Wasted equipment that could be donated to the homeless?

Worked at that store. The real low down is that they tried to be kind and turn a blind eye to people going through the bin. Then the shippers would come out to see every piece of garbage tossed all over the loading bay, as well as tons of needles around the back door and walk way. The day that there were literal human dookies mixed in the garbage and loading bay amidst the wreckage of a full bin of items was the day the store said, "Forget it, not worth the hassle." Even when asked, the binners just did not care and it was causing way more stress than was needed.

Not only that, but when they tried just using permanent marker to add a special return cord, people would take the items, remove the code, and try to return it for full value. I dealt with it personally a number of times.

For what it's worth, MEC does (did?) donate a huge portion of the returns to places like Our Place, school recreation programs, etc. What your seeing are items that can't be repaired (pads are harder than you think) or items that manufacturer will not give a refund credit to unless you send them proof of destruction (looking at you, Yeti coolers.)

So between those reasons, you'll find the truth.

/r/VictoriaBC Thread