a
good cause.

On Sep 11, 12:49*am, Rick-Meister wrote:
Whoa kids. Before you blow Home Depot away with your conspiracy
theories, you need to get the facts. When Home Depot buys from a
vendor, their agreement states that if a product is returned and
cannot be put back on the shelf as brand new, it MUST be destroyed.
That saves both Home Depot AND the vendor the cost of shipping it back
and repackaging it--which often costs more than the product is worth.

The same policy holds true if a new item doesn't sell well and Home
Depot would prefer to send it back to the manufacturer for credit.
Neither Home Depot nor the manufacturer wants to cover the cost of
packaging and shipping.

At the same time, no vendor wants to issue credit to Home Depot for
returned merchandise, only to find that it's been either sold or
donated. Can you imagine how much "defective" merchandise chargebacks
a manufacturer would get hit with if Home Depot could turn around and
sell it? *They would be asking for credits all day long and then
selling it.

As opposed to asking for credits all day long and throwing it out?
Assuming what you say is correct, they could just as easily make false
claims regardless of whether the stuff goes in the dumpster or to
charity.




Bottom line here is that it's actually cheaper to destroy the
merchandise than it is to package it up and ship it back.

You may not like it, but if you ever start running a retail business
and see how much it costs to ship stuff back, you'd understand in a
second.

As for donating perfectly good merchandise that isn't selling and
could be donated--compain to the MANUFACTURER, not the retailer.

By the way, Home Depot is no different than any of the other large
retailers. You'll find the same procedure at every large company.

On Sep 11, 7:28*am, Phisherman wrote:
On Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:25:04 -0400, DerbyDad03
wrote:





I was in the tool aisle of Home Depot today and I noticed an employee on
a man-lift taking stuff off of the top shelf and throwing it on the floor.

On Sep 10, 10:25*pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:
I was in the tool aisle of Home Depot today and I noticed an employee on
a man-lift taking stuff off of the top shelf and throwing it on the floor..

It was mostly those soft tool bags (more than a dozen) and mostly Home
Depot colors, but there were some other styles mixed in. They looked
brand new, still "folded" like they would be if they were on sale. There
was also some Dremel kits and other items, all of which looked new from
where I was standing.

A manager-like person came by and said to the employee "I'll get my
garbage cart."

The employee said "Do we have to throw them away? Can't we give them
away at that thing next week?"

Manager: "You mean the employee meeting? No, we can't do that. We're
doing inventory in 3 days and we have to get this stuff out of here."

That's when I spoke up. "What about donating them? I work with a couple
of youth organizations and those bags would make great awards and prizes."

Manager:
To me - "I'm sorry, sir. We can't do that."
To the employee - "I'll get the garbage cart."

What a friggin' waste.

One day I was looking for expensive 8ga 4 wire gen cable, i saw it at
HD on sale, next day I went back to buy it. HD said they put it in the
dumpster because it did not sell. They could have discounted it
greater, it would have sold.

"Kuskokwim" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:25:04 -0400, DerbyDad03 wrote:

That's when I spoke up. "What about donating them? I work with a couple
of youth organizations and those bags would make great awards and
prizes."

And they would eventually be sold on eBay.

Or returned to Home Depot for credit. Sears used to destroy stuff to
prevent that. People even would shop the garage sales to find old broken
Craftsman hand tools and then bring them into Sears for exchange. They
started keeping a record of names and would refuse to deal with a person who
obviously was doing that. Of course, they would just switch to another
Sears store.

on 9/11/2008 12:14 AM Uncle Monster said the following:
aemeijers wrote:
DerbyDad03 wrote:
I was in the tool aisle of Home Depot today and I noticed an
employee on a man-lift taking stuff off of the top shelf and
throwing it on the floor.

It was mostly those soft tool bags (more than a dozen) and mostly
Home Depot colors, but there were some other styles mixed in. They
looked brand new, still "folded" like they would be if they were on
sale. There was also some Dremel kits and other items, all of which
looked new from where I was standing.

A manager-like person came by and said to the employee "I'll get my
garbage cart."

The employee said "Do we have to throw them away? Can't we give them
away at that thing next week?"

Manager: "You mean the employee meeting? No, we can't do that. We're
doing inventory in 3 days and we have to get this stuff out of here."

That's when I spoke up. "What about donating them? I work with a
couple of youth organizations and those bags would make great awards
and prizes."

Manager:
To me - "I'm sorry, sir. We can't do that."
To the employee - "I'll get the garbage cart."

What a friggin' waste.

Blame the lawyers and accountants, and the liability and tax laws.
Declaring something 'spoiled' to get it off the books is an old
dodge. I am not a tax lawyer, but IIRC spoiled inventory goes in a
different column on the balance sheet. And as to donating stuff- aw,
that means internal red tape and records so they can get brownie
points, and if some clueless kid hurts themselves with something with
THEIR corporate logo on it, well, the sky will fall in. I see a lot
of perfectly good stuff in the dumpsters where I work, because it
'costs too much' to jump through the hopes to donate it to a good home.

I miss common sense. Next time you see something like that, drive
around back an hour later, and watch the employees loading it into
their cars. (Unless this is one of those really anal companies that
dump the carts straight into a compacter, which is sadly more common
every year.)

--
aem sends....

Our government is the worst at it. I remember
working with a guy who'd been in The US Navy
in supply and he related a story of new tools
and equipment being buried and brand new trucks
being sent to the target range. I certainly
hope things have improved since then. It's a
shame that the civilian government agencies are
not much better.

[8~{} Uncle Monster

Police Departments get a lot of surplus military equipment, including
armored and soft skinned vehicles, helicopters, boats, protective
equipment, and other military equipment.

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
in the original Orange County
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

on 9/11/2008 12:30 AM said the following:
On Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:25:04 -0400, DerbyDad03
wrote:


That's when I spoke up. "What about donating them? I work with a couple
of youth organizations and those bags would make great awards and prizes."

Manager:
To me - "I'm sorry, sir. We can't do that."
To the employee - "I'll get the garbage cart."


I used to work for a corporation that sold Business Machines
Internationally

Should we rearrange those last three words to get the corporation name?


and they had the same policy. Returned equipment or
surplus new stuff had to be destroyed. We finally did get them to
agree to recycle the scrap but it had to be scrap. Nothing useful. The
excuse was they did not want to compete with what they sold by putting
serviceable equipment in the field for free.

If HD doesn't contribute things to the youth organization they will
have to buy them and that is a market HD can compete for.

We were able to sneak some things out the back door for a few teaching
programs but it was "salvaged parts" not "machines".



--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
in the original Orange County
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

In article ,
willshak wrote:



Police Departments get a lot of surplus military equipment, including
armored and soft skinned vehicles, helicopters, boats, protective
equipment, and other military equipment.

So do Fire Departments. Whole bunch of old "6 by"s serving as grass
rigs, for instance.

On Sep 11, 9:19*am, "HeyBub" wrote:
Rick-Meister wrote:
Whoa kids. Before you blow Home Depot away with your conspiracy
theories, you need to get the facts. When Home Depot buys from a
vendor, their agreement states that if a product is returned and
cannot be put back on the shelf as brand new, it MUST be destroyed.
That saves both Home Depot AND the vendor the cost of shipping it back
and repackaging it--which often costs more than the product is worth.

The same policy holds true if a new item doesn't sell well and Home
Depot would prefer to send it back to the manufacturer for credit.
Neither Home Depot nor the manufacturer wants to cover the cost of
packaging and shipping.

At the same time, no vendor wants to issue credit to Home Depot for
returned merchandise, only to find that it's been either sold or
donated. Can you imagine how much "defective" merchandise chargebacks
a manufacturer would get hit with if Home Depot could turn around and
sell it? *They would be asking for credits all day long and then
selling it.

Bottom line here is that it's actually cheaper to destroy the
merchandise than it is to package it up and ship it back.

You may not like it, but if you ever start running a retail business
and see how much it costs to ship stuff back, you'd understand in a
second.

As for donating perfectly good merchandise that isn't selling and
could be donated--compain to the MANUFACTURER, not the retailer.

By the way, Home Depot is no different than any of the other large
retailers. You'll find the same procedure at every large company.

In the book business, more books are destroyed than sold.

Books are sold by publishers with return privileges - if the book doesn't
sell, it can be returned for credit. BUT for mass-market paperbacks, it only
costs about twenty cents to manufacture a new copy. The cost of returning,
sorting, restocking, culling the shop-worn, blah-blah-blah is higher for the
publisher than if the bookstore simply destroys the book in place.

A big teaching hospital in Minnesota replaces about 75-100 computers every
year. They've tried various techniques for dealing with the broken,
out-dated, or Macintosh machines. None proved satisfactory. They solved
their problem by simply putting the old computers on the curb for the urban
fairies. No paperwork, no recycling headaches, no tax lawer consultations..

I ASSume that someone removed or wiped the hard drives before doing
so? Talk about liability problems!

nate

"aemeijers" wrote in message
...

I'm an old hot-rodder and worked at a Chevy dealership in Pompano Beach, FL
in 1978. I arrived at work on a Monday morning and saw some commotion in the
new vehicle receiving area behind the service dep't. where I was a Service
Advisor. A carrier had delivered a new Corvette that had failed to clear an
overpass and lost everything from the dash level up. A week or so later a
company rep inspected the car and authorized disassembly and destruction of
EVERY working or otherwise usable part of the car. One of my mechanics was
assigned the job and I even got my commission for his labor. Radio, all dash
parts, seats, carpet, doors, glass, column, shifter, console, ....
EVERYTHING ... was removed and smashed with iron bars or cut up and tossed
in a pile for later verification. The engine, transmission, and differential
were disassembled and also destroyed. Valves were bent over in the heads and
the block smashed full of holes. Alternator, starter, etc ... you get my
drift. We almost cried.

BTW - even the tires were slashed and the wheels destroyed, along with all
body panels and trim.


"PanHandler" wrote in message
.. .

"aemeijers" wrote in message
...

I'm an old hot-rodder and worked at a Chevy dealership in Pompano Beach,
FL in 1978. I arrived at work on a Monday morning and saw some commotion
in the new vehicle receiving area behind the service dep't. where I was a
Service Advisor. A carrier had delivered a new Corvette that had failed to
clear an overpass and lost everything from the dash level up. A week or so
later a company rep inspected the car and authorized disassembly and
destruction of EVERY working or otherwise usable part of the car. One of
my mechanics was assigned the job and I even got my commission for his
labor. Radio, all dash parts, seats, carpet, doors, glass, column,
shifter, console, .... EVERYTHING ... was removed and smashed with iron
bars or cut up and tossed in a pile for later verification. The engine,
transmission, and differential were disassembled and also destroyed.
Valves were bent over in the heads and the block smashed full of holes.
Alternator, starter, etc ... you get my drift. We almost cried.

On Sep 11, 4:10�pm, "PanHandler" wrote:
BTW - even the tires were slashed and the wheels destroyed, along with all
body panels and trim.

"PanHandler" wrote in message

.. .





"aemeijers" wrote in message
...

I'm an old hot-rodder and worked at a Chevy dealership in Pompano Beach,
FL in 1978. I arrived at work on a Monday morning and saw some commotion
in the new vehicle receiving area behind the service dep't. where I was a
Service Advisor. A carrier had delivered a new Corvette that had failed to
clear an overpass and lost everything from the dash level up. A week or so
later a company rep inspected the car and authorized disassembly and
destruction of EVERY working or otherwise usable part of the car. One of
my mechanics was assigned the job and I even got my commission for his
labor. Radio, all dash parts, seats, carpet, doors, glass, column,
shifter, console, .... EVERYTHING ... was removed and smashed with iron
bars or cut up and tossed in a pile for later verification. The engine,
transmission, and differential were disassembled and also destroyed.
Valves were bent over in the heads and the block smashed full of holes.
Alternator, starter, etc ... you get my drift. We almost cried.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

state farm insurance owns auto salvage yards. found that out when my
wife bottomed her cobalt and broke transmission case, the replacement
transmission was from a salvaGE YARD OWNED BY STATE FARM

Kuskokwim wrote:
On Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:25:04 -0400, DerbyDad03 wrote:

That's when I spoke up. "What about donating them? I work with a couple
of youth organizations and those bags would make great awards and prizes."

And they would eventually be sold on eBay.

And that would be a problem - how?

Let's see...

- Home Depot donates some Home Depot tool bags. Maybe they choose to
take a write-off or maybe they just choose to feel good about themselves.

- My youth organization holds an event or a competition, and we give the
bags to some teenagers. We feel good, the kids feel good.

- Some kid, either immediately or when (s)he's done with it, sells it on
eBay. The kid feels good, the new owner feels good, Home Depot still has
their name out there on the bag.

Who got hurt?

The other option is to throw the bags in the garbage so no one feels
good and the landfill gets fuller.

What am I missing?

On Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:31:44 -0400, DerbyDad03 wrote:
- Home Depot donates some Home Depot tool bags. Maybe they choose to
take a write-off or maybe they just choose to feel good about themselves.

Then their vendors cut them off for breach of contract.

willshak wrote:
on 9/11/2008 12:14 AM Uncle Monster said the following:
aemeijers wrote:
DerbyDad03 wrote:
I was in the tool aisle of Home Depot today and I noticed an
employee on a man-lift taking stuff off of the top shelf and
throwing it on the floor.

It was mostly those soft tool bags (more than a dozen) and mostly
Home Depot colors, but there were some other styles mixed in. They
looked brand new, still "folded" like they would be if they were on
sale. There was also some Dremel kits and other items, all of which
looked new from where I was standing.

A manager-like person came by and said to the employee "I'll get my
garbage cart."

The employee said "Do we have to throw them away? Can't we give them
away at that thing next week?"

Manager: "You mean the employee meeting? No, we can't do that. We're
doing inventory in 3 days and we have to get this stuff out of here."

That's when I spoke up. "What about donating them? I work with a
couple of youth organizations and those bags would make great awards
and prizes."

Manager:
To me - "I'm sorry, sir. We can't do that."
To the employee - "I'll get the garbage cart."

What a friggin' waste.

Blame the lawyers and accountants, and the liability and tax laws.
Declaring something 'spoiled' to get it off the books is an old
dodge. I am not a tax lawyer, but IIRC spoiled inventory goes in a
different column on the balance sheet. And as to donating stuff- aw,
that means internal red tape and records so they can get brownie
points, and if some clueless kid hurts themselves with something with
THEIR corporate logo on it, well, the sky will fall in. I see a lot
of perfectly good stuff in the dumpsters where I work, because it
'costs too much' to jump through the hopes to donate it to a good home.

I miss common sense. Next time you see something like that, drive
around back an hour later, and watch the employees loading it into
their cars. (Unless this is one of those really anal companies that
dump the carts straight into a compacter, which is sadly more common
every year.)

--
aem sends....

Our government is the worst at it. I remember
working with a guy who'd been in The US Navy
in supply and he related a story of new tools
and equipment being buried and brand new trucks
being sent to the target range. I certainly
hope things have improved since then. It's a
shame that the civilian government agencies are
not much better.

[8~{} Uncle Monster

Police Departments get a lot of surplus military equipment, including
armored and soft skinned vehicles, helicopters, boats, protective
equipment, and other military equipment.

Yeah, I used to work for the agency that gave it to them, and I used to
attend a lot of state and metro auctions, back when they still had live
auctions. Guess what? A lot of that stuff gets sold or vanishes without
a trace, once donated. Better that than the landfill, I guess.

--
aem sends...

Kurt Ullman wrote:
In article ,
willshak wrote:


Police Departments get a lot of surplus military equipment, including
armored and soft skinned vehicles, helicopters, boats, protective
equipment, and other military equipment.

So do Fire Departments. Whole bunch of old "6 by"s serving as grass
rigs, for instance.
Most of those actually are 'long term loan', through GSA/Forest Service.
When they get worn out, they are returned (on paper only) to GSA, and
sold through their online auctions. Go to gasauctions.gov, and look
under 'trucks'. Half of them are usually red-painted old military 6x6
and Dodge 880s.

--
aem sends...

aemeijers wrote:
Kurt Ullman wrote:
In article ,
willshak wrote:


Police Departments get a lot of surplus military equipment, including
armored and soft skinned vehicles, helicopters, boats, protective
equipment, and other military equipment.

So do Fire Departments. Whole bunch of old "6 by"s serving as grass
rigs, for instance.
Most of those actually are 'long term loan', through GSA/Forest Service.
When they get worn out, they are returned (on paper only) to GSA, and
sold through their online auctions. Go to gasauctions.gov, and look
under 'trucks'. Half of them are usually red-painted old military 6x6
and Dodge 880s.

--
aem sends...

I think you meant "gsaauctions.gov". Sometimes
I'm lisdexic.

[8~{} Uncle Monster

Norminn wrote:
clipped


What a friggin' waste.


Blame the lawyers and accountants, and the liability and tax laws.
Declaring something 'spoiled' to get it off the books is an old dodge.
I am not a tax lawyer, but IIRC spoiled inventory goes in a different


No.....blame the freaking jerks who hire the lawyers. Suppose HD
donated stuff to a non-profit org? Non-profit A is very happy to
receive the goods (or unhappy that HD doesn't give MORE?) Along comes
non-profit B, they want free stuff but can't get any. So they organize
a campaign to shop at competitor, or even sue for discrimination.....

column on the balance sheet. And as to donating stuff- aw, that means
internal red tape and records so they can get brownie points, and if
some clueless kid hurts themselves with something with THEIR corporate
logo on it, well, the sky will fall in. I see a lot of perfectly good
stuff in the dumpsters where I work, because it 'costs too much' to
jump through the hopes to donate it to a good home.

I miss common sense. Next time you see something like that, drive
around back an hour later, and watch the employees loading it into
their cars. (Unless this is one of those really anal companies that
dump the carts straight into a compacter, which is sadly more common
every year.)

--
aem sends....

Just to add a little reassurance, food stores take out-dated merchandise
and donate to shelters and food banks.

But big box food stores are likely to use the home depot method. My
buddies wife worked for a big box food chain and then moved on and got a
much better paid job at a regional family owned chain. The big box
market had a compacting dumpster. Anything that became outdated had to
go into the dumpster to be compacted and it had to be witnessed by an
additional employee. She says her current employer does donate the stuff
to various charitable organizations.


Have seen them loading up at the
local grocery store. When we combined households to move into hubby's
condo, there was a good deal of stuff that we did not have room for,
after distributing lots of good things to our children. Any time we
unloaded, I checked with neighbors who sometimes were glad to get
certain items. Whenever I call the city to pick up stuff at the curb,
the item is almost always gone before the city comes by. I gained by
the same method, when a neighbor discarded a nice little antique oak
chest with an ugly coat of paint. Stripped and refinished, nice brass
hardware, holds hobby stuff in the guest room.

On Sep 11, 9:41*pm, AZ Nomad wrote:
On Thu, 11 Sep 2008 21:31:44 -0400, DerbyDad03 wrote:
- Home Depot donates some Home Depot tool bags. Maybe they choose to
take a write-off or maybe they just choose to feel good about themselves..

Then their vendors cut them off for breach of contract.

All that means is that the stupidity is more wide spread.

wrote in
:

On Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:25:04 -0400, DerbyDad03
wrote:

That's when I spoke up. "What about donating them? I work with a
couple of youth organizations and those bags would make great awards
and prizes."

Manager:
To me - "I'm sorry, sir. We can't do that."
To the employee - "I'll get the garbage cart."

I used to work for a corporation that sold Business Machines
Internationally and

I Bet you were Moved then.

they had the same policy. Returned equipment or
surplus new stuff had to be destroyed. We finally did get them to
agree to recycle the scrap but it had to be scrap. Nothing useful. The
excuse was they did not want to compete with what they sold by putting
serviceable equipment in the field for free.

If HD doesn't contribute things to the youth organization they will
have to buy them and that is a market HD can compete for.

We were able to sneak some things out the back door for a few teaching
programs but it was "salvaged parts" not "machines".

Rick-Meister wrote in
:

Whoa kids. Before you blow Home Depot away with your conspiracy
theories, you need to get the facts. When Home Depot buys from a
vendor, their agreement states that if a product is returned and
cannot be put back on the shelf as brand new, it MUST be destroyed.
That saves both Home Depot AND the vendor the cost of shipping it back
and repackaging it--which often costs more than the product is worth.

The same policy holds true if a new item doesn't sell well and Home
Depot would prefer to send it back to the manufacturer for credit.
Neither Home Depot nor the manufacturer wants to cover the cost of
packaging and shipping.

At the same time, no vendor wants to issue credit to Home Depot for
returned merchandise, only to find that it's been either sold or
donated. Can you imagine how much "defective" merchandise chargebacks
a manufacturer would get hit with if Home Depot could turn around and
sell it? They would be asking for credits all day long and then
selling it.

Bottom line here is that it's actually cheaper to destroy the
merchandise than it is to package it up and ship it back.

You may not like it, but if you ever start running a retail business
and see how much it costs to ship stuff back, you'd understand in a
second.

As for donating perfectly good merchandise that isn't selling and
could be donated--compain to the MANUFACTURER, not the retailer.

By the way, Home Depot is no different than any of the other large
retailers. You'll find the same procedure at every large company.


You will also find that if an item is discarded there is no liability to
them or the mfgr.. If it is donated or sold, liability is possible.

Smitty Two wrote in
news
In article ,
"HeyBub" wrote:



A big teaching hospital in Minnesota replaces about 75-100 computers
every year. They've tried various techniques for dealing with the
broken, out-dated, or Macintosh machines. None proved satisfactory.
They solved their problem by simply putting the old computers on the
curb for the urban fairies. No paperwork, no recycling headaches, no
tax lawer consultations.

One day someone will trip over one of those computers that he took
home, and fall through a picture window. A piece of jagged glass will
slice his brachial artery, and he'll bleed to death. The widow will be
awarded 45 million dollars of the hospital's money.

....or like the screen will explode when someone brings up a NG pic of some
ho with gigantic melons.

Red Green wrote:
Rick-Meister wrote in
:

Whoa kids. Before you blow Home Depot away with your conspiracy
theories, you need to get the facts. When Home Depot buys from a
vendor, their agreement states that if a product is returned and
cannot be put back on the shelf as brand new, it MUST be destroyed.
That saves both Home Depot AND the vendor the cost of shipping it back
and repackaging it--which often costs more than the product is worth.

The same policy holds true if a new item doesn't sell well and Home
Depot would prefer to send it back to the manufacturer for credit.
Neither Home Depot nor the manufacturer wants to cover the cost of
packaging and shipping.

At the same time, no vendor wants to issue credit to Home Depot for
returned merchandise, only to find that it's been either sold or
donated. Can you imagine how much "defective" merchandise chargebacks
a manufacturer would get hit with if Home Depot could turn around and
sell it? They would be asking for credits all day long and then
selling it.

Bottom line here is that it's actually cheaper to destroy the
merchandise than it is to package it up and ship it back.

You may not like it, but if you ever start running a retail business
and see how much it costs to ship stuff back, you'd understand in a
second.

As for donating perfectly good merchandise that isn't selling and
could be donated--compain to the MANUFACTURER, not the retailer.

By the way, Home Depot is no different than any of the other large
retailers. You'll find the same procedure at every large company.


You will also find that if an item is discarded there is no liability to
them or the mfgr.. If it is donated or sold, liability is possible.

Yeah, you gotta be worried about what a soft sided tool bag could do to
someone. They're an accident just waiting to happen.

DerbyDad03 wrote in :

Red Green wrote:
Rick-Meister wrote in
:

Whoa kids. Before you blow Home Depot away with your conspiracy
theories, you need to get the facts. When Home Depot buys from a
vendor, their agreement states that if a product is returned and
cannot be put back on the shelf as brand new, it MUST be destroyed.
That saves both Home Depot AND the vendor the cost of shipping it
back and repackaging it--which often costs more than the product is
worth.

The same policy holds true if a new item doesn't sell well and Home
Depot would prefer to send it back to the manufacturer for credit.
Neither Home Depot nor the manufacturer wants to cover the cost of
packaging and shipping.

At the same time, no vendor wants to issue credit to Home Depot for
returned merchandise, only to find that it's been either sold or
donated. Can you imagine how much "defective" merchandise
chargebacks a manufacturer would get hit with if Home Depot could
turn around and sell it? They would be asking for credits all day
long and then selling it.

Bottom line here is that it's actually cheaper to destroy the
merchandise than it is to package it up and ship it back.

You may not like it, but if you ever start running a retail business
and see how much it costs to ship stuff back, you'd understand in a
second.

As for donating perfectly good merchandise that isn't selling and
could be donated--compain to the MANUFACTURER, not the retailer.

By the way, Home Depot is no different than any of the other large
retailers. You'll find the same procedure at every large company.


You will also find that if an item is discarded there is no liability
to them or the mfgr.. If it is donated or sold, liability is
possible.

Yeah, you gotta be worried about what a soft sided tool bag could do
to someone. They're an accident just waiting to happen.


I know!

Charlie puts his lil' bro in the bag and zips it. Tosses in apt bldg
trash chute as a ha-ha.

In article , DerbyDad03 wrote:
Red Green wrote:
Rick-Meister wrote in
:

Whoa kids. Before you blow Home Depot away with your conspiracy
theories, you need to get the facts. When Home Depot buys from a
vendor, their agreement states that if a product is returned and
cannot be put back on the shelf as brand new, it MUST be destroyed.
That saves both Home Depot AND the vendor the cost of shipping it back
and repackaging it--which often costs more than the product is worth.

The same policy holds true if a new item doesn't sell well and Home
Depot would prefer to send it back to the manufacturer for credit.
Neither Home Depot nor the manufacturer wants to cover the cost of
packaging and shipping.

At the same time, no vendor wants to issue credit to Home Depot for
returned merchandise, only to find that it's been either sold or
donated. Can you imagine how much "defective" merchandise chargebacks
a manufacturer would get hit with if Home Depot could turn around and
sell it? They would be asking for credits all day long and then
selling it.

Bottom line here is that it's actually cheaper to destroy the
merchandise than it is to package it up and ship it back.

You may not like it, but if you ever start running a retail business
and see how much it costs to ship stuff back, you'd understand in a
second.

As for donating perfectly good merchandise that isn't selling and
could be donated--compain to the MANUFACTURER, not the retailer.

By the way, Home Depot is no different than any of the other large
retailers. You'll find the same procedure at every large company.


You will also find that if an item is discarded there is no liability to
them or the mfgr.. If it is donated or sold, liability is possible.

Yeah, you gotta be worried about what a soft sided tool bag could do to
someone. They're an accident just waiting to happen.

There is also the time of people working on the clock to be expended to
determine that a soft-sided tool bag has liability as low as ...
similar to that of a bag of marshmallows ...
Still non-zero, and though low, there is the cost of determining within
the structure of a large corporation that XXX product has especially low
liability!

This gets me to thinking that non-economic damages (such as
pain-and-suffering) are not a net justice, but a net injustice - by
greatly increasing liability insurance costs to everyone who drives motor
vehicles on public roads and most who have major manufacturing or
retailing business operations in USA!

I am hoping that plaintiffs/lawyers have not succeeded much from suing
businesses (dumpster fillers, dumpster owners/makers or dumpster
content removers) for injury to dumpster divers as a result of using
"recovered products" or as a result of dumpster diving!

And I hope that homeowners don't need to have worry about higher
insurance costs as a result of injury incurred by those who pick items
dumped onto the curb or into a dumpster or a trashcan - whether from
recovery of the product, use of the product, or from an improper or
otherwise unsuccessful repair of the product!

Sadly, America has changed from the "Land of the Free" to one with
significant bills to feed those with jobs that are unproductive to
counterproductive, even though the wages of such whatevers have positive
contribution to "official GDP", especially if there is above-zero market
value for such work! Heck, there is even positive contribution to
official USA GDP for demolishing a sellable building! Demolishing your
house contributes to GDP report as much as building an addition that costs
as much as the demolition bill would!

- Don Klipstein )

On Sep 10, 11:25*pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:
What a friggin' waste.

Two issues with donating:

1. It brings out the moochers and beggars. Every half-assed "charity"
organization will be beating down the doors of their local BOB store
for donations if word gets out. Really, it's a nightmare.

2. Liability. Some stupid kid gets a zipper cut from one of those bags
and mom sues BOB for a million dollars in medical bills and mental
anguish. Even if they win, it doesn't come without cost.

On Sep 11, 10:00*am, Joe wrote:
Talk about waste...
Last week I visited a friend who has three or four acres of garden out
in the country. He grows most everything he needs foodwise and always
has a surplus to share. This year was an unusually good one for
potatoes and he wound up with about 2 tons of Kenebeck (sp.?) and
Yukon Gold spuds. He called every service agency in the Yellow pages
to see if their clients would want some of the bounty and was turned
down flatly, hearing over and over, 'We only want money or canned
goods.' *The solution to the surplus could be to put the veggies in
big boxes by the side of the road with a large sign, "FREE!" and see
how many shiny SUV's stop to load up. Apparently the homeless and
underprivileged aren't suffering all that much.

Again, liability concerns. What's to say he innocently donates these
taters with every good intention and they turn out to be contaminated?
Now you've got a bunch of sick/dead homeless people and/or their
families, suing the service organization and your friend.

Canned goods have to go through FDA-approved processes to prevent
contamination, and money can be used to purchase canned goods.

Joe wrote:


Talk about waste...
Last week I visited a friend who has three or four acres of garden out
in the country. He grows most everything he needs foodwise and always
has a surplus to share. This year was an unusually good one for
potatoes and he wound up with about 2 tons of Kenebeck (sp.?) and
Yukon Gold spuds. He called every service agency in the Yellow pages
to see if their clients would want some of the bounty and was turned
down flatly, hearing over and over, 'We only want money or canned
goods.' The solution to the surplus could be to put the veggies in
big boxes by the side of the road with a large sign, "FREE!" and see
how many shiny SUV's stop to load up. Apparently the homeless and
underprivileged aren't suffering all that much.

Joe

He could have called he

http://www.feedingamerica.org/how_to_help/donate_food/

And those John Edwards wannabes whose pictures appear on every bus
wanting to help (themselves) are cut out of the loop when food donations
to a charity are concerned by the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan food
donation act (P.L. 104-210):

The Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act

On October 1, 1996, President Clinton signed the Bill Emerson Good
Samaritan Food Donation Act to encourage the donation of food and
grocery products to non-profit organizations for distribution to needy
individuals. This law makes it easier to donate. Here's how:

It protects donors from liability when donating to a non-profit
organization.


It protects donors from civil and criminal liability should the product
donated in good faith later cause harm to the needy recipient.


It standardizes donor liability exposure. Donors and their legal counsel
no longer have to investigate liability laws in 50 states.


It sets a liability floor of "gross negligence" or intentional
misconduct for persons who donate grocery products. (See Act text for
further definitions.)

Congress recognized that the provision of food close to recommended date
of sale is, in and of itself, not grounds for finding gross negligence.
For example, cereal can be donated if it is marked close to code date
for retail sale.

The bill was named for Rep. Bill Emerson (R-Missouri) who fought for the
proposal but died of cancer before it was passed. The text of this Act
follows:


http://www.licares.org/General_Infor...aritan_Act.htm