Do stores get reimbursed if items scrapped or damaged?

An unusual question but I'm curious about how stores in Australia work with scrapping of damaged or slow selling stock, Do they get insurance for stock not sold, scrapped or damaged?

I have a friend who works for a warehouse that distributes/sells just about everything and things get damaged or thrown out if not selling well. Staff often get to take extra stuff, depending on what it is and then is given to family members or friends.

What im wondering about is things where royalties are paid, would they be written off for insurance or simply replaced by the manufacturer if damaged in transit for example? He gets lots of software, games, music, DVDs, books etc aswell as eletronic items with damaged packaging that have all warranty information still. Im assuming that it could be deemed as a type of fraud to put in a warranty claim for these items if a receipt wasnt needed which is the main reason for my post, I wouldnt want to attempt it. Or would stock from a warehouse/distributor be written off totally by insurance hence already paid for?

When authors or artists publish a title, would they be paid royalties even for items damaged and scrapped or is it simply written off like it never existed and replaced?

In certain junk stores ive seen loads of one title of a less popular book that they just cant sell, im wondering if those 1000s of copies of that book would be included as a sale for that particular author? Do they get royalties for every published book regardless?

Im just curious how this works.

Comments

  • Typically the publisher sells copyrighted material to the retailer at X% discount; in the case of books, it might be 50%. Authors get their royalties from the discounted price. If the retailer can't sell the goods, they have to return it to the publisher. If this is the case, the author's royalties get netted off the returns.

    There are probably cost benefit considerations of shipping things back to the publisher such as books.

  • It is an interesting question. Dymocks has a section at the back of their Collins St store where you can buy remaindered books, but they also have various copies of better selling books that have been damaged. Got a cheap copy of one of the Food Safari books because there was damage to the cover. Wasn't particularly bad and I don't treat cookbooks well anyway so it didn't bother me.

  • +1

    Do they get insurance for stock not sold, scrapped or damaged?

    There's no insurance for stock not sold. It's a risk of doing business.

    Sometimes the retailer will sell things on 'consignment' from a distributor/manufacturer, in which case the distributor/manufacturer retails ownership and unsold stock should be returned to the distributor/manufacturer, but I don't think this is very common.

    Goods damaged in transit is a tricky one. It should typically be covered by the courier, but making a claim is time consuming. I think retailer/distributor just take the hit on it and sell the damaged product as 'factory 2nd'.

    Do they get royalties for every published book regardless?

    I suspect it's based on copies printed and there's some claw-back if they have to start destroying copies due to poor sales. It would be impossible to count how many books are actually sold through retailer.

  • Thanks for everyones help. Its interesting as I hear things being thrown out often and start wondering if it could possibly be considered piracy, where if these items were sold or given away freely, im unsure whether the rights holders would get their cut of it. I know most people wouldn't worry about it but was just discussing it with my friend as he wasn't sure either.

  • Books used to be distributed as "sale or return" with bookstores returning unsold volumes for wholesale credit. The exception was 'remaindered' stock where you got it cheap but had to sell it. Take a look at the QBD or other cheap book place and there will be a black texta mark across the bottom end marking it remaindered, so it could be sent back by an unscrupulous book seller.
    Some cheap books (and magazines and papers in the newsagent) were sale or return, but you only had to return the cover or masthead to save on shipping paper that was worthless/nearly worthless. Cheap romance books for example would be coverless in the dumpster behind the bookseller every now and again when I was a kid.

    In terms of royalties, most book contracts had an advance of $x, and a royalty payment of $0.0x, and you wouldn't receive any royalties at all until they exceeded your advance. The practical outcome was nearly all authors got no royalties, as they earned advances up front. Note they also get some extra copyright payments from libraries and schools/universities that provided a

    I don't know much about the book industry nowadays, as everyone I knew who was an editor or publisher has been sacked over the years. I still know an academic author, who probably got paid 40c an hour for his last book with the paltry advance and low sales and the huge amount of work involved (literally 2 months full time to build the index!) - but he is the world expert on his niche so the book increases his colleague's regard and helps him get better teaching/research positions. I also know a fiction author, but again, her income from publishing has been a supplement to her freelance writing and teaching income.

    It used to be a good industry to work in, but now it is just a shell.

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