survey/ research wanted: how walmart disposes of bikes

[clerkkent]

Hi all,

I've been wondering what walmart does with the (assuming) scores of returned bikes they get a month that are either broken, defective , damged in shipping, customer changed mind, etc. At my local Walmart, I noticed that a few bikes have reappeared on the rack as 'refurbished' and they take 10% off the price (whoop.dee.doo.).. the sad thing is that they have numerous scratches or stains that exceed any 10% discount. I asked the toy supervisor what they do with the unsellable bikes; I was told they crush /cut/destroy them.
A neighbor lady works in the back of a Walmart in a different town, and was mentioning how surprised she was seeing that her Walmart will take back seemingly any bike back regardless how dirty/scratched /damaged they may be. So I asked her what happens to those returns.. she says they donate them.

So now I'm curious what other Walmart locations do.. is it manager discretion, or a corporate policy? The options I see are:

1) scrap/destroy
2) donate
3) sell at a discount
4) sell assorted parts at a severe discount to a local bike enthusiast who promises not to sell complete bikes to compete against Walmart sales.

(okay, option 4 is highly optimistic)


What does your Walmart do? Can you find out?

 

[Henry morgan]

i was told they return them... but then I have seen them in the dumpster... whole... I know a guy who is a walmart greeter
and he says its different at every store... some stores pay a guy to come in once a week to put bikes together..
while other stores just have what ever kid standing around do them... out of habbit i go look at the bikes on my way out

 

[largek9]

I've got a few for , like $50.00 for a $89.00 bike . The ones I got were like new but had been riden and returned . The Walmart in the next town marks them down for sale ( but they keep them outside in the Garden center Rusty)
then donates them at the end of each quarter to Sherrffs dept.

 

[Mastec]

I don't know about these days but back in the early 90's Walmart and Kmart used to send the bikes to the landfill. I used to work for a trash company and while at the landfill emptying my truck trash containers from Walmart and Kmart would show up. The trash being pushed out contained numerous bikes. Same went for returned computers and other items. The times those trucks showed up to dump their loads was like watching vultures around a dead carcass. Drivers that happened to be there, including landfill employees, were scavenging for anything they could grab before the tractors buried the pile.

 

[kngtmat]

For all I know they fix them then put them back out for a little less, you might not believe it but the guy at 1 of 3 Walmarts here who puts them together by the look on his face he didn't like finding one of his bikes with a backwards handlebar not fork on it then took it to the back.

 

[motopsyco]

Here they usually wind up on the clearance rack at about a 40% discount. I've bought a couple this way just to get the parts.
Your mileage may vary..

 

[dragnusa]

Seen some used as is bikes at my wal mart for 56, if I had the extra I would have picked up one of the cruisers that had orange rims for parts

 

[Toeslider]

Can't speak for Walmart, but when I was at Home Depot we regularly put things like entire lawn mowers in the compactor to dispose of them. Seems like a waste, but I was told it was a liability to try to sell them, not worth it to return to the manufacturer, and trying to have things go to an employee could bring about a discrimination lawsuit, so the easiest thing to do is just to crush them. I believe they do donate a lot of harmless returns or damaged goods (like an open bag of mulch) to Habitat for Humanity type organizations, but anything that could come back on them with a lawsuit, like a defective lawn mower or power tool, got a trip to the crusher. As a fix-it-myself type handyman that was tough to see, but I understand the business side of it too. I'm sure not all Walmarts can afford to have a trained person around all the time to check out defective or returned bikes to see if they are resale-worthy, so they probably just toss them too.

 

[ozzmonaut]

My friend was an assembler at walmart. Don't worry, he didn't do it right either. But he gave me a bucket of master links! He let me come back there one day. He said each store is different too, but there they trash the frames, wheels get hung on the wall, and some other components go into a row of small bins. He said if the bins start to get full they throw some of that stuff in the trash as well. But he also said that they rarely get returns on bikes that can't be fixed. If it is non-structural they fix it with something from the wall or the bin and mark it down and set it up front near the service desk at a marked down price.

 

[user 135]

The Walmarts in Boise started donating them to the local bike coop. Some bikes are okay to fix up- cruisers and kids bikes. The MTB's are parted for tires, grips, and seats.

 

[c.p.odom]

This takes me back to my corporate background. I will put this in general terms for what happens with warranty items between big vendors and re-sellers.
The returned item is charged back to the vendor, the re-seller takes no loss on this item. At that point the re-turned item is the property of the vendor. The returned item is not cost efficient to return and put back into the retail market. The vendor negotiates with the re-seller to dispose of the returned items as part of the charge back fee. Depending on the type of product they may be donated or sold for scrap, depends on if the tax write off is greater than the value of the scrap metal. Both ways of getting rid of the product involve the need for resources (employees, trucks, fuel, etc.) and that is the problem. It is just business.

 

[yoothgeye]

Around this area they use traveling assemblers to put the bikes together every once in a while in BIG numbers. Just saw the assembler at our Walmart in the past couple weeks and now we have a couple hundred bikes assembled under tarps in the garden center, too early for Christmas? Nope.

As for returns around here, no idea. My friend bought a Genesis 29er, he rode it some and then we converted it to a single speed, shortened the bars and rode it that way. Then Walmart got in the Mongoose 29er that was lighter and made better (all relative), so we put the gears, stock crank, cassette, shifters, and derailleurs back on the bike and he returned it without a receipt in exchange for the 'goose. I went to Walmart pretty often after that searching the bike racks for that 29er with the short bars... it never showed up. I'm guessing the compactor.

 

[user 135]

As for returns around here, no idea. My friend bought a Genesis 29er, he rode it some and then we converted it to a single speed,

We disassembled one of those at the bike coop. There are only 6 small bearings per side in the front wheel. There was plenty of room for 10.

 

[Rweir]

I work at the local scrap metal recycler. We have an account, which is 3rd party, that collects returns from major box stores (Walmart, Lowes, Home Depot... etc..) All this returned material usually ends up in a scrap metal container and runs through our shredder. Some of the items we see are bikes, mowers, fishing poles, camping equipment. I think the cost of shipping these returns greatly exceeds the tax write off the get when they scrap them. There used to be a time when we could buy the material from our company at scrap metal prices, but times have changed and so have our policies. One of my scale operators used to buy back bikes all the time and take them home. I am currently in negotiations with him to sell me a trike, a womens 3 speed, and possibly a schwinn tandem for what he paid for them in scrap prices. I am hoping if i keep nagging him long enough he will sell them to shut me up... LOL.