How Liquidating Unwanted Goods Became A $644 Billion Business
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- Опубликовано: 20 май 2024
- A record number of online returns has created a booming $644 billion liquidation market. As supply chain backlogs cause shortages of new goods and Gen Z shoppers demand more sustainable retail options, pain points for one sector of retail are big business for another.
The nation's only major public liquidator, Liquidity Services, resells unclaimed mail, items left at TSA checkpoints, and outdated military vehicles. It also refurbishes highly sought after electronics, from noise-canceling headphones to the machines that make microchips.
CNBC takes you on an exclusive tour inside a Liquidity Services returns warehouse outside Dallas, Texas, where unwanted goods from Amazon and Target are stacked to the ceiling before being resold on Liquidation.com or a variety of other marketplaces.
Inside Liquidity Services' 130,000-square-foot warehouse in Garland, Texas, the aisles aren't lined with typical merchandise. Instead, they're stacked with returns from Amazon, Target, Sony, Home Depot, Wayfair and more, all in the process of being liquidated.
"Liquidators are coming in and they're buying up all of this product in bulk. They're then packaging it, palletizing it and reselling it, either to be resold on a site like eBay or Poshmark, or even to individual consumers. So it's turned into a much bigger portion of the industry than we've ever seen before," said Sonia Lapinsky of consulting group AlixPartners.
The liquidation market has more than doubled since 2008, reaching a whopping $644 billion in 2020, according to data from Colorado State University.
"A lot of this used to be controlled by the mafia," said Zac Rogers, assistant professor of supply chain management at Colorado State University. "It's a good way to hide money, honestly, because nobody's looking at returns. Especially 40 years ago, no one was looking at returns."
But in 2021, a record 16.6% of all merchandise sold was returned, up from 10.6% in 2020, according to the National Retail Federation. For online purchases, the average rate of return was even higher, at 20.8%, up from 18% in 2020. Processing a return can cost retailers up to 66% of an item's original price, according to returns solution company Optoro.
"Everyone's very worried about price increases right now. I would suggest that it's possible part of the inflation is these huge amount of returns, that have to be sold at a loss, is detracting from the profitability that a company normally has, and they have to raise their prices," said Tony Sciarrotta, executive director of the Reverse Logistics Association.
There's also a big environmental cost. Returns that aren't liquidated are often destroyed by being incinerated or sent to landfills. Optoro estimates U.S. returns generate an estimated 16 million metric tons of carbon emissions and create up to 5.8 billion pounds of landfill waste each year.
This pain point for mainstream retailers is now big business for liquidators. There are now thousands of companies in the booming space. One of them is GoodBuy Gear, which specializes in safely liquidating items for babies and young kids.
"Buying one used item, it saves 82% of its carbon footprint and consumers are really starting to make smart choices. And so I think that the boom in liquidation is really fueled by consumerism and how it's shifted from new to used," said Kristin Langenfeld, CEO and co-founder of GoodBuy Gear.
Sustainable shopping options are a growing priority for younger shoppers.
"The circular economy exists to make sure these items find a home, connect it with a family or a young consumer, and keep it out of the landfill," said Bill Angrick, CEO of Liquidity Services. He co-founded the company in 1999 as Liquidation.com, with $100,000 of his savings.
"My father and I used to pick up used books and recyclable bottles. Fast forward to the start of eBay. My father and I started toying around with that. We realized that a marketplace model can create value for virtually any type of used item," Angrick said.
Watch the video for an exclusive tour inside a Liquidity Services warehouse, to see the booming business of processing and reselling excess and unwanted goods on the secondary market.
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How Liquidating Unwanted Goods Became A $644 Billion Business
If this doesn’t show how disgusting, spoiled, and wasteful we are as a society, I don’t know what does.
I'm all for consumer rights, but this tells me that regulators need to change the return policies.
I'm thankful that there is big investment into trying to keep this stuff from going to landfills. Just seeing how much gets thoughtlessly thrown out in our society really does emphasize the importance of needing to change how our society buys and throws away stuff.
@@the_notorious_bas Would you be advocating for more stringent return policies that would make somebody need to think through their purchasing decision as more of a commitment that they can't just take back as easily?
This is literally what happened before the Great Depression. Get ready for a long painful ride…
@@angelgjr1999 Ohh dear... :/
I live in the Philippines which is thousands of miles from the United States, yet I live close to a giant warehouse filled with unsold and return items from Amazon North America.
Well ofcours sir. Ita 3 world country no money to buy anything that why u saw all that un sold stuff sir u know i mean do disrespect but you think you know that sir I'm sure that why u move and ur here in good ol USA u know no had no work or no money in ur home land n now,u have job n u get paid any ways yeah.
@@EveFragI had an aneurism reading this post.
I worked at Wal-Mart return Center . The amount of waste in the USA is astounding . A lot of stuff will go to a landfill . , some stuff will be recycled .
Nothing brings me more satisfaction than efficiency. To think about how all that merchandise is going to be re-sold and not go into a landfill makes me very happy indeed.
Flip and sell!
People like me
The system wouldn't exist if the original system was more efficient. It shows that there's a customer for everything.
the world still will not last very long anyway
It will still all end up in a landfill when people throw it away in a year, to buy the next new thing.
After a horrendous 2022, shell-stunned financial backers have misfortunes to recover and a lot to consider, as an expansion report and a pile of different information did close to nothing to change assumptions that the Central bank would probably keep climbing intrest rates regardless of whether the economy dials back, And that implies more red ink for portfolios for the principal quarter of year 2023. How might I benefit from the ongoing unstable market, I'm currently at a junction choosing if to exchange my $250k security/stock portfolio.
Center around two key targets. In the first place, remain safeguarded by realizing when to offer stocks to cut misfortunes and catch benefits. Second, get ready to benefit when the market turns around.I suggest you look for the direction a representative or monetary consultant.
@Dragon Jee Could you please leave your investment advisor details here? I need it urgently.
@Dragon Jee Much appreciated, I gazed her upward on the web and was profoundly dazzled by her qualifications; I reached out to her since I really want all the assist I with canning get. I just set up a call.
Stock performance means "nothing" if people need money and take their stocks out. (reducing the value). This is *actually what is going on here.
For a start, we can get acquainted, think about how we can be useful to each other and try to build a long-term perspective interaction.
This explains why some "new" items arrived looking used/rusted.
Absolutely
You could solve this by making almost all or all sales final. People would barely return and think twice before buying anything.
@@libertas-goddessofliberty5664 Or it could encourage manufacturers to abandon quality control, an often expensive part of the manufacturing process, because consumers would have no recourse if their item was defective.
I think all you need to do in create a transparent and reliable seconds market like the refurbishment market. But these sellers won't do that because they want to sell opened and used items for the same price as new. It's simply greed.
i do not mind buying a used/returned item if it's clearly stated it is used/returned, and of course, costs a little less than the brand new.
i like the idea of saving an extra few dollars as much as i like the item not ending up in a landfill, and the seller still makes a small profit or at least returns their own money they paid for it in the first place. it's a win-win.
but if a used/returned item is sold without mentioning that, i'm not really ok with that.
unless returned item is totally unopened and package is not damaged.
i mean...if you want to buy something as a gift but the package is damaged....it's not good
People who carelessly return items on a regularly basis increase the cost of goods for the rest of us. Drives me nuts.
Some retailers are cracking down on it. Costco is one of them and the second they see you're returning a lot of stuff they cancel you membership.
Th return policy itself is th beginning of th circle of evil
Does Costco say how many returns will justify their membership cancellation?
But, but, but….. we are reducing your carbon footprint!
As a person who shops on the clearance aisles at stores, I'm loving this documentary. It's an industry not many people think of on a large scale but definitely very profitable.
When I was younger my dad used to purchase pallets like this and we would go to the flee market and made some pretty good money
@@imCryptoRixh same the economy was pretty strong until wholesalers started to mickey mouse the pallets for short term gains. Ofc this ended up destroying the companies that my parents bought from because nobody wants to over bid on junk.
Yes, those 5% margins.
This is one of the coolest things I've noticed recently. When Ollie's popped up in my hometown selling name-brand goods at a quarter of the original price...I knew liquidation stores would be the way of the future. I love it. It makes me happy seeing these goods find homes instead of ending up as pollution.
As they said in the video, anything new and can be refurbished they sell at 60-70% of original value. So either you're ignorant, or the items you got stayed in their warehouse for a long time, or those were actually DONATED goods, not liquidated. Ain't no way a bricked store selling new brand items for 25%! I'd somewhat believe if it's just an online store, or from individuals.
Lmao you really think you got a deal. You fool you
"You wnated to go wash your hands afterwards, it was lowlife buyers".
What a disgusting statement this is!
Agreed. It was definitely an odd statement
The mafia was involved in the early days. That's why "You wanted to go wash your hands afterwards, it was lowlife buyers"
@@nationnexusnavigator 02:52 (in spite of my supporting a highlight of the runaway wealth gap)
Yeah, so lowlife people have dirty hands or people with dirty hands are lowlifes? Either way it's unnecessarily insulting.
Even worse he's saying if you're a hard worker you're a low-life disgusting POS @@davismavis2834
Thank you, thank you, thank you for shedding light on this! I’ve been saying to people to shop around for things at places other than your big name corporations, but sadly, some look at bargain discount shops as low brow/“poor people” stores. I went to Gabe’s very recently and paid less than $15 for cleaning supplies. I was so elated! Those items would’ve cost me at least twenty bucks elsewhere. You can be posh or upscale and still be smart about how you spend your hard earned money.
Again, much thanks to whomever decided to speak about this. Save the environment AND your money! 😁
Unironically, it's always smaller companies that charge more for regular everyday items, whether it's cleaning supplies, groceries, drinks, exercise equipment, and etc. It's pretty damn hard to save money going for local businesses.
You are so right! I have shopped at Dollar Tree for over 30 years and saved thousands of dollars not knowing that most of the products come from liquidators. They were the same items from WM and other stores and I got quality goods for near to nothing especially when they were only $1. Because I don't look homeless, and am not as such; one person looked at me in $ Tree and said too me, "You don't look like you belong here". I was taught to dress right, and stay healthy and I had just as much right to be in that store as anyone else, even if I could afford a more up-scale store.
@@katielove9932 it comes down to looks. Dress right and it looks wrong in certain places. That's just normal. A person who dresses like a million bux doesn't seem to fit in a dollar store or a ghetto in a third world country etc and a person who dresses wrong like dirty ragged clothes doesn't seem to fit in a exotic car, mansion or luxury store, professional office space etc but that's just a normal judge pattern association.
@@katielove9932 who says that lol… no one
Maybe a 4 year old
It’s buyer behavior. It goes beyond buying up multiple sizes to see what fits. I’ve sold on eBay for years with no issue. Same individual item again and again. One year I sold on Amazon and I was blown away by the types of buyers I had. Many requested a cancellation of purchase, which I gladly did. I don’t want to have to pay for return shipping due to a mistake the buyer made. Many also requested a return claiming the item was defective, but when I paid for the item to be shipped back to me due to Amazons return policies, the item would be returned in perfect working condition. I don’t know if people are buying suggested items without thinking, or assuming they’ll get something free if they complain, but I can’t imagine the horror if I had to trash every single return I got. Sometimes, after paying for the return shipping label, the buyer would never ship. All they had to do was print off the label and schedule a pickup, but the act of deciding to keep it without any further communication beyond return approval makes me believe they were after a freebie.
I think sometimes people who buy and return an item on Amazon are returning item because it does not meet their expectations. Or it is not meeting their needs. And I think sometimes it is necesary to get an item in your possession to see if it does. I am curious to know what you were selling on Amazon that got returned.
why would you have to pay for a label if the delivery service was never used? 🤔
Because that’s how selling ok platforms work. You purchase the label before shipping the item and the customer is notified the item is being shipped however if it’s a dishonest seller they never actually ship the item
@@SabrinaDacosta was this in response to Keya’s comment? Because if so, they were talking about return shipping. The CUSTOMER must ship the item back in order to get a refund. The seller paid for the label, but the CUSTOMER must print it out. When they print it, the seller is notified that the return is being shipped to them the same way a buyer is notified when the seller ships something. So the buyer could theoretically print off the label and never ship it, just as a dishonest seller might do. Most don’t print it off though, and never communicate about changing their mind, or claimed they shipped it. The unused label eventually gets refunded back after a couple of months. It’s just annoying if you are just selling something out of your house, versus an actual business where that’s all you do for a living.
@@fernfractal that’s just how returns on multiple selling platforms work. In fact, in many cases, if you order something online from a normal retail store, when you get it in the mail, on your invoice is a return shipping label already there. That label was prepurchased by the retailer. If the label isn’t used in an appropriate time, like a couple of months, the shipping company automatically refunds the label back to whomever purchased the shipping. Large corporations that do this all the time can handle money like that floating around, but small independent sellers doing this from their house can’t, so they only do it when requested. No one likes paying for shipping, but if there is a true issue with the product, the seller must pay for return shipping. So in many cases people will say something is wrong with it, rather than simply admit that they changed their mind.
I remember watching a documentary about how the area of West Africa had become a dumping ground for used/unwanted clothes from Europe and the Americas; more specifically the North Americas. I was totally shocked and had no idea about this. Villagers would sometimes travel for several miles on foot, sometimes with their kids, to pick through this clothing waste to sell into their communities and earn money. Most of it just became literal mountains of clothes on the beaches and wherever.
I saw something like this too...they called it Deadman's Clothing...how even third world counties didn't want these clothes.
funny enough I grew up in the global south in a slum where the western world garbage would be dropped on our communities, thats how the world works under global capitalisms, the global south is the dumping site of the west,
I have seen the same sort of thing but with old CRT computer monitors and other electronic goods from western countries (UK and US especially) that was supposedly recycled in those western countries
All the west done to recycle is pack the items into a shipping container and ship it out to various parts of Africa, where the people there (including kids) burn the wires (full of toxic chemicals in the smoke) and various other parts to get to the copper wiring
@@bethsnyder8376 It’s called Fast Fashion. Trendy & of poor quality.
Great video saw that too!
This should be a wake call for Americans. We are very wasteful society on everything.
You just realised now? 😨
@@montyi8 I don't know the extent of it.
What??? These are return items. If Amazon sends me something that’s damaged I’m just supposed to keep it and pretend like it’s not?
@@dfgyuhdd not everyone return because of damage's good. Some people buy it and return after use once. Or they changed their mind. Or they find another place with cheaper price.
So... one of the only countries that has created an entire industry to be less wasteful needs to be less wasteful? I don't know if we watched the same video but this video isn't showing landfills, it's showing people re-selling stuff than in 99% of countries would go to a landfill because it was returned. So shame on us for wasting less? uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
I used to work for a family-run chain of retail stores in San Diego, GTM, who strictly buy "unwanted goods", returns, damaged goods etc, from bigger retailers in the area. They make good money reselling that
Successful people don't become that way overnight. What most people see at a glance- wealth, a great career, purpose-is the result of hard work and hustle over time. I pray that anyone who reads this will be successful in life..
You’re right, the importance of multiple stream of income, unfortunately having a job doesn't mean financial freedom or security
speaking of been successful. I know I am blessed if not I wouldn't have met someone who is as spectacular as Mr Umar basher
@schneider Bruno O' Yes I'm a living testimony of Mr Umar basher jadon.
@schneider Bruno he has helped me greatly in life
Same here it's four months now I started trading with him, and it's been a good experience
That language used .. 'low life buyer' .. makes my stomach churn - and not because of the buyer, but because of the clear disgust these pigs feel toward fellow human beings.
Bad editing by creator, Zac Rogers @02:52
You have to be careful of companies like BStock, they are not honest businesses. One thing this video doesn't touch on is that there are different levels to what is classified as customer returns. For example, shelf pulls are classified as customer returns. Shelf pulls are brand new merchandise that was pulled because it didn't sell fast enough and room was needed for newer merch. You have items returned that are "like-new" "open-box", etc. These liquidation companies will advertise an auction as "Shelf Pulls" or "Like-New" but what they send you are salvage items or completely broken merchandise. They do not allow returns, they only offer credit on your next purchase. But don't take my word for it, look at their better business bureau reviews. Understand that many of them also have eBay stores of their own! Know that there are insane conflicts of interest involved. It's an all around shady business.
This is what a "throwaway" society looks like.
Correct I have things built in the 50's that are better then the newest most expensive thing you can get!
This isn't a throw away society example , this is big business putting profit over the environment.
@@LifesAbe-ach but no one is going to produce stuff that can’t sell. And we want to be able to easily and quickly get what we need. I like the resell model and encourage more ppl to get into it
@@Evettecord Factories in Çhina , India ,Vietnam, Thailand etc all produce dollar store crap that people want ? . People buy loads of goods they don't need or really want and it's subliminal advertising and social media manipulation that are part of that . Auctions of returned goods is the suppliers environmental responsibility get out clause not forgetting the poorsellers on Amazon getting ripped off by it's returns policy.
In Germany Amazon sends all items to Poland and then destroy it there because it's cheaper, (Its forbidden by law to destroy items if it is not borken in Germany).
That's a very small percentage. Most box stores damage it out write it off as a loss. And get a huge tax break for throwing it away their employees smash it up and put it in the trash compactor. And the reason why they do that is because it's cheaper and more profitable it costs money to ship that stuff around it costs money to pay people to move it around so the more you handle it the more money the store is lose so it's cheaper for them just to throw it away. That's why we become a disposable country and not a recycling country because we don't have facilities to do any recycling any recycling is shipped overseas which cost money. And nobody wants to buy it. The federal government needs to step in and change laws. And they also need to build recycling centers.
But the reason that is happening is that the USA wages are too high (not saying that it is bad overall ) to have it resold that’s also why ordinary people don’t repair their own stuff when it gets broken. If you force companies to do things that will increase their costs then the country will face even higher prices and inflation.
I say we create limits on total # of product items. For example, companies should not be allowed to make a product unless the item has a "longterm customer"
@@johnl.7754 Ordinary people don't have money to feed themselves. I doubt they're buying liquidation products. The wages in the US have been the around same for at least 10-15 years. Wages have nothing to do with this issue. The issue is our society has been spoiled with cheap products we don't need.
@@SLICEDfinds I don’t know what Americans you’re around but we have an obesity epidemic here. Americans are obviously eating
@@johnl.7754 Companies are making record profits so "high wages" certainly isn't the problem, we have a system that incentivizes waste rather than reuse and that's a problem that needs to be addressed.
"They were lowlife buyers" Gross, what a nasty guy.
I don't get how they could say, film, edit, revise and publish this without someone noticing how vile and evil that man sounds. He took their money, if any of them where dirty so is he.
just like we see metal scrappers now a days. you are just lying to yourself. its a totally normal quote. your just fragile
@@joaolemes8757 Some people are low lives though lol. You don’t think unscrupulous people don’t work in the p0rn, payday loan or other shady business? Come on. What about car choppers or copper scrappers?
@@mikeg2491 agreed, some people are shady, so are executives who improve their numbers on business with these people.
I have yet to make a return to Amazon that wasn’t damaged, double shipped, or not as described. They could avoid a lot of returns by better vetting.
I also often select returned items if the saving are worth it, so far no problems.
your experience is similar to mine. And I like that amazon still provide a 30 day return elegible policy for items bought from the Amazon Warehouse. So far i think everything i bought through the Amazon Warehouse was essentially as good as new as far as i could tell. I have returned a few items that were not suitable for what i needed, but there was no way for me to conclusively determine that just by pictures or comments. I imagine in the future items will be 3D scanned and viewable in VR in lfe size proportions, which will help a buyer make better decisions before pressing the "buy" button. It may not prevent all needed returns, but would help create a better shopping experience and i think reduce the costs to the vender, by reducing the number of returns. And the buyers will have increased satisfaction of more likelyhood of getting the product they want or need. I think also it is misleading for some of the people in the video saying there is increased package waste because people return. I know that Amazon will take the package as it was delivered at their return hubs. You don't need to put it in extra boxes packages.
Yes. In the past few months I had 2 orders that were incomplete (e.g. pack of 6, only 1 shipped), 1 was damaged in shipping, and 1 was improperly categorized by Amazon. 3 of the 4 returns would have been prevented if they vetted the listings better.
@@heaven140 I've probably bought that amount from Amazon in 10 years. 🙂
same
Lies again? Ugly America
I love this! Goods out of the landfill, into the homes of people who need them but can't affort full retail. Employing people in these companies. Great!
The only issue is that the majority of customers are re-sellers. So most consumers aren’t getting the discount. But either way it helps the environment which is great.
consumers are getting the discount. I buy off of a guy on facebook who sells customer returns. 50% off of retail for a working product IS a discount
how deceived you are in this world.
how can you ayudar the environment if an item instead of being sold 1 time and not returned spending even more resources.
I buy an item that is in a pallet that ends up costing me 50 to 99 percent off of retail price - I'm being honest, and then I create a distribution network that involves the most efficient and humane system I can think of because I'm not a PoS baby boomer. Once I figure out the price and I can hopefully sell below the cost that Amazon or . Sometimes it can be only 10 percent below retail, sometimes it can be more than half off of retail, sometimes it must go for slightly above retail price. This is the nature of retail sales and the best companies are the ones that continue to try to provide the same or near same value for a better price - relative to purchasing power.
With individual pieces being purchased - for example clothing in a thrift shop (Goodwill for example) located in a town with less than 50-100k people living in it. Prices for clothing pieces can be $1 to $5 a piece. Now, this inventory is "trapped" in this town and I am willing to make it my living to get this stuff out of there. I use savings from wages earned in my early 20s and income earned from reselling over the years. I remove 200 pieces of clothing from the town, then I go and rent a table at a local flea market. I figure out the average I paid per clothing unit and simply double, triple, or quadruple that number depending on if it is 1, 2, 3, or 5 and what the cost of my lunch, gas, and table rent is. This stimulates the town I drop by in to purchase a piecemeal of their inventory, followed by providing my local area cheaper goods that weren't formerly available.
That's capitalism and yes it can help the environment if the CEOs of companies aren't demonic entities that are against humanity.
If you go to a discount store that resells big brand names, you're buying company liquidation. You get a better discount than retail, don't act like consumers are being screwed over entirely.
@@smokerscough2907 So if a small business owner uses their monies earned from wages earned, to purchase an allotment of goods for resale - the one's who make profit are the..... small business owners who usually own local discount stores.
You know what is screwing over the consumer? Your mindset of "person who sells stuff for a living = sleazy bad person looking to screw me over". It makes the concept of buying low and selling high seem like the devil's work. Then your neighbor is a governmental paid worker, who complains about the lack of stores in a neighborhood.
Why bother being a merchant of cheap costing goods when the comsoomer is just looking for the cheapest dollar price and will never consider quality source materials, manufacturer origin, refurbished, second hand, up-cycled, ethics of brand. Next best bet for the merchant - buy the excess that the major corporations have ordered, hope their margins are thin, make your local community richer by offering a low price - high quality store, make your store owner capital living salary from the high profit margin, and know that less crap is being burned into the atmosphere.
You want less brand names? Create or seek a brand that is "No-Frills" and goes out of it ways to reduce cost through a lack of marketing. Ask your government to stop incentives for farmers to destroy excess crops and make the incentives "sell corn/cotton/coco to XYZ Government NO-FRILLS factory to produce XYZ derivative product and resell at cost or penny profit margin to redeem the issued dollars used for said social project. This solution isn't appealing to paper asset speculators however. Commodity Future "prices" will "plummet". Same amount of corn in bushels will still exist however - more likely to just sit in a field and rot.
I used to buy items at an auction to resell at the local flea market and on eBay. The auction bought their items in bulk from that warehouse in Dallas. Even with a couple of "middle men" the end consumer still saved over 50% off of the original retail price and the items were like new!
You're better off buying pallets from a liquidator that sell at a set price, rather than auction. You'll probably get things a lot cheaper that way. My favorite is home Depot pallets because there's a lot of high price and high quality items.
What auction ?
My concern is that with the big players waking up to this business model, they will muscle in easily and squeeze out these little guys, who was doing well, below the radar. Now that the cat is out of the bag, their profitability will experience more headwinds going forward.
Seems a reasonable assumption but if Amazon cared enough they wouldn't be selling to these guys,,, Walmart and target definitely need to get with the program more, I've seen them both at the store level throw tvs and other furniture in the compactor because of the slightest breakages : (
@@gfdia35 : How much of that is due to the laws around new items.
It's already happening! Some of the resale brick mortar stores like Good Will keep increasing their prices.
That's exactly what they did. The guy was complaining about having to wash his hands because the little guys were nasty
@@gfdia35 mgood ixu
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The issue in the UK and Spain with this model of business is that the real difference between new and refurbished is usually less than a 10%.
Also, with those “bags of crap” or “treasure boxes” is that it is turning into “landfilling” houses, since people buy what nobody wants, which they are not gonna inherently need themselves (although, after spending the money, they might coerce themselves into finding it a place in their lives).
I was an American bill collector for 30 years and every day I saw people going deeper into debt for things that didn't even exist a couple of years before but then Big Business invented it and conned the Public into believing that they now can't live without it.
"There's a SUCKER born every minute." - social prophet, PT Barnum.
I need to get my hands on this, who wouldn't want major discounts
the issue is that most of the inventory goes to the wholesale buyer. and they then sell at only small discount.
Look on sites like ebay, I bought a gaming keyboard for 20% of the original price. Was from a return, only had one scratch
They have return store piping up all over the place now!! I have on in my local mall!!! I post videos every Sunday
Depending where you live, there should be at least 10-20 stores selling liquidation products. Here in Indianapolis, there are maybe 40-50 places in a 20 miles radius.
@@SLICEDfinds im by bloomington so are there any places down south from indy where i can go?
These videos are great ! Nice job selling eduction rather than fear! Thankyou.
I complete Agee sell education and not fear the best way to do need!!! I post ever Sunday!!! Subscribe
This is a fantastic video. It's clear and easy to understand your explanations. Thank you for providing this information.
In the Twin Cities, Dayton's Department Store had an annual Warehouse Sale back as far as the 1970's. It was them selling off all their returns and scratch and dent items - it was worth lining up for.
This was a great video. I cannot get enough of these Returns/Liquidation videos. I haven't been to at Liquidation Store before, but my town just got one and they sell Amazon Returns.
What amazingly well-done explanation of something that is rather complex. Keep up the great work!!
I worked for a large government landfill related business/service. You would not believe what gets thrown into landfills. Worth a fortune and 100% usable items.
Also... cardboard is worth a fortune, more than all but the "candy" metals.
I have seen this first hand. It really is astounding and shameful when one considers what the second and third world lack.
it's a good move to seel those items again and reusing it with warranty! definitely a time & resource saving option
This shows the irresponsibility..carelessness of rich nations of producing in abundance and still face inflation God bless america!!,
Rich nations don’t produce they only consume. Items are produced in China and cheap slave labor countries
This doesn’t make any sense. The items are returns. If Amazon didn’t send me damaged or wrong items then I wouldn’t be returning them.
I don't think I've ever seen a place selling refurbished goods that didn't have issues with quality.
There is nothing new in this. Consumer society produces a lot of waste, obsolescene, single use rubbish, fast fashion ... whether it is in the form of store returns after 2 weeks (the subject of this video), or short keeps after several months. The costs keep passing back and forth along the chain. The end problem is always the disposal of garbage and the environment effects of making and remaking.
The fundamental problem is the wasteful behavior of consumer society which doesn't keep reusing the same objects for decade. The return problem is just one aspect of the bigger problem.
I didn’t want to watch a “liquidation” title because I’m horrified by how products are destroyed so nonchalant (I feel sorry for the things and people who made them). So glad liquidation is refurbishing and reselling. Please keep up the work.
Dude, this bad news this mean deflation is on it way.
Life is however you look at it. I think that’s great news
@@marctemura2017 How so?
"Liquidating assets" just means converting them into their cash equivalents, i.e. selling them off a la garage sale. This does tell something about how wasteful and consumerist U.S. society has become
You feel sorry for inanimate objects?
Disney movies have convinced you that tea pots have souls.
You guys forgot to mention Goodwill and the Salvation Army do this as well.
@Ba Goai Stop putting these video addresses in youtube that are spoken in a very difficult foreign language and the topic is not interesting just to get views from american users. RUclips should delete your account.
Please people do not click on the link. I guarantee you is just fraud. Risky and waste of time.
they want to make profit for themselves and did you even see how 1:02 he refers to people??? "low lifes" I think we should start building the public guillotines.
Salvation Army do good work, trying to integrate prisoners back into society when they were not even violent offenders. Goodwill is increasingly chasing profits sadly.
Calling father and son resellers as sketchy unsavory people is kind of low
@Jonathan Velez to be fair, not every reseller, many were trying to make a good business but there is no doubt there had to be a lot of conmen in the industry
It was definitely a classist undertone. It's kind of like how people view Metal scrappers. Personally, I think they're awesome and have hustle
Glad I'm not the only one who noticed that. He kept trying to undermine mom and pop resellers by bashing them and making his company seem like the savior.
It was a bad edit, they were talking about criminal organizations who would sell drugs, buy cars cash, resell car, they then can deposit clean cash at the bank. NBC just needed adjunct professor Zac Rogers to say it for some reason, check @02:52
@@stevenmatosu9321 thank you for clarifying
I am amazed they dont open their own retail stores. Sell the merchandise as is/where is/ no returns at a huge discount
Overhead of retail is high. The goods at ultra liquidated prices wouldn't be enough to pay for the costs of the store lease footprint.. warehouses with warehouse employees, shipping to a guaranteed buyer with a home address avoids the liability of shoplifters who live in RVs or in the streets in tents, or even just people who don't come in to steal , but merely browse and touch merchandise without buying anything.
They actually do have experimental retail centers in Europe. Idr which country as... Amazon is doing alot of weird stuff.
But a big reason no one likes selling discounted returned or damaged items is because they don't want the hassle of unhappy customers and possibly even lawsuits. And "brand integrity" is a factor for alot of them.
the same reason amazon dont do their own liquidation. less overhead and cost by just focusing and specializing.
Company's use to have their own outlet stores....don't know why they don't anymore.
There is too much. We are in this business, at the local level. We don't have the overhead that retail locations have. Our biggest expenses on $250k in sales last year was inventory, shipping, and then platform fees. We run a 3000 item store out of our garage and home office, part time.
These liquidation auctions etc have become a lifesaver for me! I've saved so much flipping houses by using auction materials!
I try to buy as much stuff second hand as possible. Even if it's barely cheaper sometimes. Helps the planet, often really helps the seller make some cash, and is an exercise in frugality, somewhat.
Be more frugal. Ask yourself if you truly NEED an item. If you have lived without until now, the answer is NO.
big up the black guy in the warehouse taking pride and keeping the operation running!
A lot of scammers preying on
unsuspecting victims everywhere
using real trader names😡
lAs don't go around publishing their
contact info on comment sections📌
I've come across a few using names
Stephen Bernard Halterbeck for their fraudulent schemes
These Brokers/lAs are real and have
official and verified websites for
contact purposes.
I was a victim and I won't want anyone
else to fall prey
@@lanjuan734 Thank you for this but how can
we get their official site because alot
of us need the help
@12:16 companies like apple that oppose right to repair are preventing refurbishing/repair from happening, and creating huge amounts of e-waste and environmental destruction.
That's called business. From unwanted to most wanted. Business is beyond all of our doubts. Thanks to those guys who created this sector.
This is what happens when you let companies create endless products nobody wants or needs..
Right. Everything is made to break down now too.
Seems to me it’s more of a direct result of online shopping increasing the % of products returned.
And who should we put in charge of determining what companies make and what people "need or want"? You?
This is what happens when you create generations of people that are wasteful, and dont strive to create quality products
@@greensplatter3480I see what you mean... but just because a product is made with the "highest quality" doesn't mean we need it to survive or live a happy/healthy life
I used to buy everything from pallets like these, I have name brand kitchen appliances, I have furniture, I got a $260 blender once for $5.. I got an expensive espresso maker for $5, I got an Oven from Ninja for $10.. but now nothing is this cheap, now that bigger businesses have gotten into this they charge almost full price, taking off maybe 10% or 20% tops, the small businesses that make the great deals can no longer get these great pallets, many in my area have closed.. and for low or fixed income people especially elderly this was their way to get appliances they'd otherwise never be able to afford.. very sad
I just don't understand why the return items can't just be put back on the shelf?
Also by just throwing it away, doesn't Amazon or the party selling it on Amazon lossing a lot of MONEY? I don't understand the logic. Someone please explain. I live in the UK and I don't know if this happens over here.
A lot of people absolutely freak out at the thought of not being the first one to open the retail box of what they're buying. It's mystical for some. I had a friend who was like that. Brought him a pixel phone from the UK. When i said i was curious to open the box to check it out he absolutely freaked out.
If it's sold as new, it must be new, otherwise you risk really offending some of your customers who can end up being very vocal about it.
There are some liability issues. Let's say you return a toaster and it goes back out on the shelf and the customer who had it broke it, and the next customer buys it and something happens, the second customer could sue the store for selling them a faulty good.
Reverse Logistics at its finest! 💪🏽
Be wary it’s not common but it does happen, appliances get sent to liquidate due to faulty manufacturing. Like buying a toaster for cheap but it turns out to be a fire hazard
Maybe. The story didn't cover the what if of a liquidated product being defective. Usually there's some kind of guarantee, but how good is it?
I bought a coffee grinder from Amazon for £35 expecting some quality.
It was a shiny device from outside, but was absolute rubbish inside. A small sticker showed a duty cycle 30 seconds ON - 1 hour OFF. The motor was made with maybe 10 grams of copper. It puffed smoke and quit at the first use. It is the only return I made to Amazon in the last three years - I made a mistake of buying tech stuff on Amazon. Usually is a guaranteed scam when you buy a 1 TB thumb drive for £20, but this was presented as an high-end coffee grinder; yes, an high-end-looking coffee grinder made for the purpose of being returned. The video doesn't talk of all various degree of scamming of high-tech devices on Amazon, like those £70 smartphones with 6 GB Ram / 256 GB Flash storage...
What a great idea and good forvour environment I like the reuse of pkging material...
Yes! We need more hope for a future of sustainability.
I don’t know about anyone else, but anytime I’ve seen someone buy any of these pallets the screens are broke and completely untouched, so I don’t think they really do re do all the items
It's a business I'm extremely interested in but you gotta ween out the good from the bad/damaged/broken/missing part ones.
You can create stores that sell Amazon returns!!! They are very profitable!!
Don’t do evil stuff like this, greed is the devil.
Greed has always been around it just more noticable then years past.
@@INICK84 are they legal? Could they be offline and online stores?
@@angelgjr1999 ppl will always want to buy stuff. I don’t want to wait for it and I want it affordable
I've repurposed liquidation goods for 9 years. Unfortunately, it's gone to crap thanks to middle men and now people can just buy pallets and put it in their garages. Most of the time, they'll either breakeven or lose. Before, you had to buy 24-52 pallets at a time. Too much competition now and suckers not understanding what they are buying.
Please explain. Is it legal to buy liquidation pallets and then sell the items online? Is it legal?
@@deepdude4719 Yep. But you need a deep knowledge base of whatever thing you are buying. You need to know what's good and how to identify it. That can be Computers, purses, luxury items, ...
Why would it not be legal? Of course it is legal
@@deepdude4719 it means there are too much new people trying to make a quick buck in the resell space and overbidding on the items, and making it hard to turn a profit on most pallets. As most of the people only buying one pallet at a time are going to lose money or break even because they don't know what they're doing.
@@gilbertoflores7397 It's the storage unit auction craze all over again. Everyone wants to make an easy buck so demand goes up along with prices.
Before being promoted while she still worked in returns ! My wife had a package being returned one day she found suspicious . The pants being returned were a normal pair of jeans from walmart . After an inquiry into the account it was an account that had a 20 year history with thousands of purchases and thousands of returns !
When he goes "The reason is to find a home for these things and keep it out of landfill"... Yeah right, it's so they can make more money it always is.
That's exactly what I was thinking. he's done well tor himself but don't be disingenuous and say it's for the good of the world
So?
I see a self sustainedway to help the Environment
@@andonokusumajati9607 Cool, but if it wasn't turning a profit would he still be doing it, most probably not. If that's the case don't say recycling is the REASON. The reason is to make a profit
So what he is making money? Is it illegal??
Everything changes, everything stays the same.
Amazon puts the brick & mortar retail out of business only to now reinvigorate the brick & mortar to sell their returns?
Member Mr. Cheney in Green Acres? Always will be garage sales, antique dealers, but retail liquidators? Isn't that just the pawn shop on steroids to preserve big box brand/reputation? The UPS store always packed with people! So is the Post office, but they don't need labels or packaging. Some friends porches look like a.mini wharehouse!
So simple yet so effective
i think humanity is at a point where companies can almost give away these items to people who actually need them
Companies had record profit... returns are not the reason for the amount of inflation we are seeing.
The framing of that part was pretty messed up. He was talking about returns being losses, there was an increase in returns. They definitely aren’t THE reason we see inflation, but losses of can be factored into pricing
Will just take Bezos a few moments to decide that there is money to be made and then create his own recycle and liquidation center. He has the money to setup huge warehouses as needed, then these companies will be in trouble. I wouldnt trust a business that is so closely tied to amazon
A great idea. Liquidity Services!!
Just bought a refurb portable washing machine off ebay. this & the fact that they offered 1 yr warranty for $10 has made me feel safter about buying a major electrical appliance used.
I have been told by sales people at many stores while I may be trying to decide on a product... well just buy it today and think about it, if you don't like it you can bring it back. So I had no idea it was that costly to the retailer!
Stores. You don’t have to ship it back. They don’t pay for your return like online retailers do.
As a part of a third world country, I wish we have access on these goods. Lots of poor people here would benefit from this industry.
You all do. Amazon sends alot of stuff to poor countries. You just have to do your research.
Thankyou I was always wondering where return products went .
Would like to see more of these types of videos where small business owners can get educated on how to liquidate unwanted goods and use them to improve their business.
Goes to show how much stuff people don't need
My son bought pallets of return stocks. The electronic equipment that was faulty, was down to silly things like blown fuses, disconnected wiring. He made a fortune
@@cvcoco hi there. What else he would do, if he couldn’t repair them and it was a home brand. He would take them back to that store and either have a refund or was given a credit. Either way he didn’t mind. Most cases they wouldn’t ask for a receipt of purchase, because they knew it was there’s.
You’re right about utube, you can obtain a wealth of information. Personally if I had a problem with anything electrical or mechanical. I would guarantee that utube wouldn’t show my partial model.
And if you notice that these people on utube that presence themselves. Always says “guys” never women. Even the women does the same thing 😂
@@cvcoco you’re right as well. People today are more concerned about making a dollar that they don’t care who they con to get it. That’s the kind of society we live in today.
Myself I was in the building trade and if I went to a house and the problem was so simple. I’d be there 5 min. I wouldn’t charge them, especially if it was local. I use to have a deep down satisfaction that someone was happy. It never helped with my bank balance 😂
As an American recently retired... that had my share of buying crap I didn;t need or buying things I didn't use.. The biggest problem with our society is the over abundance of crap.. we spend our money on.. In the end most of it is worthless.. takes up space and trust me you can live without 90% of it.. and live better without ! We die and someone ends up having to figure out what to do with all this crap all over again.. Trust me happiness is less.. Not more !
Very good documentary👍
This is a good thing happening. I setup my new office recently with used computers and networking equipment and saved at least 50% of money. Almost all of them are running fine doing their job. I have a separate desk where I modify the electronics to make them compatible to my requirements.
The good thing is that you didn’t win in 2000 😂
What hurts is when you buy an item listed as new unopen, but when it arrives you can clearly tell it was a returned item.
@M Acc That happened to me at Best Buy when I bought a PC. It looked sealed and new in the store, I got it home, turned it on and it went straight to the desktop, no setting up of Windows. It had to be a return or openbox or something. I took it back and Best Buy apologized, gave me another one, all sealed and swore to God it was new. I got it home, same thing, and this time found folders of photos from the prior owner! I was getting on a plane the next day and there was no more time to deal with it. It was working, i did have a warranty so ok, move on. It was a terrible lemon and I still have it but it cant be used. This crap happened to my brother too, he must have exchanged a printer five times at Best Buy because each one had been a rejected return being sold as new. I will never go there again and agree with you very much. The whole world is some kind of humongous screw job or something!
Brilliant, bravo!
Anything is better than a landfill! Great video!!!
@3:22 😂 That is the funniest thing I’ve heard in a while. People returning online purchases are causing Inflation and not the printing of trillions of dollars?!? 😂
It’s CNBC lol😂
Not a big fan of second handed item, but I like the idea of recycling something that somebody don't want.
I'm a fan of used stuff and recycling.
It can just be an instant return. Have bought several instant return items. They are brand new. Just like some at a store tested or tried on the product.
When you buy over the net you don't know where it came from and the mark up is to horrendous....
@@hotpepper7782 Exactly. Many things that you buy online are used despite them claiming it’s new. It’s a big problem in the car repair industry.
I am a fan. Lots of electrical goods new at 70% discount
When you attempt to treat Life like a game, you are played, misused, and are losing even when you are thoughtless to believe you are winning.
Great jobs 👍👍👍👍👍
Good for business, good for the environment, and good for consumers. What's there to dislike?
How can we haul for liquidity services? We have hundreds of trucks we can offer!
EXTREMELY INSPIRING VIDEO.
Very informing program
Resale is addicting for some, even taking the concept to flipping houses. Stable communities suffer with 'rent and return mentality'. Flipping and migrating societies in real estate especially creates insecurity and instability, just an opinion. Good luck hustlers! Entrepreneurship is admirable and the American way!
2008 & Dodd-Frank decimated the ability to flip houses. This is why HGTV only shows flipping in states where the fixer-uppers have land value under the national average (1/5 big coast cities.) Since these properties are within a budget average couples would afford, even after they get over-extended by the hosts' recommendations. Although the Fed started using the growth of Big Tech to bolster their ability to drive the prices of housing ever-higher, only those with wealth growing at a faster rate were made capable of having enough fiscal flexibility to complete a flip, resulting in companies hi-jacking the flip market along with any wealth creation that would have been earned by gritty contractors and their families. And so now flipping can only be done in dilapidated properties or low priced cities and is for the most part a tax arbitrage.
@@stevenmatosu9321 Dodd/Frank and Sarbanes(fine minds, when bills were thought out) decimated too. Few years back, invited to attend a few of the companies financing flipping scouts. Asked for a few bucks and continued training to pursue, but clear what was happening and required quick turnover/closings. Thanks for the comment. Wondering if city councils and their budgets like when housing increases generating more property taxes? Some states not as reliant to fund schools, mine is totally. Don't think the COVID Cares money has been distributed by state legislature to schools and hospitals.
@@janicechildress2952Yes it seems after flipping became so unachievable the people who made a career out of it had to switch careers and become teachers of how-to-flip which is very sneaky. At the end of Obama's term there were handwritten signs on every streetlight for seminars of the 'industry' and by chance I saw one at a hotel event room where the content did not even address basics like listing or licensing. The lecture was in fact a pitch for a 'system' and the outline was to get financing from a (or many) rich person found through some investor portal and 'sell it' somehow. The presentation was in fact a marketing product for a nonsense system with motivational speaker undertones. America has a implicit mandate to keep the middle class at a certain level of wealth, now the higher valuations of the private property sector absolutely is welcomed by the local government. The higher revenue generated from the value increase is accelerated by the velocity of property turnover, but the main fault for things like housing shortages is more a result of the local homeowners and their voting for onerous zoning and restrictions on building to create artificial scarcity (intentional or not,) it is exacerbated by the reluctance of builders to actually build in dense populations. After 2008 forced us into internet-growth supported MMT, assets became the driver of wealth which everyone was ok with. Homeowners would only become more wealthy from the policy, their home accruing more value than inflation every year and stocks growing in step. Ideally taxes from the new value should go to the public commons but if velocity of sales slows, then the appraisal of the properties and tax increases that would come with that are delayed. The time frame for sales can be years for certain properties. If the area is not a big metropolitan hub then it could be a while before there are enough new buyers to unlock the new home valuations with their purchase while the public tax pool sits stagnant or declines as homes are moved out of and left vacant waiting for a buyer. Yesterday the employment numbers came out and they surpassed expectations of how many people were getting back to work, except for K-12/government. The American Relief and Recovery Plan gave cities money and it was said that same money should go now to hiring back those government employees (especially in the face of worker competition) seems like a understaffed municipal government issue
ruclips.net/video/7CmvM341oS4/видео.html
i deliver packages and i hate how people are so easy with returning stuff, even to the point of abusing that return system
As a consumer, I agree. I’m irritated whenever I have to return something and I always have a very good reason to do so.
What are sum good sites to order pallets or bulk from ?
Bought a refurbished tv 3 years ago and still going strong :)
Honestly, just because you have a warehouse and a headset while some other guys work out of their truck doesn’t make them any less of low life than you-you’re still repurposing and selling junk. This business model is only fair and ethical when nonprofit organizations sell donations at a discount to people who really need it, (eg goodwill). These liquidators enable massive retailers to profitably accept returns on virtually anything. The negative end result is a larger amount of lower quality goods, and all the problems that come with that. At the end of the day, amazon gets to make two sales, the liquidators have their returned product, and your average consumer is satisfied with their replacement product. Capitalism never ceases to amaze me.
No its ethical its making everyone happy and avoiding crap being piled up
What about saving the enviroment? Planet Earth is dying!!!
@@deepdude4719 honesty, plane earth isn’t dying and manufacturers wouldn’t produce this stuff if they weren’t making money. Luckily, with second hand, many others get to make money on the original product
Be carful what you buy though. My parents bought a washer for 700 dollar brand whirlpool. One year later the motor gave up.
Good.Sensible people ,I hope more of us can see the light
probably the only brand new I'm ever buying are clothes, food, and electronics. Everything else can be bought from the liquidation markets if those items are available. But from watching this video, it shows how much waste we are producing at the same time showed that there are great deals in the liquidation market with a cheaper price that I can buy than a brand new sold in amazon or wherever.
From what I can tell we are a country with lots of waste. Send the stuff to countries that need it.
On the one hand, all this is definitely better than wasting the products, but what I am also seeing is a deep social urge for collecting as much stuff as one can. We have become pack-rats without a pause button.
Stuff, stuff and more stuff! Gotta have. Gotta have. Gotta have.
The new one I started is your yard sales items you don't want you gift them to yard sales or re sellers . And it working a whole underground economy
I've kept on reading reverse logistics and how it plays an important part of a sustainable supply chain but I've never have truly appreciated up until I've watched this video. A big eye opener, I hope CNBC won't mind if I showed this to others right?