Keep returns, get money back

The idea catches shoppers off guard, but in recent weeks, some of the biggest store chains, including Target, Walmart and Amazon, have reported that they have too much inventory. Now, stores are considering an idea where instead of returning your unwanted items, just keep them and still get the refund. Watch the report above. “I think it’s surprising when you hear it at first, and then it’s part of a bigger change, and after COVID with some stores doing things that don’t seem like they make sense,” shopper Haris Rahman said. “It’s just an odd thing. It confuses you the first time it happens. You think about it. Why would they do this? Well, it all comes down to cost,” said Jeff Inman, a marketing professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business. “The stores or the retailers overbought items because of the supply chain issues earlier in the pandemic, and now consumer demand has shifted in many cases…there is a supply chain glut all of a sudden in some items, and so retailers already have a big inventory in some items, and they don’t really feel that they can resell those,” Inman said. The companies have reported too much inventory on anything from workout clothes to furniture, and it’s costing them tons of money to store it. Add on the returns, and it’s simply too expensive. That means you may get to keep what you bought and still get a refund.”Retailers have algorithms. A good example is Amazon. They run an algorithm against how much inventory they already have in stock, and how much it is going to cost to maybe refurbish an item or get it back in stock and return it to the manufacturer, an d they will allow consumers to keep those items,” Inman said. Inman said last year alone, consumers returned more than $250 billion in items. That’s a lot of inventory going the wrong way, back to the retailer. Still, the professor says the keep it policy has its challenges. “The caveat here is there is no guarantee that this will continue because there really is an opportunity for potential fraud here, where scammers will set up a lot of fake accounts and then try to get these items and return them and get to keep them, and then they will resell them, so retailers are keeping track of that too,” Inman said. Shoppers told us that was their concern too. “It’s going to happen. A lot of people are going to take advantage of it,” Eric Lang said. Despite those disadvantages, Inman says, he himself, has already experienced this newer concept. “We had bought an extra video game controller for our son’s Xbox and it had an issue, and I wanted to send it back to Microsoft, and they just sent a new controller and said keep that one…clearly, they decided that it’s just cheaper for them to let the consumers keep those items,” Inman said. Experts say this concept is mainly for big retail stores. It likely wouldn’t happen at the small businesses where consumers shop.” If it happens to you, take it as a windfall and enjoy. And if it doesn’t, then that’s just business as usual, what we are all used to,” Inman said. Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 reached out to some bigger retail stores to see if they are considering this newer return policy. American Eagle Outfitters, the Gap, Target and Chewy have yet to comment back. A spokesperson for Walmart said, “We’re committed to providing our customers with the best possible returns experience. Once a customer initiates a return, we look at a variety of factors to determine the best solution for the customer and our associates and, in some cases, they may not have to bring or ship the item back. These factors include everything from product value to supply chain costs to what’s the most efficient and sustainable returns solution and, most importantly – what’s going to lead to the best possible customer experience.”