[Azselendor]

I did web design work for a reverse logisitics company a while back, I was surprised at what happens to merchandise in stores.

For example, Returned merchandise in major stores like KMart, WalMart, etc rarely got back to the shelf, instead it gets palletized, wrapped, and sold of at below cost (typically 10-30%) to smaller companies that resell to outlet stores, flea market vendors, etc. Same applies to slow-selling merchandise and overstocks, expired foods, damaged merchandise and more.

The really interesting part is that companies that liquidate their old inventories this way don't try to recoop their lost investments, only the frieght cost it seems. The rest they write off at tax time.