It’s so weird how luxury has become less appealing to me since the Balenciaga scandal and Dior sweatshop story. I find myself caring less about the next handbag or apparel because I question the ethics of the brands. It’s not as fun anymore.
I LOVE the Balenciaga bag with the straps but there is absolutely no way I‘m gonna buy it. And I‘m really angry at Balenciaga for ruining it for me. Who wants to be associated with this company?
that’s why you get a kelly but in ostrich. That’s how you tell the New Yorker from the Parisian. Or how you used to be able to… americans take your voice back!
Do you find it too wide/big and bulky? I’ve just bought the*jklux* which is basically the same width and my only worry is it bumping into things and wear on the corners, has yours scuffed?
I remember 20 yrs ago when designer bags didn’t sell they would actually go on sale at Neiman’s for a sizable discount. And then people would buy them and they wouldn’t go to waste. Or if they still didn’t sell, they would end up at a Neiman’s outlet. That’s the way the whole thing is supposed to work before this ridiculous level of snobbery took luxury in a chokehold and strangled the life and quality out of it. People still bought the luxury bags because you never knew which ones were going to sell and which ones were going to go on sale. Obv if you really liked the bag a lot, you weren’t going to chance it. “Luxury” just got way too weird and slightly evil in the last 10 yrs.
As much as I get older my understanding of luxury changed. I am not interested in the brand names anymore. Greed and snobbery of some luxury brands made it easier for me to look elsewhere. Also, I am tired of seeing same things or ridiculous styles over and over again. I am more in to quality and practicality of things now. Good material and workmanship is a must. I really enjoyed your video. Very informative. You are lovely as always.
Talking about eBay fakes, I tried to sell a brand new LV bandeau...it came with everything! Including the receipt ☺ I bought it myself from the LV boutique in Edinburgh just a few months prior to trying to sell it. I listed it on eBay but it was taken down a couple of days later for breaching their 'counterfeit items' policy 😂😂😂 unbelievable!
Maybe a solution is to send the surplus goods directly to consignment shops like fashionphile and realreal, then they can sell it at a discount and can prevent selling fakes because the items are coming directly from the house
I agree. That’s an excellent idea. It would need to be done privately and without any publicity in order to maintain the brand’s exclusivity but it would solve a problem and the brand would make some percentage of the stock value.
The sad thing is! It’s not even just these stores selling “stuff,” although the impact is worse because of the landfills. But it also happens in food and restaurant/dining industry, where instead of donating excess that they can’t sell, they just throw it away. Other less fortunate people could use these things and food they’re throwing away. It drives me mad too! Thanks for talking about this topic though. The amount of waste is atrocious
As you know There is NO craftsmanship anymore !! It's Chinese sweatshops making the products for Pennies. And the brand marking the hood at over 1000% per cent !! GREED
In the US grocery store chains have been known to pour chemicals in dumpsters full of edible food so they claim it as a damaged and get a a tax or insurance benefit instead of donating it. It’s a gross issue created by greed and having to constantly have profits go up up up for stock holders.
I wonder how much of it is CYA. America is so litigious that I could see a donation being sent to a local charity, a few people get sick, then the grocery store gets sued for donating spoiled food.
We realise there is a huge mark up on designer items, but surely this just shows how little it costs them to make versus what they sell it for if it's cheaper to mass produce than lose sales. As if the Dior scandal hadn't already shown us. I love fashion and design, but I think we may be being taken for fools at this point.
There used to be a Chanel outlet in Woodberry Commons in Rockland county about two hours outside of New York City many years ago, and I still have perfectly beautiful stuff from there, and it never seemed to impact their retail exclusivity.
Long ago I remember bookstores tearing off the cover of paperbacks before trashing them-- and clothes patterns would have their envelopes removed before the same-- but the items without envelopes or covers would eventually sometimes find themselves into the market somehow.
Thank you for highlighting this issue Sophie. I don't have an answer to the problem other than to ban the practice as France has done. Would a blanket ban work worldwide? How would it be policed? Whatever, we must try to stop this reprehensible practice.
Why wouldn’t TJ Max donate those items to a women’s abuse shelter!? Then they could use it as a tax write off and be an enourmous help to women in need.
Because those are returned items, since they can't confirmed it hasn't been tampered with they can't put it back in the shelf or donade, because if something happens, that's a potencial. Laws need to change in order to incentivi this kind of donations.
I'm so happy that you started talking about these topics as well, not just "oh, look at my new Chanel bag!" There's nothing wrong with that, it's money you earned, you do whatever you want with it, right? But talking about these problems within the fashion industry makes you more of a common folk. Good job! PS: better to show off your [brand] bag than 1,000 cheap shein/temu bags and hell knows what else.
I think luxury brands think they make more money via overproduction because the goods don't actually cost that much to make in the first place. The Dior book tote scandal was just a peek into the excessively high profit margins of these companies.
And why the quality of so many designer products has gone down these days. Increasingly poorly made items are being sold by so called luxury companies. Also, unfortunately, so many luxury brands are not as independent as they once were, they have been bought by large corporations. A perfect example…LVMH to start, and there are others.
Hi I am from Sweden, you will fund articles about 10 years ago where Lidl the supermarket got in trouble because they started to put rat poison on their food to stop poor families from dumpster diving. I used to dumpster dive 15 years ago as a poor teenager. I would get dried fruit and nuts that still had like one or two months left on its expiration date. I would get bread and cake with like 3 days left on it. Salad and meat. I also got shampoo and stuff most of it was not expired. Sometimes the packet was just wrinkly. At least in the UK there is a sale ile for stuff that is soon going out of date but the stores don't want to do that in Sweden cause they loose more money on discounting it or giving it to their employees. Its discusting
I heard that the items they would burn would be a tax write off and due to that burning them was more cost effective than selling them on sale. Hopefully this will encourage luxury companies will make less items of better quality and need to destroy less. I believe luxury is better quality products, made in part by hand by artisans, original designs, colours, materials, built to last for years, with or without a logo. Sadly this is not todays luxury, sometimes I think a lot of luxury brands don’t care about where they came from and only care about money and clout.
Not sure about other countries, but in the US, businesses and corporations receive tax breaks from claiming a loss, which is often more lucrative than selling for a deep discount. I suspect this is part of the reason for destroying and throwing away product rather than selling it. I own a couple of retail stores and there are times when you just simply cannot sell items. We DO NOT throw them away, however, but donate them to people in our community in need, and I still receive a tax break which is a win/win, as far as I'm concerned. I don't sell luxury goods, however, and I'm guessing LVMH and others wouldn't want their products to end up going to charity or thrift stores, as it would, unfortunately, devalue the items.
The Dior bag (that looks like the chanel boy bag) was known as like the cheap bag a few years ago in Paris. They sell it for like 200 quid at the LVMH sales. Basically everyone knows if you have that bag, you got it at the sale. You also get 40% off. This is in house. Not retail.
I was walking in a parking lot outside an Panera Bread and saw a bin full of plastic wrapped bread rolls that seemed perfectly fine. They could have gone to a homeless shelter or something…
I, for one, am glad that they are chucking their "bread (rolls)" away. Panera bread is one of the most toxic foods to eat- it's always up the top of the pesticide residue (glyphosate) charts! Just because people are poor does not mean they have to eat poison.
Hello Sophie! I used to work for an Inditex brand a few years ago, and as employees we were obliged to break something defective or had a small error per say, on a daily basis there were A LOT of items going into the trash just because the brand wanted to. Even though designer brands are doing it, unfortunately, that is just the tip of the iceberg.
That Billion dollar valuation is not the cost of production, as we saw with the Dior video. The companies still have millions of dollars of unsold items but the more important figure is how much it actually cost the companies to produce the items, that is the amount the companies are losing.
This is cheap luxury for the masses.... luxury used to be for the rich to be awed and therefore the quality was also different. I am glad they are no longer allowed to generate waste unnecessarily and throw money into people's faces.
The items that get tossed out are the ones people bought and returned, since they can't confirmed it hasn't been tampered with they can't put it back in the shelf because that's a potencial lawsuit, that's also why they can't donade. Because of dumpster divers getting these things and reselling online the started to destroy, in case someone did tampered, because the person that bought would go back and sue the company that produced them. It all comes down to thinking before buying, get only what you need, and avoid returning for frivolous reasons.
I understand corporate greed + wanting to make as many as possible to sell as many possible, but would brands not be able to charge higher prices if they made items more exclusive/unavailable? Everyone has the same bags these days. I’d rather hunt for a particular bag across multiple boutiques, instead of buying it immediately and seeing everyone else wearing it! 😭
I worked in a fancy bakery at Selfridges foodhall as a student. At the end of the shift you could eat what you wanted there and then but you couldn't take anything home. I had a house full of hungry student friends at home but they never got anything, it all went in the bin!
It is absolutely appalling that Companies do this. Especially a store like TJ Max when that merchandise would be so greatly appreciated at a Women and Children’s shelter. Sometimes that new bag or new dress or new pair of shoes for a single mother who is trying to get a new job in a new town, is just what she needs to make a better life for her and her children. What about Graduates who can’t afford new suits or dresses and shoes for their high school graduation? There are so many other ways for those unwanted items to be appreciated by someone who doesn’t have the means to purchase them? Just my thoughts.
I have never and would never buy a luxury item from tj maxx. A lot of retail stores cut and destroy things and toss them. Bath and body, ulta, Sephora, etc… it’s very common and never made sense to me. That’s the reason why we as consumers are charged so much. Well and theft and organized crime which has skyrocketed since covid.
This is a fantastic CONVO point. IVE been in supplychain, manufacturing, sourcing, purchasing and development for some major brands gobally and would love to talk to you about this a bit more. They are right. Also tkmaxx is the parent tjmax is USA arm. IVE worked with them. Chanel has or used to have an outlet in new York Woodbury. My solution would be to donate the goods to a charity shop in Chelsea, Kensington, primrose hill, Camden, Hampstead ETC where there are loads of designergoods and write that off as a charity donation.
Well, I believe this will separate real luxury brands, from high end fast fashion brands that are pretending to be luxury now. Have a waiting list, have a catalogue were the customer can order what they want, or even have one of each size in the store, were the customer can try it out and then order the one they want to be delivery at home. Maybe have some hot new itens at the big stores, but the very minimum. This will lower the amount of back storage accumulated, and in the end do an online charity auction invite online, use the money to deduct taxes and do some PR at the same time.
I used to work in a retail store, when things got discounted so low we had to trash it. They told us to destroy so that people wouldn't go dumpster diving and potentially hurt themselves in the process.
In Hong Kong, there are stores dedicated to resell designer clothes cheaply. These are supposed to be sold as scrap but usually, the labels are defaced or altered.
There are many LV monogram canvas designs that don’t sell. There are thousands of stores with unsold inventory. Even if they were sold via outlets at discounted prices, the customer base would grow. By the way, LV employee purchases get hot stamped, with a V inside a circle, so that you can’t easily re-sell. This ‘damaging’ of employee purchase is appalling. The process is part of the RTV system (return to vendor) when unsold in the store. Many US stores have hundreds of bags in the back that sit there for years.
No Federal law in the United States however, State level initiatives: Several states, particularly California, are leading the way with laws that mandate companies to take back and recycle used products, including clothing Here’s the kicker, I asked a reputable source on LinkedIn, who said there are no committees for oversight on this issue. Just the laws.! nobody’s coming to help!
Omg thanks for the heads up about eBay! There’s a difference between social class and luxury. Anything made well that stands the test of time and use is luxury to me. Social class is for self centered people to actually think they are better than others and deserve more. Ironically many of these people are worse in heart than the poorest person. Wish we lived in a world where class didn’t matter and we can all have quality of life.
Sophie when you mentioned staff selling goods - I know plenty of workers for one of favourite brands who you’d never think can be selling off the fake goods they confiscate after failed authentication as real as they are usually triple A fakes. And not just shop assistants but also people working in HQ. That’s crazy to me… and there were some instances of this directly in the shops as well. So you genuinely never know - not even from a shop.
So true. And I'm gonna be as vague as possible but in the north American equivalent of tjmax, customer returns that are in not so mint condition, and this can be as little as a malfunctioning zipper is binned. I asked my friend why it couldn't just be donated or sold to staff and he said he didn't know. Shoes that have little scuffs or clothes with a rip (that's fixable) are literally written off and binned. Donate this, please.
Could some of these items not be donated to charities such as Smart Works who provide interview clothes for women who need confidence building to get back into work? surely TKmax etc could get into partnership with them rather than trashing perfectly good clothes.
An idea... how about putting the overproduced items up on auction with "all" the proceeds going to charities, purchasers as well as businesses get a receipt for their taxes. The items should be stamped so that the public can easily identify items with a charitable movement. 🤔
I’m not sure what you mean by this. I’m not sure any luxury brand would willingly give their products to a cohort they wouldn’t want owning their product - for free, at that. Luxury brands want to create a sense of exclusivity. I get the sentiment, but commercially this doesn’t make sense.
I know these companies want exclusivity and to avoid tarnishing their brand, etc. However, it would be better if they produced a little less and put all their unsold merchandise in one outlet center somewhere. It could be Europe, Asia, N America, S America, or wherever. If they wish to limit it further, they could do a twice a year clearance for a week each time. Whatever doesn't sell will be kept until the next clearance date. I think it's a sin to destroy perfectly good leather items since an animal died because of it. They NEED better solutions.
A solution to the problem could be a business model where companies would be allowed to buy up unused stock then rent it out. It would eventually start to bring back the money spent on them and this way a lot of people could have their 'fix' for a different outfit as often as they please.
In the US, eBay doesn't authenticate bags until after the sale and only when sold for over a certain amount. Otherwise, there is no authentication from eBay on any item.
In my opinion a made-to-order model could be a solution. Keeps the exclusivity intact and no excess production. Of course that would be more expensive than mass production and maybe sales drop if products aren’t readily available to take home, but still that’s a model I would support.
I'm a day dreamer of luxury items as I've been poor my entire life. I know fashion and I love it, but I always buy the close enough resembles at Macy's and TjMaxx. When I first had heard about luxury's wasteful practices of unsold inventory it was a stab in my heart. I'd go into the fire to save a piece of anything to own. LOL But the TJMAXX scam is NOT excusable! They literally can sell 💩here in NY and ppl buy it! There's sooooo many affordable options to sell those products instead of slashing it up to avoid anybody being able to have them, that's disgusting!!!!
That bit about destroying in the store? Makeup shops do this as well. Worked at Ulta for 3 years as a stock associate. Field destroy was a dedicated day a month...
I wonder if Marshall’s now donates unsold stuff to Goodwill because I recently saw a bunch of sweaters and other items in new condition with tags still on. I know in the past when stores did not require a receipt for returns, people were taking items from the dumpsters and returning them for cash refunds! So some stores starting slashing up the items before putting them in the trash. Donating to thrift stores seems like a better option.
This is actually good news. They need to stop burning their overstock and consider a way that is more sustainable. Go the way of Rolex I guess… I heard they never keep stock in any of their stores and everything you see in a store are just the display products. I still like LV but seriously they’re so wasteful. Except for my first bag, I have been primarily buying secondhand nowadays.
All brands of everything have employee discounts. It's a normal perk. We make headphones, and I have 50% discount. LEGO has the same for lego. It also prevents people from being tempted to steal or anything like that. Besides... it's the stuff you work on.
I saw myself victorias secret pink destroying their clothes in front of the customers by the way. What can I say, the world has gone crazy in every direction.
I can’t help but think that brands are missing a serious market of second hand retail of where they could sell their old stock. They can control its ‘second hand’ or outlet price and make sure its something that they will never being back in store . That is instead of just flat out destroying it which make them lose money irrevocably….
The idea of TJ Maxx destroying goods is awful. Yeah, and horrible that it is meant to go straight to landfill. I'm glad there are people out there who choose to dumpster dive and make a little video about it. They often save so much intact stuff that would otherwise be in the landfill. Yes they resell it, but it was thrown out so fair game. Loads of candles, makeup skincare, perfume, just...stuff. If there is a market for that, well then have at it. They are still helping to lessen waste.
After coverage of Sudan and Gaza, I have no interest in luxury. I can't look at it. I was turned off lux by all the recent revelations amidst crazy price hikes too
I'm seeing more goods from the last 2 years appearing in 24s. I think its a good thing as opposed to destroying them. The luxury brands have only themselves to blame for increasing prices astronomically and have priced out the middle-high income earners. So now they have more unsold goods out there as those consumers have turned to more affordable brands. Hermes has sales for their vip customers, LV should do something like that too. And I don't begrudge lv SAs buying items at a staff discount then reselling, I look on it as a work perk.
How about gifting them to people who will volunteer in education and elderly care?? Or other community services that are needed? It might be a good incentive to drive up numbers of volunteers.
Thei probably most useful bag is not even that good. I was considering for a while to get the never full in a coated canvas, becaue people says it can be used for a long time, like years and years and years and years, but than I found out it doesn't have a zipper. So they sell people a shopper bag with giant logos without even a zipper. It is like a shout out to people of "Hey, rob me!"
Why don’t they just make things when we order. I mean if you are paying 5k for a bag I guess they can make it for you, crazy idea they can even personalise it!! I would wait 1 month or even longer to get my bag… so I have no idea how it makes sense to destroy their inventory
That is probably 3 billion as the retail cost. The real cost based on material is probable closer to 3 million which translates to pennies to the average consumer.
Do you think that a rental market would help save unsold luxury goods? Rented through the company I mean. I know that some people like renting bags and wallets and things. It would recover the price and people can use the items. The items can be sold for minor discounts due to 'slight wear and tear.'
I think brands will find ways around this by maybe ‘shipping orders’ to other counties where it is still legal and then following the same procedures they always have. They will find ways around it the huge brands will never discount etc
I went in the LV store the other day and was shocked how poor the quality of their purses. The prices were sky high and the attention to detail was way down. I'd rather buy vintage. As for the destruction, what a waste of resources and so not "green". Watch them move their burn events to the US or some other country that hasn't passed such laws.
i'd never buy luxury on ebay because fakes are so abundant there. Ebay dont seem to care and now u have confirmed that ebay can't tell the difference... omg
If the true cost of these bags are $50 like in the Dior scandal then it surely makes sense for them to burn inventory instead of discounting. Ugh so terrible
It’s so weird how luxury has become less appealing to me since the Balenciaga scandal and Dior sweatshop story. I find myself caring less about the next handbag or apparel because I question the ethics of the brands. It’s not as fun anymore.
Same here.
They will move factories to non-EU districts and only send more limited supplies got the shops with the no burn law.
Sephora and Ulta break makeup palettes and bottles of brand new merch before putting it in the trash.
Same
I LOVE the Balenciaga bag with the straps but there is absolutely no way I‘m gonna buy it. And I‘m really angry at Balenciaga for ruining it for me. Who wants to be associated with this company?
I think it’s because brands make too many collections, if they had the tradional 2 or 4 collections a year this wouldn’t happen
Luxury and exclusivity are two different things. Luxury is quality and beauty, exclusivity is limited accessible or rarity.
that’s why you get a kelly but in ostrich. That’s how you tell the New Yorker from the Parisian. Or how you used to be able to… americans take your voice back!
Do you find it too wide/big and bulky? I’ve just bought the*jklux* which is basically the same width and my only worry is it bumping into things and wear on the corners, has yours scuffed?
My choice was, is and will always be *suluxy* 💋💋💋, these guys are awesome. period.
those reps are terrible, I would recommend you *suluxy*
I remember 20 yrs ago when designer bags didn’t sell they would actually go on sale at Neiman’s for a sizable discount. And then people would buy them and they wouldn’t go to waste. Or if they still didn’t sell, they would end up at a Neiman’s outlet. That’s the way the whole thing is supposed to work before this ridiculous level of snobbery took luxury in a chokehold and strangled the life and quality out of it. People still bought the luxury bags because you never knew which ones were going to sell and which ones were going to go on sale. Obv if you really liked the bag a lot, you weren’t going to chance it. “Luxury” just got way too weird and slightly evil in the last 10 yrs.
As much as I get older my understanding of luxury changed. I am not interested in the brand names anymore. Greed and snobbery of some luxury brands made it easier for me to look elsewhere. Also, I am tired of seeing same things or ridiculous styles over and over again. I am more in to quality and practicality of things now. Good material and workmanship is a must. I really enjoyed your video. Very informative. You are lovely as always.
Yes this! 👏🏼👏🏼🙌🏼
Talking about eBay fakes, I tried to sell a brand new LV bandeau...it came with everything! Including the receipt ☺ I bought it myself from the LV boutique in Edinburgh just a few months prior to trying to sell it. I listed it on eBay but it was taken down a couple of days later for breaching their 'counterfeit items' policy 😂😂😂 unbelievable!
I'm not gonna lie to you, I've ordered an authentic LV and a Chanel the past year that feels fake
That happened to me as well! Looking back glad I didn’t sell it back then.
My choice was, is and will always be *suluxy* 💋💋💋, these guys are awesome. period.
It happened to me as well with LV bag. I had a receipt as well. Why would they do that?
@@suzettelawes2104 Absolutely no idea :)
Maybe a solution is to send the surplus goods directly to consignment shops like fashionphile and realreal, then they can sell it at a discount and can prevent selling fakes because the items are coming directly from the house
I agree. That’s an excellent idea. It would need to be done privately and without any publicity in order to maintain the brand’s exclusivity but it would solve a problem and the brand would make some percentage of the stock value.
The sad thing is! It’s not even just these stores selling “stuff,” although the impact is worse because of the landfills. But it also happens in food and restaurant/dining industry, where instead of donating excess that they can’t sell, they just throw it away. Other less fortunate people could use these things and food they’re throwing away. It drives me mad too! Thanks for talking about this topic though. The amount of waste is atrocious
As someone else mentioned in a comment, it also applies to leather products: An animal died for that :-(
As you know
There is NO craftsmanship anymore !!
It's Chinese sweatshops making the products for Pennies.
And the brand marking the hood at over 1000% per cent !!
GREED
They probably will send it to another country and still trash it 😮
I thought the exact same thing.
I think we are all witnessing brand-a-geddon ))) And I'm here for it. Their arrogance has crossed every limit.
I used to work at a fast fashion company whose procedure for unsold items was to de-brand them (by removing the tag) and donate them to charity.
I think people's obsession with exclusivity is part of the problem...we need to redefine what luxury and exclusivity mean.
True! I think luxury is about quality, service and creativity and exclusivity is more about snobbery.
Until that happens, we can only change our own attitude and bahviour. And maybe be an example to others but that's me being overly optimistic.
@@teresa46975I’m here for the snobbery 👒🎩🤣👏🏽
Regardless of how it’s defined, as long as those are the people objectives, it will continue to be a problem.
In the US grocery store chains have been known to pour chemicals in dumpsters full of edible food so they claim it as a damaged and get a a tax or insurance benefit instead of donating it. It’s a gross issue created by greed and having to constantly have profits go up up up for stock holders.
What grocery stores are these!!??😮
@ all large chains do it. I can add links in a comment but there are lots of articles online
I wonder how much of it is CYA. America is so litigious that I could see a donation being sent to a local charity, a few people get sick, then the grocery store gets sued for donating spoiled food.
We realise there is a huge mark up on designer items, but surely this just shows how little it costs them to make versus what they sell it for if it's cheaper to mass produce than lose sales. As if the Dior scandal hadn't already shown us.
I love fashion and design, but I think we may be being taken for fools at this point.
I'm excited to see possible discounts from this.
There used to be a Chanel outlet in Woodberry Commons in Rockland county about two hours outside of New York City many years ago, and I still have perfectly beautiful stuff from there, and it never seemed to impact their retail exclusivity.
Social media and globalization have changed all that.
Long ago I remember bookstores tearing off the cover of paperbacks before trashing them-- and clothes patterns would have their envelopes removed before the same-- but the items without envelopes or covers would eventually sometimes find themselves into the market somehow.
Thank you for highlighting this issue Sophie. I don't have an answer to the problem other than to ban the practice as France has done. Would a blanket ban work worldwide? How would it be policed? Whatever, we must try to stop this reprehensible practice.
Why wouldn’t TJ Max donate those items to a women’s abuse shelter!? Then they could use it as a tax write off and be an enourmous help to women in need.
Because those are returned items, since they can't confirmed it hasn't been tampered with they can't put it back in the shelf or donade, because if something happens, that's a potencial. Laws need to change in order to incentivi this kind of donations.
I'm so happy that you started talking about these topics as well, not just "oh, look at my new Chanel bag!" There's nothing wrong with that, it's money you earned, you do whatever you want with it, right? But talking about these problems within the fashion industry makes you more of a common folk. Good job!
PS: better to show off your [brand] bag than 1,000 cheap shein/temu bags and hell knows what else.
I think luxury brands think they make more money via overproduction because the goods don't actually cost that much to make in the first place. The Dior book tote scandal was just a peek into the excessively high profit margins of these companies.
And why the quality of so many designer products has gone down these days. Increasingly poorly made items are being sold by so called luxury companies. Also, unfortunately, so many luxury brands are not as independent as they once were, they have been bought by large corporations. A perfect example…LVMH to start, and there are others.
Don't produce too many. We don't need so many handbags and clothes
I think it makes sense for them to order in bulk from manufactorers.
HEY *xbagy* !! I have been watching you for years and im so proud of where you have made it! I love you so much! Also thanks for making my day.
Hi I am from Sweden, you will fund articles about 10 years ago where Lidl the supermarket got in trouble because they started to put rat poison on their food to stop poor families from dumpster diving. I used to dumpster dive 15 years ago as a poor teenager. I would get dried fruit and nuts that still had like one or two months left on its expiration date. I would get bread and cake with like 3 days left on it. Salad and meat. I also got shampoo and stuff most of it was not expired. Sometimes the packet was just wrinkly. At least in the UK there is a sale ile for stuff that is soon going out of date but the stores don't want to do that in Sweden cause they loose more money on discounting it or giving it to their employees. Its discusting
Great discussion thanks for sharing. Hopefully things get more on the up and up. Sad to see this is happening 😢.
I heard that the items they would burn would be a tax write off and due to that burning them was more cost effective than selling them on sale. Hopefully this will encourage luxury companies will make less items of better quality and need to destroy less. I believe luxury is better quality products, made in part by hand by artisans, original designs, colours, materials, built to last for years, with or without a logo. Sadly this is not todays luxury, sometimes I think a lot of luxury brands don’t care about where they came from and only care about money and clout.
yes, can you imagine them going to a made to order model. That would be way better
Not sure about other countries, but in the US, businesses and corporations receive tax breaks from claiming a loss, which is often more lucrative than selling for a deep discount. I suspect this is part of the reason for destroying and throwing away product rather than selling it. I own a couple of retail stores and there are times when you just simply cannot sell items. We DO NOT throw them away, however, but donate them to people in our community in need, and I still receive a tax break which is a win/win, as far as I'm concerned. I don't sell luxury goods, however, and I'm guessing LVMH and others wouldn't want their products to end up going to charity or thrift stores, as it would, unfortunately, devalue the items.
When I worked in a mall for many of years, Hallmark was the worst offender of this. They would throw dumpsters away every month of unsolved products.
Hallmark or Primark?
FYI Chanel used to have an outlet in upstate NY - Woodbury Commons in the 1990’s
The Dior bag (that looks like the chanel boy bag) was known as like the cheap bag a few years ago in Paris. They sell it for like 200 quid at the LVMH sales. Basically everyone knows if you have that bag, you got it at the sale. You also get 40% off. This is in house. Not retail.
Coach did this and they went under FIRE for it. Now, they have a line called coachtopia and that line is made of bags that didn't sell.
I noticed that on their website they are offering preloved coach bags. It’s such a great idea.
Very good video Sophie, highly relevant for understanding the big picture of the society.
you’re literally my comfort person i love you *xbagy* ’s bags!
I was walking in a parking lot outside an Panera Bread and saw a bin full of plastic wrapped bread rolls that seemed perfectly fine. They could have gone to a homeless shelter or something…
That's how supermarkets in Sweden do nowadays.
I, for one, am glad that they are chucking their "bread (rolls)" away. Panera bread is one of the most toxic foods to eat- it's always up the top of the pesticide residue (glyphosate) charts! Just because people are poor does not mean they have to eat poison.
@lindasvenssonsmith4794 it's the same in Denmark.
Hello Sophie! I used to work for an Inditex brand a few years ago, and as employees we were obliged to break something defective or had a small error per say, on a daily basis there were A LOT of items going into the trash just because the brand wanted to. Even though designer brands are doing it, unfortunately, that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Employees in LV are not allowed to resell bags but technically it is not possible to trace it
That Billion dollar valuation is not the cost of production, as we saw with the Dior video. The companies still have millions of dollars of unsold items but the more important figure is how much it actually cost the companies to produce the items, that is the amount the companies are losing.
This is cheap luxury for the masses.... luxury used to be for the rich to be awed and therefore the quality was also different. I am glad they are no longer allowed to generate waste unnecessarily and throw money into people's faces.
And then middle or working class people would get patterns based off the Paris styles and sew their versions at home. It was a good system.
The items that get tossed out are the ones people bought and returned, since they can't confirmed it hasn't been tampered with they can't put it back in the shelf because that's a potencial lawsuit, that's also why they can't donade. Because of dumpster divers getting these things and reselling online the started to destroy, in case someone did tampered, because the person that bought would go back and sue the company that produced them. It all comes down to thinking before buying, get only what you need, and avoid returning for frivolous reasons.
I agree with you 💯 girl. I know Ulta does this too. They pour liquid all over the makeup and chuck it.
Sophie, when I worked for Chanel I used to go to their Warehouse in Croydon and could buy at a big staff discount.
I understand corporate greed + wanting to make as many as possible to sell as many possible, but would brands not be able to charge higher prices if they made items more exclusive/unavailable? Everyone has the same bags these days. I’d rather hunt for a particular bag across multiple boutiques, instead of buying it immediately and seeing everyone else wearing it! 😭
I worked in a fancy bakery at Selfridges foodhall as a student. At the end of the shift you could eat what you wanted there and then but you couldn't take anything home. I had a house full of hungry student friends at home but they never got anything, it all went in the bin!
It is absolutely appalling that Companies do this. Especially a store like TJ Max when that merchandise would be so greatly appreciated at a Women and Children’s shelter. Sometimes that new bag or new dress or new pair of shoes for a single mother who is trying to get a new job in a new town, is just what she needs to make a better life for her and her children. What about Graduates who can’t afford new suits or dresses and shoes for their high school graduation? There are so many other ways for those unwanted items to be appreciated by someone who doesn’t have the means to purchase them? Just my thoughts.
Fantastic news!! ❤❤❤
Thank you for the Coachtopia tip. Reasonable prices. Not much is my cup of tea but there are some cute items.
I have never and would never buy a luxury item from tj maxx.
A lot of retail stores cut and destroy things and toss them. Bath and body, ulta, Sephora, etc… it’s very common and never made sense to me. That’s the reason why we as consumers are charged so much. Well and theft and organized crime which has skyrocketed since covid.
A person I knew worked in place in Holland where they were shredding( destroying) luxury brand clothes, bags etc
I used to love Lady Dior bags ( I still do) it’s really sad and appalling what Dior has done by charging insane prices with low production cost items
They could collaborate with an indie brand and have limited edition patterns/ designs sewn in that would sell the excess without throwing them away
This is a fantastic CONVO point. IVE been in supplychain, manufacturing, sourcing, purchasing and development for some major brands gobally and would love to talk to you about this a bit more. They are right. Also tkmaxx is the parent tjmax is USA arm. IVE worked with them. Chanel has or used to have an outlet in new York Woodbury. My solution would be to donate the goods to a charity shop in Chelsea, Kensington, primrose hill, Camden, Hampstead ETC where there are loads of designergoods and write that off as a charity donation.
Thank you for this so interesting and important video 🙏☺️💕
Well, I believe this will separate real luxury brands, from high end fast fashion brands that are pretending to be luxury now. Have a waiting list, have a catalogue were the customer can order what they want, or even have one of each size in the store, were the customer can try it out and then order the one they want to be delivery at home. Maybe have some hot new itens at the big stores, but the very minimum. This will lower the amount of back storage accumulated, and in the end do an online charity auction invite online, use the money to deduct taxes and do some PR at the same time.
I used to work in a retail store, when things got discounted so low we had to trash it. They told us to destroy so that people wouldn't go dumpster diving and potentially hurt themselves in the process.
In Hong Kong, there are stores dedicated to resell designer clothes cheaply. These are supposed to be sold as scrap but usually, the labels are defaced or altered.
I think companies get some kind of financial relief when the items are damaged-out & that encourages them
I think they get reimbursed for the cost of goods.
There are many LV monogram canvas designs that don’t sell. There are thousands of stores with unsold inventory. Even if they were sold via outlets at discounted prices, the customer base would grow. By the way, LV employee purchases get hot stamped, with a V inside a circle, so that you can’t easily re-sell. This ‘damaging’ of employee purchase is appalling. The process is part of the RTV system (return to vendor) when unsold in the store. Many US stores have hundreds of bags in the back that sit there for years.
No Federal law in the United States however, State level initiatives:
Several states, particularly California, are leading the way with laws that mandate companies to take back and recycle used products, including clothing
Here’s the kicker, I asked a reputable source on LinkedIn, who said there are no committees for oversight on this issue. Just the laws.! nobody’s coming to help!
Omg thanks for the heads up about eBay! There’s a difference between social class and luxury. Anything made well that stands the test of time and use is luxury to me. Social class is for self centered people to actually think they are better than others and deserve more. Ironically many of these people are worse in heart than the poorest person. Wish we lived in a world where class didn’t matter and we can all have quality of life.
They make X numbers of a bag and charge thousands but they don't sell. Maybe they are charging too much? Or make too much?
Sophie when you mentioned staff selling goods - I know plenty of workers for one of favourite brands who you’d never think can be selling off the fake goods they confiscate after failed authentication as real as they are usually triple A fakes. And not just shop assistants but also people working in HQ. That’s crazy to me… and there were some instances of this directly in the shops as well. So you genuinely never know - not even from a shop.
So true. And I'm gonna be as vague as possible but in the north American equivalent of tjmax, customer returns that are in not so mint condition, and this can be as little as a malfunctioning zipper is binned. I asked my friend why it couldn't just be donated or sold to staff and he said he didn't know. Shoes that have little scuffs or clothes with a rip (that's fixable) are literally written off and binned. Donate this, please.
Could some of these items not be donated to charities such as Smart Works who provide interview clothes for women who need confidence building to get back into work? surely TKmax etc could get into partnership with them rather than trashing perfectly good clothes.
That would be great. But they are too mean and stingy. Honestly brands have zero character.
@ Sadly you’re not wrong but we still need to raise our voices.
Great insights and informative ❤😊
An idea... how about putting the overproduced items up on auction with "all" the proceeds going to charities, purchasers as well as businesses get a receipt for their taxes. The items should be stamped so that the public can easily identify items with a charitable movement. 🤔
Homeless women's shelters could have used a lot of these things and the stores can just count it as a charitable contribution
I’m not sure what you mean by this. I’m not sure any luxury brand would willingly give their products to a cohort they wouldn’t want owning their product - for free, at that.
Luxury brands want to create a sense of exclusivity.
I get the sentiment, but commercially this doesn’t make sense.
@niewieder99 I meant the TJ Maxx stuff not high end luxury
I know these companies want exclusivity and to avoid tarnishing their brand, etc. However, it would be better if they produced a little less and put all their unsold merchandise in one outlet center somewhere. It could be Europe, Asia, N America, S America, or wherever. If they wish to limit it further, they could do a twice a year clearance for a week each time. Whatever doesn't sell will be kept until the next clearance date. I think it's a sin to destroy perfectly good leather items since an animal died because of it. They NEED better solutions.
Coach used to slash unsold bags. However, after it went viral on TikTok back in 2021, they announced that they would stop doing it.
I don’t miss a day a week *yutulu*This show..😂😂😂😂
A solution to the problem could be a business model where companies would be allowed to buy up unused stock then rent it out. It would eventually start to bring back the money spent on them and this way a lot of people could have their 'fix' for a different outfit as often as they please.
buying vintage, buying from small mom-and-pop brands are solutions consumers should consider
In the US, eBay doesn't authenticate bags until after the sale and only when sold for over a certain amount. Otherwise, there is no authentication from eBay on any item.
In my opinion a made-to-order model could be a solution. Keeps the exclusivity intact and no excess production.
Of course that would be more expensive than mass production and maybe sales drop if products aren’t readily available to take home, but still that’s a model I would support.
I'm a day dreamer of luxury items as I've been poor my entire life. I know fashion and I love it, but I always buy the close enough resembles at Macy's and TjMaxx. When I first had heard about luxury's wasteful practices of unsold inventory it was a stab in my heart. I'd go into the fire to save a piece of anything to own. LOL But the TJMAXX scam is NOT excusable! They literally can sell 💩here in NY and ppl buy it! There's sooooo many affordable options to sell those products instead of slashing it up to avoid anybody being able to have them, that's disgusting!!!!
That bit about destroying in the store? Makeup shops do this as well. Worked at Ulta for 3 years as a stock associate. Field destroy was a dedicated day a month...
Sorry didn't finish my thought. US tax code incentivizes this. Barnes & Noble do it with books as well. It's fucked.
I wonder if Marshall’s now donates unsold stuff to Goodwill because I recently saw a bunch of sweaters and other items in new condition with tags still on. I know in the past when stores did not require a receipt for returns, people were taking items from the dumpsters and returning them for cash refunds! So some stores starting slashing up the items before putting them in the trash. Donating to thrift stores seems like a better option.
Shocking isn't it the destruction of good items 😢😢😢
Is it my phone or have the last few videos been blurry on and off throughout? It’s a shame as I love the videos!
This is actually good news. They need to stop burning their overstock and consider a way that is more sustainable.
Go the way of Rolex I guess… I heard they never keep stock in any of their stores and everything you see in a store are just the display products.
I still like LV but seriously they’re so wasteful.
Except for my first bag, I have been primarily buying secondhand nowadays.
All brands of everything have employee discounts. It's a normal perk. We make headphones, and I have 50% discount. LEGO has the same for lego. It also prevents people from being tempted to steal or anything like that. Besides... it's the stuff you work on.
You could also donate excess stock to healthcare workers, teachers, terminally ill etc
Anyone knows where I can find a dupe of Sophie’s blazer? I have been looking around for years!!! It suits you so well Sophie. ❤
I don’t miss a day a week *xbagy* This show.
I saw myself victorias secret pink destroying their clothes in front of the customers by the way. What can I say, the world has gone crazy in every direction.
I can’t help but think that brands are missing a serious market of second hand retail of where they could sell their old stock. They can control its ‘second hand’ or outlet price and make sure its something that they will never being back in store . That is instead of just flat out destroying it which make them lose money irrevocably….
The idea of TJ Maxx destroying goods is awful. Yeah, and horrible that it is meant to go straight to landfill. I'm glad there are people out there who choose to dumpster dive and make a little video about it. They often save so much intact stuff that would otherwise be in the landfill. Yes they resell it, but it was thrown out so fair game. Loads of candles, makeup skincare, perfume, just...stuff. If there is a market for that, well then have at it. They are still helping to lessen waste.
After coverage of Sudan and Gaza, I have no interest in luxury. I can't look at it. I was turned off lux by all the recent revelations amidst crazy price hikes too
Wow is this true? How will they deal with their unsold stocks?
I'm seeing more goods from the last 2 years appearing in 24s. I think its a good thing as opposed to destroying them. The luxury brands have only themselves to blame for increasing prices astronomically and have priced out the middle-high income earners. So now they have more unsold goods out there as those consumers have turned to more affordable brands.
Hermes has sales for their vip customers, LV should do something like that too. And I don't begrudge lv SAs buying items at a staff discount then reselling, I look on it as a work perk.
Most of the stuff isn't for Western markets and hasnt been for a very long time, but China, Middle East (UAE), etc
How about gifting them to people who will volunteer in education and elderly care?? Or other community services that are needed? It might be a good incentive to drive up numbers of volunteers.
Hi Sophie !!!!! first? Thought provoking subject...Hugsxx
When you go on LV's sit there are just too many bags, there is no way all of that is selling when you have that much to choose from.
Thei probably most useful bag is not even that good. I was considering for a while to get the never full in a coated canvas, becaue people says it can be used for a long time, like years and years and years and years, but than I found out it doesn't have a zipper.
So they sell people a shopper bag with giant logos without even a zipper. It is like a shout out to people of "Hey, rob me!"
And this is luxury goods. I don't even want to know how much unsold cheap high street clothes and accessories get thrown away every few weeks.
Why don’t they just make things when we order. I mean if you are paying 5k for a bag I guess they can make it for you, crazy idea they can even personalise it!! I would wait 1 month or even longer to get my bag… so I have no idea how it makes sense to destroy their inventory
That is probably 3 billion as the retail cost. The real cost based on material is probable closer to 3 million which translates to pennies to the average consumer.
Do you think that a rental market would help save unsold luxury goods? Rented through the company I mean. I know that some people like renting bags and wallets and things. It would recover the price and people can use the items. The items can be sold for minor discounts due to 'slight wear and tear.'
I think brands will find ways around this by maybe ‘shipping orders’ to other counties where it is still legal and then following the same procedures they always have. They will find ways around it the huge brands will never discount etc
I went in the LV store the other day and was shocked how poor the quality of their purses. The prices were sky high and the attention to detail was way down. I'd rather buy vintage. As for the destruction, what a waste of resources and so not "green". Watch them move their burn events to the US or some other country that hasn't passed such laws.
i'd never buy luxury on ebay because fakes are so abundant there. Ebay dont seem to care and now u have confirmed that ebay can't tell the difference... omg
If the true cost of these bags are $50 like in the Dior scandal then it surely makes sense for them to burn inventory instead of discounting. Ugh so terrible