High-quality graphics cards from the GeForce brand – that still work? Probably a stroke of luck. (Image sources: ink drop via Adobe Stock; crazydayfactory.com)
In order to sweeten the holidays and the time between the years with entertaining and informative content, we have hand-picked GameStar tech articles that we particularly remember in 2023 and which we highly recommend reading.
This article is one of them. The editorial team wishes you happy holidays!
On the outskirts of Madrid: the clock shows 10 a.m. A queue of people forms in front of the entrance to a warehouse, some of them camp here overnight. A sign promises rock-bottom prices.
Now the window blinds are raised and employees greet those waiting. This heralded the storm on cheap goods. Some of the customers are now rushing into the warehouse to find what they came here for: new smartphones for little money, a new computer for pocket money, a games console for almost free
What kind of crazy world is this?
It’s the crazy world from a report by Redakteurs Albert Sanchiswho personally went to report.
What is specifically sold in the warehouse: returns from the world-famous online mail order company Amazon, which is used millions of times. The customers poaching through this warehouse are looking for discarded products that were returned due to delivery errors or claimed defects. So there are minor defects in the products. As a rule, these damaged products can be used without any problems. Or maybe not?
At ten in the morning, customers wait for the gates to open to the supposed bargain paradise. (Image source: crazydayfactory.com)
Why are returns resold here?
For platforms like Amazon, such returns are a negative business – and are associated with comparatively high costs. The return must be picked up. She also has to go back to the camp. The return needs to be checked and prepared for resale.
The work steps in the event of a return are increasing. According to Sanchis, for many online retailers this reprocessing process is not worthwhile; That’s why numerous products are destroyed.
The packages are stacked in the foreground. In the background a poster preaches the level discount. (Image source: crazydayfactory.com)
Another way, too Crazy Day Factory
third-party utilization. Crazy Day Factory? The company with the, well, crazy name buys returns from Amazon – then offers them for sale to its customers. Like, for example, in this warehouse in the suburbs of Madrid.
And Crazy Day Factory really buys a lot of returns. Day after day, the company opens the doors of its warehouses, attracting hundreds of bargain hunters. And those who were able to bag a suitable product often hold the picked-up used goods up to the camera on TikTok or Instagram – thus ensuring the next generation of bargain hunters.
To ensure that there are always enough low price enthusiasts coming in, Crazy Day Factory uses a trick that is well known to salespeople and marketing strategists: artificial scarcity. Crazy Day Factory’s website states that the products sold in the warehouse will be removed from the shelves within a week. The sales shelves are restocked every Friday.
The company was founded in 2022 by two Chinese businessmen. In the time since it was founded, business has been going so well that a second location has now been opened in Parla. Parla is a city in the Madrid area.
But Crazy Day Factory uses another sales trick: tier discounts. On Friday, when the new returns are available on the shelves, a product costs 15 dollars. Over the next few years, the price of a product is gradually reduced. Until Thursday, each piece is sold off for just one euro. However, on Thursdays the most sought-after products are long gone. Every Friday the (sales) madness starts all over again.
The editor at the Crazy Day Factory
Editor Albert Sanchis goes to the warehouse on a Tuesday to see for himself the hustle and bustle surrounding the penny-pinchers. On Tuesday, when Sanchis enters the warehouse, the price of a product is 5 dollars.
Sanchis is taken aback: the sales shelves are in chaos. There can be no question of a system for sorting the products on offer. To find a product they are looking for, customers have to wade through mountains of items.
In addition, many of the products are still in their shipping packaging. You have to tear open boxes. to cut up cardboard. And tearing up cardboard boxes. To find out whether the contents of the cardboard arouse desire.
Want to get a new graphics card for your gaming PC? This find is probably rather rare. (Image source: crazydayfactory.com)
In order to check whether the recovered electrical devices are still functional, a special area was set up in the Crazy Day Factory; Equipped with plugs and chargers of various types, customers can try out whether the cell phone they have found still works.
During his dive through this oversized digging table, Sanchis finds (almost) everything. From headphones to cell phone cases to Kindle computers, lamps and even board games, everything is included. Other products that Sanchis gets his hands on include: Blu-ray players, batteries, speakers, fans.
You can find a few very special speakers at a bargain price here:
Sanchis meets a man, a regular at the Crazy Day Factory. The man says: My brother took a 40-inch Xiaomi TV for 15 dollars.
Next, Sanchis meets two young men. They tell Sanchis that an acquaintance of the men recently bagged an iPad. Now the two men are here to find out whether they can emulate their friend.
The carousel of people keeps turning. A man named Javier Matas is happy about a drill he found. A 43-year-old woman named Lorena buys toys for her children here. However, many other people with whom Sanchis tries to talk are disappointed and speak of Fraud
and unusable products
. Ultimately, the Crazy Day Factory is also a game of chance.
And what is the situation in Europey?
According to one Report from the knowledge magazine Galileo Every sixth item ordered in Europey is returned. Around 70 percent of the returns that end up back on Amazon are high-quality new goods. This new product is repackaged on Amazon and resold at the original price. The remaining 30 percent shows signs of wear – and is either sold cheaper, donated or ends up in a returns management company.
Returns management company: Products also end up here if you don’t initially notice any signs of wear. Of course there are also products that are completely demolished. The employees of such a company repair moderately broken devices so that the products can then be sold again. However, products that cannot be repaired are scrapped. Or when the product is unlikely to find a buyer. Keyword slow seller.
How does the old Amazon items business work?
In his report, Sanchis highlights how a company like Crazy Day Factory handles Amazon returns for resale. First, it is checked whether the returns meet a certain quality standard; If this is adhered to, the products are suitable for sale in the warehouses. If not, the products are donated to charity, for example. However, some products also end up on internet platforms for resale.
Sanchis meets e-commerce entrepreneur Carlos Bravo, who points out the pitfalls of a Crazy Day Factory-style business model. Bravo says: Many newbies in this business are lured by influencers on TikTok. But the reality is: many of these returns are in poor condition.
According to Bravo, this also has to do with the fact that many of the original customers take their returns with them almost new
Declare to take advantage of Amazon’s free returns.
Another man focused on the business of reselling returned goods is Toni Parra. The Catalan businessman illustrates the effort involved in returning business. He says: For a product that you buy for 5 or 10 dollars, repairs can cost a lot.
According to Parra, if you really want to make money in returns, you have to concentrate 100 percent on that.
Two hours of shopping frenzy in the outlet store
At the end of his ox tour through the factory with the crazy name, Albert Sanchis is left empty-handed. At 12 noon, just two hours after the Billigheimer fans stormed the warehouse, Sanchis leaves the scene of the shopping madness. He decides to return the next day. Maybe Sanchis can finally dig up a new OLED television from the mountains of old electronics for a five-euro note?
How do you find a company like Crazy Day Factory? Is this a sustainable way to counteract overproduction, or are the entrepreneurs behind it simply beneficiaries of misguided economic cycles? Feel free to write to us in the comments!
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