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Returns

UPS moves further into "reverse logistics" with purchase of Happy Returns

by Stephanie Hughes
Oct 30, 2023
Delivery giant grows its network of sites where customers can send back packages by adding 10,000 Happy Returns drop-off locations.
Expanding its network of drop-off locations promises to boost the efficiency of UPS' package pickup operation.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
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Are stocks just not gonna do as well anymore?

by Sabri Ben-Achour
Jul 12, 2023
Some economists — citing interest rates, taxes and market cycles — think we are entering an era of underperformance.
Some economists believe the stock market's strong performance of recent decades is unsustainable.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
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Inside the hectic post-holiday "returns season" at a Costco warehouse

by Kristin Schwab
Jan 26, 2023
A good portion never make it back to store shelves.
Costco is famous for its return policy: unlimited returns despite condition or purchase date, with some exceptions.
Eric Thayer/Getty Images
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A Mississippi record and comic store deals with the January "dead zone"

by Sean McHenry
Jan 10, 2023
OffBeat owner Phillip Rollins says January and summer are his "most hated months" because business is so slow.
OffBeat in Jackson, Mississippi, had a good holiday season but is dealing with the January doldrums.
Courtesy Phillip Rollins
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'Tis the season of post-holiday gift returns

by Stephanie Hughes
Jan 4, 2023
About 18% of all holiday sales are expected to be returned. That comes with costs to companies, consumers, and the climate.
An estimated $171 billion in returns are expected from this holiday season, says a report from the National Retail Federation.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
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Return fees are happening because retailers are hurting

by Kristin Schwab
Jun 9, 2022
Americans sent back $760 billion worth of stuff last year. Now higher shipping costs and rising returns are hurting companies' bottom lines.
Zara is now charging customers in the U.K. when they return online purchases via mail. With rising shipping costs, other retailers may follow suit.
Greg Baker/AFP via Getty Images
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Retailers grapple with returns as online sales surge

by Kristin Schwab
Dec 29, 2021
Optoro, which manages returns for Target and Ikea, says consumers will send back $120 billion worth of goods this season.
Consumers will return $120 billion worth of products between Thanksgiving and the end of January, according to Optoro. Above, a UPS package handler loads a truck.
Jon Cherry via Getty Images
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There's an industry that handles our returns, and it's not pretty

by Kai Ryssdal and Sean McHenry
Oct 19, 2021
Companies spend a lot of money processing those returns, and many items that are returned won't end up back on the shelf.
An Amazon delivery driver carries boxes into a van outside of a distribution facility in Hawthorne, California.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images
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Investing like the super rich doesn't mean top returns

by David Brancaccio , Chris Farrell and Erika Soderstrom
Aug 31, 2021
Even with access to private equity and hedge funds, investors won't get the same returns as their wealthier counterparts, a study indicates.
"When you have a lot of money, you get access to the best," says Chris Farrell, Marketplace’s senior economics contributor. And the wealthiest can build up infrastructure to monitor and analyze their investments, he added.
Spencer Platt via Getty Images
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COVID-19

Retailers have to figure out how to handle all our online returns

by Andy Uhler
Dec 14, 2020
One challenge for those managing "reverse logistics"? Not enough room to store everything we want to send back, one study says.
Packages are processed at a U.S. Postal Service distribution center in Oakland, California.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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