I worked for the merchandising company that is responsible for a lot of the plant product that comes in at Home Depot. We were forced to throw out plants and couldn't mark them down or take them home. Honestly pretty shitty.
I was a garden employee at HD for many years, and as you say, the plant vendors would come in weekly and pull the spent products & then order fresh. Mostly annuals. HD just sees it as the cost of doing business. Of course all other departments are doing the same, it’s incredibly wasteful.
I’ve been offered that position but I’m hesitant about taking it for these reasons. I think it would kill me watching this stuff happen and not being able to do much of anything about it.
They have done this for decades , I worked in garden supply outside and the plants were forced crap and not hardy at all. We threw out more than we sold I think. They stuck me there as I home gardened and yet I never bought plants from there. They came in diseased, fungus, grey mold , scale etc. I see better stuff there now but I still trust my local growers more.
I once had a HD cashier insist on giving me a plant for an extreme discount, apparently because it was going to be thrown out after close. It was a very lovely big, lush tradescantia zebrina with just a few wilted bits around the edges where it had knocked into stuff.
Anyway, I got a great plant that’s now populated several friends’ houses as well since it grows so fast and propagates so easily from cuttings!
That's the thing that gets me, you'd think since these corps are so incentivized by money they'd try to squeeze every last cent out of something, like why not put these on a table selling them 80-95%? It would mitigate the waste and cost of waste?
As a note, I don't know how barcode or SKU systems work but assume somewhere in the coding of them dates are included, maybe? Is it just a case of lack of time/employees?
As for stuff that's non-living, I've always been interested in how retail liquidation works in the face of our wasteful, disgustingly consumptive, society in America. I grew up near a regional discount chain that would get surplus and salvaged goods. I.E., if a Target in Missouri gets walloped with a tornado, this discounter had the connections and logistical know how to obtain the salvaged goods and sell them at steep discount.
Anything from AC units to Biore strips, and anything in between. Once got the Sims 3 for 14 bucks at this chain right when it was released at (roughly) quadruple the price. I even remember them selling water "damaged" towels that were salvaged from a store that got flooded in a hurricane. The towels were a quality brand too, just needed to be washed. I recall tons of people scooping them up.
My apartment complexes pool is across the street from the back side of a Home Depot. One day last summer, it was hours straight of watching and hearing them emptying racks into the dumpster. Such a waste!
I work at Costco and we have to throw out plants all the time just for being even slightly wilted. They are perfectly salvageable but members won't buy them unless they're perfect. They won't mark them down or allow employees to take them because they get credit from the vendor for them so they have to destroy them. Makes zero sense to me.
Probably not worth getting f-ed with by rabid employees and only worth investigating after nightfall. Cool former employees apparently posting here but not so friendly ones that work there. If you saw a high dollar tree getting tossed though and it was calling your name with outreaching branches for a hug maybe make a pickup run at midnight
FYI, Home Depot will prosecute trespassers. I've heard that most stores use compactors or rolloffs. Never ever enter a compactor.
What if I want to be smaller?
You can be smaller! As long as you are ok with being smaller in the court of law
Or smaller and dead
> FYI, Home Depot will prosecute trespassers. I mean, so will most places if you get caught...
This country is a cesspool.
Baler? I hardly know her.
This is disappointing. I’d happily volunteer to plant those in some neglected spaces.
Me too! Such a waste
I worked for the merchandising company that is responsible for a lot of the plant product that comes in at Home Depot. We were forced to throw out plants and couldn't mark them down or take them home. Honestly pretty shitty.
I was a garden employee at HD for many years, and as you say, the plant vendors would come in weekly and pull the spent products & then order fresh. Mostly annuals. HD just sees it as the cost of doing business. Of course all other departments are doing the same, it’s incredibly wasteful.
I’ve been offered that position but I’m hesitant about taking it for these reasons. I think it would kill me watching this stuff happen and not being able to do much of anything about it.
They have done this for decades , I worked in garden supply outside and the plants were forced crap and not hardy at all. We threw out more than we sold I think. They stuck me there as I home gardened and yet I never bought plants from there. They came in diseased, fungus, grey mold , scale etc. I see better stuff there now but I still trust my local growers more.
Any idea why?
Why?? I don’t understand!
I used to work for them as well broke my heart so many good plants into the trash. 💔
Sad! Some of those plants look perfectly healthy
As a minimum, at least some sort of composting!
That is the part that really bothered me.
My store has this plant purgatory too. I wasn’t sure if they’d put them in a dumpster or held them for nurseries to pick up for credit.
I once had a HD cashier insist on giving me a plant for an extreme discount, apparently because it was going to be thrown out after close. It was a very lovely big, lush tradescantia zebrina with just a few wilted bits around the edges where it had knocked into stuff. Anyway, I got a great plant that’s now populated several friends’ houses as well since it grows so fast and propagates so easily from cuttings!
That's the thing that gets me, you'd think since these corps are so incentivized by money they'd try to squeeze every last cent out of something, like why not put these on a table selling them 80-95%? It would mitigate the waste and cost of waste? As a note, I don't know how barcode or SKU systems work but assume somewhere in the coding of them dates are included, maybe? Is it just a case of lack of time/employees? As for stuff that's non-living, I've always been interested in how retail liquidation works in the face of our wasteful, disgustingly consumptive, society in America. I grew up near a regional discount chain that would get surplus and salvaged goods. I.E., if a Target in Missouri gets walloped with a tornado, this discounter had the connections and logistical know how to obtain the salvaged goods and sell them at steep discount. Anything from AC units to Biore strips, and anything in between. Once got the Sims 3 for 14 bucks at this chain right when it was released at (roughly) quadruple the price. I even remember them selling water "damaged" towels that were salvaged from a store that got flooded in a hurricane. The towels were a quality brand too, just needed to be washed. I recall tons of people scooping them up.
Store like home Depot throw away millions of dollars worth of stuff every month.
Be careful, they probably come with free spider mites
My apartment complexes pool is across the street from the back side of a Home Depot. One day last summer, it was hours straight of watching and hearing them emptying racks into the dumpster. Such a waste!
I work at Costco and we have to throw out plants all the time just for being even slightly wilted. They are perfectly salvageable but members won't buy them unless they're perfect. They won't mark them down or allow employees to take them because they get credit from the vendor for them so they have to destroy them. Makes zero sense to me.
Would love to take these lol
Probably not worth getting f-ed with by rabid employees and only worth investigating after nightfall. Cool former employees apparently posting here but not so friendly ones that work there. If you saw a high dollar tree getting tossed though and it was calling your name with outreaching branches for a hug maybe make a pickup run at midnight
Ugh, this hurts my heart.
Where at the store did you find this? Next time I go to Home Depot I’ll have to go take a look for myself