Destroy Item Destruction as Overstock Remedy

Some years ago, a graduate student at City University of New York came across bags of unused H&M clothing on the streets of New York. It turned out that staff at the 34th Street store had taken box cutters and razors to merchandise and then trashed the remains.
     In a paper investigating the effects on consumers of such techniques for pruning excess inventory, researchers at Can Tho University, UNSW Sydney, and Monash University note that H&M is not alone. Nike, Burberry, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Victoria’s Secret, Cartier, and Montblanc are all reported to have sent overstock to landfills or to simply have set the stuff aflame.
     The business objective might be to open up space for higher-margin merchandise, cheaply discard out-of-date fashions, or even to create limited supplies of in-fashion items so prices can be kept at premium levels. But when word gets out about these disposal methods, another business objective is undercut: The researchers verify how attitudes toward the retailer turn negative. The resulting image of wastefulness is especially strong for luxury brands. This is not the kind of fire sale technique which benefits your business.
     One alternative to trashing or incinerating is to recycle, which could be considered partial destruction. Recycling was found to actually improve brand image. Other studies suggest that the positive image of recycling can be increased by showing people ads which demonstrate how recycled items are transformed into new items. The method works regardless of whether the transformed item is similar to the recycled item (material from recycled soda cans being used to produce new soda cans) or quite different (material from recycled soda cans being used to produce bicycle frames).
     The best alternative is to have adequate inventory in stock, but not overstock. A technique to consider is Expiration Date Based Pricing, where the retailer lowers the price of items as the expiration date approaches. The thought is that it’s better to sell the item at a reduced profit than not to be able to sell it at all.
     At the time of Sy Syms's death, his company was operating thirty stores in which, stamped on the back of each price ticket, was the date the item was placed on the sales floor, and stamped on the front was a series of dollar amounts in descending order. Every ten selling days, the price moved to the next lower amount on the ticket.

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Repent with Recycling 

Show Products Made of Recycled Items 

Dread the Dead, Sell It First