Warehouse slammed for dumping faulty sheets
A store known for slashing prices has been found slashing sheets and dumping them in a skip just metres from a secondhand charity store in need of linen.
Marlborough charities have lambasted The Warehouse over the incident, however the company said its Blenheim staff were following procedure and the sheets were faulty.
A spokeswoman said in a statement the sheets were withdrawn from sale due to concerns about dye rubbing off on customers.
‘‘We will always look to donate our excess stock to the community where we can, however in this instance it wasn’t appropriate to do so,’’ she said.
Blenheim man Matt Flight discovered dozens of packs of queensize, flannelette sheets inside the dumpster outside The Warehouse Blenheim on Friday morning.
The skip was across the car park from Sheets ‘n Things, a secondhand store run by the Christian charitable trust Bread of Life that sold linen.
Flight said the ‘‘brand new’’ sheets were still wrapped in plastic, with each package slashed with a knife, rendering them unusable.
‘‘Had they just thrown them in there haphazardly I wouldn’t have second-guessed it, but they were so well packed inside the skip - like they were presented for sale,’’ he said.
‘‘They should actually go to the likes of the Salvation Army, or John’s Kitchen.
‘‘It would have been an epic promotional item, but now it’s going to burn them.’’
Even though The Warehouse had concerns about the dye running, Flight said there were other uses for the sheets, including rags, and they should have at least offered them to charities.
The Blenheim man took photographs of the sheets, which he showed to Crossroads Marlborough Charitable Trust coordinator Janette Walker.
The trust ran a drop-in centre across the car park from The Warehouse.
Walker said she did not understand why the company did not donate the sheets.
‘‘I was enraged, I thought ‘what the hell’, because we could have used those sheets, I’ve got plenty of people here who could have used them,’’ she said.
‘‘I’d invite The Warehouse chief executive and directors to reconsider their policy of dumping and destroying good quality products, which would have a use in the wider community.’’
Sheets ‘n Things co-ordinator Annie Bately said the store would have welcomed the opportunity to at least make a decision on the sheets.
‘‘I’m disappointed they wouldn’t think to give them to Sheets ‘n Things, we’ve got lots of needy families out there, and they could make good use of them,’’ Bately said.
‘‘At the moment we’re a bit short on linen, so it would have really helped.’’