トームさんのインスタグラム写真 - (トームInstagram)「#repost @theatlantic One in every four online purchases will be returned. During the holidays, that number is even higher. Amanda Mull visited a facility that sorts through all the goods American shoppers don’t want, to see what really happens to the things we return.⁠ ⁠ Most returns aren’t processed by the company from which the item was sold. There’s a system called reverse logistics, which is basically “the business of moving unwanted products back up the supply chains from whence they came, or into different supply chains entirely,” Mull writes. Inmar Intelligence, the company that owns the facility Mull visited, is the largest returns liquidator in North America. It processes items like clothing, home decor, and the masses of cardboard that packages each product.⁠ ⁠ “Of the brands that Inmar processes, those that sell their own products directly to the general public put more than 90 percent of their returns back into their inventory on average … Meanwhile, retailers that sell a bunch of different brands do so with less than half of their returns,” Mull writes. “In the best-case scenario, what can’t be sold again by its original retailer will be liquidated to wholesale buyers, eventually stocking discount stores or resale platforms domestically or small retailers in poorer countries. The stuff that doesn’t find a buyer will be donated, recycled, or destroyed. (‘Destroyed’ is the preferred industry euphemism for products that end up landfilled, incinerated, or otherwise trashed.)” ⁠ ⁠ Much of the returns process involves complex machinery and data analysis, but the millions of products the facility sifts through every year still must pass in front of human eyes. “All of this—the high return rates, the extra stock, the endless shipping, and the enormous numbers of workers sniffing and buttoning their way through careful decisions—doesn’t come cheap. That expense drives up the prices of consumer goods for everyone, no matter what your personal shopping and returns habits are,” Mull writes. Read the full story at the link in our bio. ⁠ ⁠ 📸: Jim Young / Bloomberg / Getty」12月14日 6時26分