Why are stores destroying ornament boxes??

[nikki]

Hello All...

I live in California, and I have recently been to several Hallmark stores in my area, and I noticed they were selling last years, and other past year, ornaments out of the box (i.e., hanging on a tree or display with a sticker price tag or ribbon identifying the price), when I asked if I could get the box to go with the ornament -- they told me they were destroyed. They also said they were going to destroy the boxes immediately after Christmas for the 2009 ornaments! Sooo... no buying ornaments at 50% off! Is this happening at ALL the Hallmark stores? Any thoughts?

[sue in mich]

>:(I also found out that Hallmark destroys the ORNAMENTS!!! at the end of the year!! I saw this on their website when I was searching for a retired ornament,that they do not keep them to sell and other than a few for the archives the box, ornament and all are destroyed!!! How wasteful!!!!

[irishmo]

Hello

I live in Arizona and noticed the same thing, which is shocking! Perhaps the employees of all Hallmark stores need to be educated regarding this practice, especially for those of us who have been collecting for many many years.

[mmwalzer]

I live In Southern CA and have not seen this. In fact, I have noticed more & more stores creating a section for past year ornaments & bringing them out after Halloween. A couple of the stores were selling them at full price.

[nancyc]

I suspect that the stores that destroy the boxes are doing so because of the space needed to store them. By taking ornaments out of the boxes, they can put the ornaments alone in a box, bag or basket to conserve shelf space (having worked at a store I can understand how valuable shelf space can be). During the days when the ornaments had the memory cards, the manager at the store where I had worked would staple the memory card to the lid of the box, flatten the box, and trash the paper, bubble plastic or insert. She said that she'd never had a problem with someone buying the display since they were happy to find the ornament or even find one with a box. Collectors like us hope that whoever got that ornament didn't care about the packing, the insert or the staple holes!

I can understand why Hallmark destroyed the ornaments after the season. And to be honest, at one time they used to destroy the boxes and packing material and sell the ornaments by the pound. Back to why I think they destroy the leftover ornaments. When they had Hallmark.com as a way to sell the ornaments, they could sell them until what was left in the warehouse was gone. But if they only have the ability to sell them to stores, they still have to maintain the ordering system so that stores could order more ornaments and also pay the people at the warehouse to pack and ship those orders, plus they want to reclaim the space in the warehouse for the next year's ornaments or other merchandise. And stores may not want to pay shipping for something they might not make any money on, in addition to paying an employee to check in the merchandise then stock the shelves for sale or in their storeroom. Stores are ready to reclaim the space from the ornament display so that they can move on to other merchandise that they can sell for a profit. We all probably think they should have some kind of outlet place (physical or on the Internet) but that's not something they want to take on. Now Hallmark is focused on getting the merchandise to the stores for Easter, Mother's Day and graduation (most stores have their Valentine's merchandise in and have been getting those displays up). And since ornaments start shipping to the stores in early July they have to get the orders processed to get the stores' orders ready to go and that's not an overnight process either.

Since Hallmark didn't make as many ornaments this year as they usually do they shouldn't have much left in the warehouse.

[Elaine M Metivier]

I have known for years that they destroy the ornaments and boxes. I lived in Enfield CT where there is a distribution center. From what I understand is that they even guard the ones to be destroyed so know one can get to them. I am real sad that they destroy such nice ornaments.
Elaine

[JB]

This sounds like a small Hallmark store in my area. They usually never go over 75% off after Christmas and then they put the remainder away and try to sell them for full price the next year.

The owners do not want you to buy their old ornaments and sell them on eBay. At first, they refused to sell them to anybody they knew who did that. Then I guess someone complained to Hallmark and they changed their minds. Although they still punish eBayers by damaging their boxes.

I only sold a few things on eBay my entire life, most of my collection stays with me. However, one time when I was looking for ornaments for a signing I guess she got it in her head I was a seller, so whenever I've gone in and bought from the owner she bends down with my boxes like she's picking something up off the floor and then comes back up with very bent up boxes. All my friends have stories like this with that store.

Makes no sense to me, if she doesn't want others to make a profit, why doesn't she just sell them on eBay herself??

I understand why Hallmark destroys ornaments because they promote them as a yearly collectible and if they were to try to sell them after the fact it would only hurt the market and collectors trust, so there isn't much else to do but destroy them.

[diana]

There is a store here that takes ornaments out of the boxes and sells the oldies on little ribbons hanging from a tree. Doesn't matter what the original price was - they all get priced the same at that point (they change the sign as time goes by - starts about $5 and goes down to $2 much later).

Another store takes a big sharpie and draws a line through the barcode. They say it's so they know not to ring it in at full price. Please. Sometimes they draw a big X across the back of the box. I prefer through the barcode than across the back.

I think those stores are only hurting their sales. Some people might be inclined to pick up some sale ornaments as gifts, but not if the boxes look cheap and ruined.

As far as removing the ornaments and destroying the boxes - I think the ornaments might be appealing to a different kind of buyer than the hard-core collector. Lots of people don't bother to look at the pictures on the boxes. But the ornament might stand out better on a tree and catch their eye. Although I don't see why it would be so hard to keep just the box flattened and have a small box of boxes for people to sort through IF it was important to them to have the box. It might increase sales, and really isn't time consuming for the stores and doesn't take up a lot of space IF the boxes are flattened.

[hallmarkgirl]

I have heard of stores throwing out the boxes for the displays of the ornaments (many stores receive their display ornaments free from hlmk) but I find it odd that a store would destroy an ornament box if it is something collectible. It must have been a privately owned store because the corporate stores sell them down until they are gone after Christmas (all the good series and Disney ones are usually gone by then though).

For privately owned stores, they may have an agreement with Hallmark that they will get credit for ornaments after a certain amount of time that they don't sell after Christmas. In which case the store usually must either 1. Destroy the ornaments, or 2. Send back to Hallmark and have them destroy them. It is wasteful I agree, they most likely do this to keep them a hot "collectible" item so they don't flood the market with these leftovers. But it doesn't just happen with ornaments, it happens with other things as well, including those recordable storybooks.

[pooja333]

Jan 4, 2010 19:05:29 GMT -5 nancyc said:

I suspect that the stores that destroy the boxes are doing so because of the space needed to store them. By taking ornaments out of the boxes, they can put the ornaments alone in a box, bag or basket to conserve shelf space (having worked at a store I can understand how valuable shelf space can be). During the days when the ornaments had the memory cards, the manager at the store where I had worked would staple the memory card to the lid of the box, flatten the box, and trash the paper, bubble plastic or insert. She said that she'd never had a problem with someone buying the display since they were happy to find the ornament or even find one with a box. Collectors like us hope that whoever got that ornament didn't care about the packing, the insert or the staple holes!

I can understand why Hallmark destroyed the ornaments after the season. And to be honest, at one time they used to destroy the boxes and packing material and sell the ornaments by the pound. Back to why I think they destroy the leftover ornaments. When they had Hallmark.com as a way to sell the ornaments, they could sell them until what was left in the warehouse was gone. But if they only have the ability to sell them to stores, they still have to maintain the ordering system so that stores could order more ornaments and also pay the people at the warehouse to pack and ship those orders, plus they want to reclaim the space in the warehouse for the next year's ornaments or other merchandise. And stores may not want to pay shipping for something they might not make any money on, in addition to paying an employee to check in the merchandise then stock the shelves for sale or in their storeroom. Stores are ready to reclaim the space from the ornament display so that they can move on to other merchandise that they can sell for a profit. We all probably think they should have some kind of outlet place (physical or on the Internet) but that's not something they want to take on. Now Hallmark is focused on getting the merchandise to the stores for Easter, Mother's Day and graduation (most stores have their Valentine's merchandise in and have been getting those displays up). And since ornaments start shipping to the stores in early July they have to get the orders processed to get the stores' orders ready to go and that's not an overnight process either.

Since Hallmark didn't make as many ornaments this year as they usually do they shouldn't have much left in the warehouse.

Agreed.
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