Have you ever wondered what clothing retailers do with their unsold items? If so, it’s time to learn about product destructionand how it benefits businesses. Even the most successful stores have unsold inventory they have to deal with eventually.
You might be thinking, “can’t businesses donate their excess clothing or find a way to recycle materials?” The truth is that fashion brands destroy old clothing for many different reasons. Let’s shed some light on this complicated subject and discover their real motives.
To Free Up Storage Space
If you’ve never worked in a retail setting, you might be unfamiliar with how inventory works. Fashion stores need abundant space to store their clothing and accessories. While successful businesses free up space as they make sales, they sometimes wind up with more items than they can sell.
Trends change quickly, and things that were once popular a year ago have little value now. When this happens, fashion brands destroy old clothing to make room for better products.
To Avoid the “Gray Market”
The purpose of product destruction is to eliminate the item from existence. For luxury fashion brands, it’s better to obliterate out-of-date and damaged clothing than to donate or recycle them. Their reasoning is to keep their brand off of the “gray market.”
“Gray market” practices involve buying off-spec items from unauthorized sellers. This occurrence makes brands look bad when customers unknowingly purchase incinerator-bound items. Fashion brands destroy their products to maintain appearances and protect their professional image.
To Keep Items Out of Landfills
While retailers demolish items primarily for business purposes, there is also an environmental factor. Destroying old, damaged, and untrendy clothing is a sustainable practice. These processes keep things out of landfills that would otherwise occupy valuable space.
Clothing brands mainly use incineration for product destruction. Many incineration sites have found ways to harness smoke and use it as energy. Burning off-spec products can have a positive environmental impact, which modern fashion brands try to encourage.
Retailers destroying their old clothes and accessories is not a new occurrence. However, it’s helpful to understand the reasons behind their choices. Eliminating items protects the brand and allows them to operate more efficiently and sell trendier products.
