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The excessive consumerism of superpower countries, like America, is once more bubbling to the surface.

This is largely thanks to a new problem facing retailers in the US.

Never mind how business as usual has been stagnating due to skyrocketing fuel prices on top of an unending global supply chain crisis.

Now, retail giants are finding themselves stuck with unprecedented levels of excess inventory, which they’re struggling to keep in storage.

This means that these stores are thinking about letting you keep your returns along with a refund because they simply cannot take back any more stock.

Over at CNN, Burt Flickinger, retail expert and managing director of retail consultancy Strategic Resource Group, speaks of this “smart strategic initiative”.

They call it the “returnless return”, or the “keep it” returns policy:

In recent weeks, some of the biggest store chains, including Target (TGT), Walmart, (WMT) Gap (GPS), American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) and others have reported in their latest earnings calls that they have too much inventory of stuff ranging from workout clothes, spring-time jackets and hoodies to garden furniture and bulky kids’ toys.

On top of needing to store all that sellable stuff, there is also the constant onslaught of returns coming into each store.

But instead of piling returned merchandise onto this growing inventory heap, stores are apparently considering just handing customers their money back and letting them hang onto the stuff they don’t want.

Avoiding product bloat used to be fairly manageable, by either re-selling returned goods after an evaluation, selling stuff for less, or refurbishing damaged returns.

Before the supply chain chaos, there was also the option of selling returned products to foreign liquidators for sale in Europe, Canada, or Mexico.

But this is no longer an option, and the costs of handling general returns are no longer worth it.

Of course, this isn’t an ideal business model either:

“They’re already discounting in stores to clear out products but, when there’s heavy discounting, buyer’s remorse goes up. People are tempted to buy a lot to only return it later,” [Steve Rop, chief operating officer with goTRG, a firm that processes over 100 million returned items annually for companies like Wal-Mart, Amazon and Lowe’s] said.

Besides, stores also need to think about how customers can take advantage of this policy.

Not many people wouldn’t see the policy as an opportunity for free things by making up some excuse to just “keep it” in the end on top of a refund.

Wild idea, but has anyone thought of making less shit?

[source:cnn]