Can I run an idea by you guys?

[HeyWayne]

My current role involves me looking after the marketing for a number of companies within a group. One of the companies is a bathroom distributor.

We have a massive warehouse full of bathroom related products as you'd expect, and a large proportion of these products are what are referred to as "china" - baths, basins (sinks, but you can't say that word when talking about bathrooms) and such.

Nowadays they are not all made of china, but they do still get damaged and are then deemed unfit for sale and go into a big skip.

Now I'm not currently sure how they are recycled, or even if they are, but I got to thinking that there are possibly quite a few people out there who might like these unfit for sale baths/basins to use as ponds and such for gardens/allotments and so on.

Waddya reckon? it would need some looking at in terms of logistics and so on....

I have these moments from time to time, flights of fancy usually - and usually when sitting in traffic.

[Two_Sheds]

If your company was OK with giving the broken stuff away, it would be great. Maybe they'd want a donation to charity or something?

I doubt they'd want to let an employee use their work time sorting the stuff out, so it'd probably need a volunteer to list and 'sell' the stuff ...?

(I used to work for a major high street book shop, and they WOULD NOT give the old damaged ones to charity - we had to rip up each and every one of them before they went in a skip)

[chris]

I'm sure people renting houses out would buy "seconds" too. Great idea imo! 50/50?

[CaroltheCarrot]

I have a belfast sink as a herb pot at home,just to add my tuppence worth

[Claire72]

I think it sounds great, but you may find there would have to be a 'not noticing when something got lifted out of a skip' moment as I am sure that one of the stupid h&s rules are that 'rubbish' cannot be taken away by the general public. (isnt this why supermarkets stopped leaving their boxes at the bottom of the checkouts for people to put their shopping into?)

[elsie-scot]

Good idea, but in the past when I suggested giving away unused/damaged items, I was told that H&S rules re liable if something went wrong with goods. What happened to common sense!

I think it sounds great, but you may find there would have to be a 'not noticing when something got lifted out of a skip' moment as I am sure that one of the stupid h&s rules are that 'rubbish' cannot be taken away by the general public. (isnt this why supermarkets stopped leaving their boxes at the bottom of the checkouts for people to put their shopping into?)

Our local big supermarket still does that, mainly banana boxes - they are very useful

[Mikey]

This is also my field HW, I have an arrangement with a local reclamation yard, they collect all unwanted pottery, in good nick not chipped, and pay about £5 per piece of pottery toilet pan and cistern are 2, basin and pedestal are also 2.

They are generally keener on the coloured items we take out, yellows, blues, reds, etc if we can get them out in good order. These are apparently more sort after, as people struggle to get hold of them when trying to replace damaged items.

[chris]

Mikey d'oh - I've just got rid of two sets of grey suites. I have a bog and sink (no ped though, it's a vanity unit) from a downstairs bog that'll be going in the near-ish future if you want em?

flipping awful colour if you ask me, but hey each to their own

[HeyWayne]

Mikey d'oh - I've just got rid of two sets of grey suites. I have a bog and sink (no ped though, it's a vanity unit) from a downstairs bog that'll be going in the near-ish future if you want em?

flipping awful colour if you ask me, but hey each to their own

You should see some of the printed stuff that's now available...

Ethnic Pelle

[di]

I quite like the zebra one

.

[Mikey]

Mikey d'oh - I've just got rid of two sets of grey suites. I have a bog and sink (no ped though, it's a vanity unit) from a downstairs bog that'll be going in the near-ish future if you want em?

flipping awful colour if you ask me, but hey each to their own

The reclamation yard is Theodores in Bridgend, give them a call and tell them what you have, see if they want it.

From memory the grey colour was called whisper grey!

[julesapple]

Yonks ago, about 15 years, the BH worked for a big department chain, running their restaurants. The restaurants were usually on the gifts & china dept floors. I got talking to the chap who ran the china etc dept and asked what would happen to the welsh dresser with the blue & white Spode handles (for displaying Spode china) when it was done with. I was told it would be skipped!
I couldn't bear the thought of it so I contacted Spode. Spode told me that I would need to contact the store manager (my husband's boss) as it was his decision. I contacted the manager, whom I knew well, and he said that it had to be skipped, I offered a donation of £200 to either the store's preferred charity or to their Christmas party fund. It was turned down and the beautiful dresser was not only skipped, but chopped into pieces first. WHY??

Such an unforgivable waste!

Jules

[di]

It is a disgusting waste Jules...I guess as far as the companies are concerned any product sold as seconds is potentially a lost full price sale.

I used to work in a cake shop,most days,come 3:00 we'd reduce all the day fresh stock to try and shift it...unfortunately customers cottoned on and many would wait until the end of the day to do their shopping.Thankfully the owners were decent people and would donate anything that couldn't be sold the next day to residential homes...elderly/children and disability.

In answer to your question Wayne...I don't know.You'd perhaps have to render the goods utterly useless for their intended purpose,therefore ensuring your company that they wouldn't be potentially losing sales.

[Mikey]

A friend of mine used to work in Magnets, and all stock to be disposed of was chopped up before skipping. They used to send down a supervisor to oversee that nothing was been taken sideways off the premises.

It is daft.

[HeyWayne]

A lot of damaged stock is "written down" - especially if it's replaced by the manufacturers. So it has zero "value". However, I would need to check with da boss to see if such a thing is an option, because I'm not sure what happens to "skipped" goods (recycled/destroyed or whatever).

Just an idea at this stage.