1 . The days of the bedroom fitting room are numbered. Online retail giant (零售巨头) Boohoo has become the latest in a string of retailers to start charging shoppers for returns.
By offering free returns in the first place, companies, such as Boohoo, created entirely new behaviour around shopping. A 2018 study found that 9% of UK consumers buy clothes to post on social media, only to return them straight after. Almost one in five 35-to 44-year-olds admit to doing it, and men, apparently, do it more than women.
However, when clothes are returned, they’re likely to be thrown away rather than resold. This is because processing returns is time-consuming and costly. Buttons need to be rebuttoned, labels need to be reattached, products need refolding and rebagging, and then they must be put back into the system for sale. So it is clearly a cheaper and easier solution for businesses to send the whole lot to landfills (垃圾填埋场). It’s really a great waste of resources, not to mention an insult (冒 犯) to the skilled people who put their time into making each product, but it’s the reality of modern fashion.
When clothes don’t become rubbish, there’s still the impact of the extra shipping to consider, as well as the packaging waste. About 180bn plastic bags are produced every year to store, protect and transport clothes, and less than 15% of them are collected for recycling.
The impact of returns is a fairly well-kept secret, likely to keep people shopping guilt-free (没有负罪感地). But even if it was widely known, it wouldn’t guarantee people would stop treating returns thoughtlessly. After all, other environmental and human impacts of fast fashion are out there for all to see and yet the industry continues to thrive.
Hopefully, charging for returns is expected to change people’s behavior. Without free returns on the table, shoppers may think twice about buying 10 items when they know they’ll only keep five or buying clothes purely for social media content. And with the arrival of return charges, the clothes we already have might also start to look a little more appealing.
1. Why do retailers tend to throw away returned clothes?
A.To keep up with the latest fashion. | B.To avoid a huge waste of resources. |
C.To let the skilled people feel honored. | D.To save the trouble of processing returns. |
2. What does the author think people will do if they know the impacts of returns?
A.They will feel guilty about shopping. | B.They will continue their shopping behavior. |
C.They will consider their shopping carefully. | D.They will keep their shopping behavior secret. |
3. What does the author say about the move to charge for returns?
A.It puts great pressure on customers. | B.It can influence social media content. |
C.It can do little to help reduce returns. | D.It will turn out to be an effective measure. |
4. What is the main idea of the text?
A.It is necessary to charge shoppers for returns. | B.It is difficult to control the number of returns. |
C.Many retailers are struggling to process returns. | D.People have different opinions on the end of free returns. |