A clothing retailer in France is under fire after ripping and throwing out unsold clothes outside of their store. People criticizing the company say they could have given the unsold clothes to those who need them.
The criticism began when a shopper posted pictures of the unsold clothes sitting in front of the store. The clothes appear to have been ripped before they were placed outside. The shopper, Nathalie Beauval, posted pictures of the clothes on her FB page. One of the images shows the clothes hanging from the shutter door. Another image shows a jacket that has been ripped on both sides.
The post, in which she explains that she finds it disappointing that the employees threw away the clothes when there is people that need them, has over 1,000 replies and 20,000 shares. Users have seen the images and taken their criticism to social media sites such as Twitter. Nathalie is one of many who have shared images of unsold clothes sitting outside stores or in dumpsters in recent years.
It is not the first time that a store has been criticized for throwing away unsold clothes. Some have even been criticized for ripping and throwing away unsold clothes with the tags still on them. In 2013, Abercrombie & Fitch was criticized for allegedly throwing out unsold clothes with defects that could have been donated. H&M and Walmart have also been criticized for destroying unsold clothing.
The criticism against Celio, the store seen in Nathalie’s images, has led to the company releasing a response on Twitter. In the post, the company defends what it has done, explaining that the clothes were unusable because they had tears and holes. The company adds that their policy is to destroy the unusable clothes.
Employees at the store told local media that the clothes had water damage, which meant that they could not be sold or donated. The company has also said it works with a charity and usually donates discontinued stock.
According to recent estimates, more than 80 billion clothing items are made and sold around the world. That means billions of used or unsold clothes are thrown away. Celio has said that the clothes were unusable but the images continue to draw criticism as the weather is currently very cold in the country. Nathalie also mentioned in her post that there are homeless people sleeping near the store.
