MANHATTAN: HOLIDAY GRIDLOCK

I was in Manhattan during the Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday period.  I enjoyed Thanksgiving, took a limited advantage of Black Friday and avoided Cyber Monday all together.  Although, many shoppers stayed home to shop online, the city was more gridlocked than usual!  The streets were jammed by thousands of double-parked parcel delivery trucks, and building lobbies looked like warehouses!  In the United States, an estimated 2.45 billion E-commerce parcels were delivered over this period last year[1].  By riding the subway, I survived the street congestion, the rain and the sleet.  

My Thanksgiving was an intergenerational family feast.  Thanksgiving is the second oldest American celebration, after Independence Day on July 4^th.  It was observed even before President Lincoln proclaimed it a national holiday.  My friends cooked a traditional meal with a juicy roasted turkey, and seasonal vegetables, sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, squash and pumpkin.  The desserts came in a golden-brown color, with pecan, pumpkin and apple pies.  I do not have a sweet tooth, but the pecan pie was to die for.  

Since that legendary 17^th century Pilgrim and Native American meal in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Americans eat turkey for dinner.  Some 45 million turkeys have been slaughtered for the holidays.  However, turkey dinners seem to be losing their appeal: in 2019, sales are down by 9%, either replaced by other protein sources like roast beef or by non-meat fares.  Vegan options are notably on the rise, and contrary to the kiddie song, turkey is not a silly bird for vegans, but a cuddly, friendly and worth a hug sensitive bird.  The vegan motto is “take the death off your plate for Thanksgiving”.

With snow in the forecast, I decided to take advantage of Black Friday to shop for a cheap made in China goose/duck down coat (no guilt after my turkey dinner!) as my anorak seemed inadequate to protect me from the coming cold.  In Manhattan, sales take place all the time, and one would be silly not to take advantage of them.  My favorite hunting ground is Saks Off fifth on East 57^th Street, a huge Ali Baba cave where one can browse for hours. Coincidentally, the store is underground. 

On the coat rack I spotted a black shearling coat, one of a kind, twice reduced with an additional 50% off.  I don’t regard myself as a discount-driven impulsive buyer, but I could not resist as it fitted me perfectly.  It was a bargain, but still an expensive one at $775,00 down from $2200,00[2]! The sales attendant indicated that it was cheap because it was an online return, but had not been worn.  I also purchased a blue leather designer bag, another online return, 50% reduced.  The bottom was slightly stained, so I was given another 30% discount.  To attract bargain hunters like me, many department stores have opened clearance outlets like Saks’ Off.  Has the growth of on line shopping something to do with this trend?  To find out, I Goggled “online returns”.  I was horrified by what I found. 

Returns end up either in the “discount ecosystem”, a jargon used by the resell sector, or in a landfill.  In 2018, the US Department of Commerce estimated that consumers spent $ 513.61 billion in online shopping, and $ 260 billion worth of merchandise, had been returned.  This sector grew by 15% over the previous year, and the returns in the same proportion. 

By making it easier for consumers to return merchandise, suppliers are digging their own grave in a mountain of unwanted or damaged goods.  Many people shop online because they know they can return their purchase for free.  In order to beat their competitors, online retailers encourage returns to motivate a repeat purchase.  My designer bag was a fraudulent return as it was used before returning.  According to the National Retail Federation, which provides statistics, fraudulent returns are more than $15 billion.  Clothing and shoes are the bulk of returns (56%), but surprisingly electronics are a close second with 42%.  With a certain glee, I found that men return more stuff than women.  The volume of online returns is worse during the holiday periods.  For this blogger, the growth of e-commerce is a train wreck.

When these truck-loads of returns are either too expensive to sort out or bursting the warehouse, they are discharged in landfills.  To add insult to injury, thieves will steal your purchase in your absence.  According to the New York Times[3], 15% of deliveries in urban areas do not reach customers.  Returns and pilfering cause huge loses for retailers, many of whom do not have Sacks’ and Bloomingdale’s economy of scale to run outlet stores in the city.  They therefore unload the returns to discounters who routinely ship them around the world or truck them to landfills. When people shop in brick and mortar stores, returns are fewer. 

Both the survival-of the-fittest-stampede to the stores, and compulsive online shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday have created a backlash from environmental groups, and it makes sense. The over-consumption, resource waste and shockingly high carbon foot print of returns should make one think.  Is online shopping an irreversible trend or a medium-term fad?  I hope the latter, otherwise with the growing craze for home streaming, work-from-home jobs, and food delivery, people will step out of their house only to walk the dog.

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[1] USA Today, Dec 18, 2018.

[2] Not an inflated price, genuine shearling is all priced in this range.  The coat was made in the USA from Spanish merino.

[3] December 3, 2019.