Re:Amazon pushes up prices across the Internet
by StilesCrisis on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @11:13PM
(#50098671)
Staples is now directly selling Amazon returns, essentially unsorted, in "win bins." It is SUPER strange and makes me wonder if they are on the verge of closing. They load the bins on a certain day of the week, and everything is priced the same ($15?). Each day the "bin price" goes down.
Re:Amazon pushes up prices across the Internet
by markdown on Thursday October 15, 2026 @03:19AM
(#50100373)
That model started in South America. They're called Bin Stores.
One day a week the bins fill up with returned/liquidated goods from Amazon, Target, etc etc. Everything in the bin is the same price and the price drops every day until they fill up again a week later.
Search "bin store" on youtube or tiktok and you should get a million videos about the craze.
Re:Amazon pushes up prices across the Internet
by StilesCrisis on Thursday October 15, 2026 @09:03AM
(#50103072)
That's exactly what I explained in my post, just Staples is now doing it; a formerly reputable office supply store has turned the center of the store into a flea market.
Re:Amazon pushes up prices across the Internet
by sleepyfoe22 on Thursday October 15, 2026 @06:06AM
(#50101527)
Staples worker here.
We're not closing. Amazon Returns are terrible for us.
We get absolutely nothing out of it. Our stores pay for everything; the boxes, tape, shipping, etc.
Nobody got a pay raise out of it either.
Re:Amazon pushes up prices across the Internet
by fatnoah on Thursday October 15, 2026 @07:35AM
(#50102223)
> We get absolutely nothing out of it.
Except from compulsive shoppers like me that can't walk into a Staples without buying $100 worth of stuff.
Re:Amazon pushes up prices across the Internet
by StilesCrisis on Thursday October 15, 2026 @09:05AM
(#50103097)
If the store is taking extreme measures like putting a flea market in the center of the store, and you're telling me that's still not profitable, what makes you think Staples is a healthy business? I'm super confused by your response.
Re:Amazon pushes up prices across the Internet
by steveBK123 on Thursday October 15, 2026 @07:58AM
(#50102419)
The “everything is a casino” economy in action
Re:Amazon pushes up prices across the Internet
by markdown on Thursday October 15, 2026 @03:11AM
(#50100316)
> Which of the returns can be sold as new, which can be sold as-is, and which can be repaired / refurbished. What if a unit is returned once again? Did the customer return counterfeit? How to detect bad-faith actors (which may be the seller)? Who is to blame for damages? What if the item requires special handling (household chemicals, batteries, etc.)? And how to safely dispose / liquidate inventory while being compliant to all the regulations?
They just sell it in bulk and leave it to regular folk to buy pallets or containers and sell the shit on WhatNot.
Taking returned items from customers is only the beginning of the process. The real difficulties show up after that. Which of the returns can be sold as new, which can be sold as-is, and which can be repaired / refurbished. What if a unit is returned once again? Did the customer return counterfeit? How to detect bad-faith actors (which may be the seller)? Who is to blame for damages? What if the item requires special handling (household chemicals, batteries, etc.)? And how to safely dispose / liquidate inventory while being compliant to all the regulations? And, imagine adding taxes, revenues, fees, on top of all that.
A lot of these questions are very labor-intense. It may be possible to automate some bits here and there, but the complexity is inherent to the problems.
It'd be really hard to imagine a random startup can handle returns half as well. Amazon's regulatory compliance team is probably many times larger than a random average startup. Here the economies of scale is really in favor of the big players.