I could have sworn I saw a few locals wearing “New England Patriots - 2012 Super Bowl Champions” t-shirts in Sri Lanka a couple months ago.
From working there, the big chains like Wal-Mart & Target have contracts with the suppliers where all returned items are just deducted from the payment to the supplier. Which is why they can be so liberal with return policies – it isn’t costing them anything, and is gaining them customer goodwill. The financial hit was taken by the original supplier. Sometimes a real big hit. There were cases where, for new suppliers, this unexpected hit ate up their anticipated profit margin on the whole deal, and they declined to bid on Wal-Mart’s next offer.
Regarding the returned goods themself, unless they were unopened (which just went back onto the shelf), they were chucked into bins, and the original supplier was notified to come collect them. (Wal-Mart wouldn’t even ship them back – they had to come get them.) After that, it depended on the value of the returned gods, and the shipping cost.
Some suppliers would have a shipper pick then up and ship them back to their factory or a repair center, to be repaired or reused for parts.
Some suppliers would sell the whole lot of returned goods to companies that specialized in second-hand goods. A local chain of pawn shops sometimes bought them. For bigger goods like washers & dryers, a local appliance store chain would buy them, repair them, and sell them in their stores.
Sometimes the original supplier didn’t want to deal with the returned goods, and would re-sell them to Wal-Mart – at a greatly reduced price. Then they would sell them, often to the locations listed above. Or Wal-Mart would sell or even donate them to places like a sheltered workshop or the Salvation Army, who would then repair & sell them in their outlets. And Wal-Mart takes a tax write-off for that donation.
The flip side of Fry’s “sticker of death”, is that they will usually take back anything you bought back, no questions asked. Why not, given what they’re going to do with it.
For people not familiar with the chain, people develop a peculiar sort of love/hate relationship with them. They generally have an enormous selection, carry specialty items you won’t find at standard consumer electronics stores, and have reasonably good everyday prices. If you know what you want, it works out. You may beat their price shopping around or ordering online, but if you need the item NOW, they may be your best bet. In addition to their habit of repackaging non-functional stuff, they are legendary for having totally clueless help for whom English is not quite yet a second language, and some people get annoyed by them posting an employee by the exit to inspect your purchases/sales slip as you leave the store.