Ottawa resident Arthur Stewart said he was “surprised” and “concerned” to learn a package he returned to Amazon’s fulfilment centre in Mississauga, Ont., was recently being sold at a liquidation store in Toronto — with the shipping label showing his full name, home address and phone number clearly visible.
“I have no issue with the fact that Amazon or any other retailer would be able to resell things that are returned or things that don’t get sold,” Stewart said in an interview.
“My issue is that they aren’t taking adequate steps to protect the privacy of people.”
He’s one of several Amazon shoppers CBC identified whose returned items were being sold at Toronto liquidation stores with their personal information still clearly visible on the packaging — putting them at risk of identity theft, a prominent privacy expert says.
A CBC Toronto investigation found the personal information of three dozen people on display at two locations of liquidation retailer Top Binz.
Top Binz, which has two stores in Scarborough and another in Thornhill, buys truckloads of returned and overstocked items from Amazon and other online retailers through a distributor, reselling them to the public at low prices.
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Top Binz says, going forward, it will check to ensure all personal information is removed from the products it sells.
But a former provincial privacy commissioner says the situation raises concerns about how online retailers like Amazon — as well as the other companies involved in the liquidation of returned items — are handling personal data.
The current federal privacy commissioner’s office says it will look into the issue, while Amazon says it’s launching an internal investigation of its own.
36 names, addresses on display
CBC Toronto visited two Top Binz locations in November after a customer raised privacy concerns.
Inside the stores, customers sift through bins filled with all kinds of consumer products, from children’s toys to household goods to electronics. Products are displayed out of the box, in original product packaging or in delivery boxes, some with shipping labels still intact, and are sold at flat-rate prices.
Of the 36 items labelled with personal information that CBC Toronto found inside Top Binz stores, two-thirds were linked to Amazon. The remaining third had shipping labels with personal information visible, but it was unclear to which retailer the item was returned.
CBC Toronto reached out to several shoppers whose contact information was visible.
“I’ve got a lot of privacy concerns,” said Ken Bachmeier, a Kingsville, Ont., resident who recently returned a TV stand purchased through Amazon.
“I don’t like it … having the information out there for anybody to access,” Bachmeier said.
“These people that are out there, they can find out a lot of things with a little bit of information.”
Top Binz is a liquidation store that sells returned and overstock items from Amazon and other retailers. CBC found it selling dozens of items in boxes with shipping labels displaying the original buyers’ names, addresses and, in some cases, phone numbers. (Spencer Gallichan-Lowe/CBC)
It’s not just Amazon products ending up at liquidation stores.
Teresa Coppens’ name, address and phone number were visible on a box bearing the name of a company that sells Dutch plants and flower bulbs.
“I’ve heard lots of horror stories about your personal identity being abducted … and that kind of stuff always worried me,” said Coppens, who lives in Millbrook, Ont. “It just never dawned on me that resellers would be keeping that information for everyone to see.”
In general, federal privacy legislation requires organizations to get consent before collecting personal information and disclosing it to third parties, and to dispose of it when it’s no longer needed.
Exposing personal identifiers such as home addresses is a privacy breach that can leave customers open to identity theft, said Ann Cavoukian, who served three terms as Ontario’s information and privacy commissioner.
“Anyone should know in this day and age that personal identifiers linked with anything without their consent, which is obviously the case here, can cause, at times, unbelievable harm to those individuals, beyond just the invasion of privacy,” said Cavoukian, who is now executive director of the Global Privacy and Security by Design Centre.
“Don’t do it, especially if you’re a big company like Amazon. You should know better.”
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Top Binz owner Amjad Atieh said he buys 60,000 to 80,000 returned and overstock products per week from two suppliers that get their stock directly from retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and Costco.
The industry has grown alongside the rise of online shopping.
While there’s not much Canadian data available, and Amazon declined to share its return numbers, online shoppers in the U.S. returned more than $212 billion worth of goods in 2022, representing approximately 16.5 per cent of all online sales that year, according to the National Retail Federation.
Items whose value decreases once they’re returned can be expensive for Amazon and its third-party sellers to manage, according to Omar Fares, a lecturer in the retail management department at Toronto Metropolitan University.
“Every hand that touches the product is a financial loss,” Fares said. It can also be logistically challenging to manage returned inventory, he said, and “in some cases, you’re better off getting rid of it, even at a potential loss.”
Atieh said Top Binz receives items from its suppliers on skids and re-sells them “as is.” He wouldn’t disclose the suppliers’ names.
“Usually if we find something [with a shipping label], we take it and we throw it out,” Atieh said.
“You can’t check every single box.”
Amazon says its contracts with liquidators require them to remove customers’ personal information before they resell the packages to third parties. Amazon says it has no direct relationship with liquidation outlets like Top Binz. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)
Following inquiries from CBC Toronto, Atieh said going forward, he planned to hire more staff to ensure personal information is removed from items before they are sold.
Amazon sells returned merchandise on its website via a platform called Amazon Warehouse. It also sells large pallets of returned items to liquidators.
Spokesperson Barbara Agrait said the company has contracts with “reputable liquidators” that require them to remove customers’ personal information before re-selling, as well as “robust processes” and regular audits to ensure compliance.
“Our expectation is that our partners remove customer personal information before any resell, and we’re disappointed to learn that may not be happening,” Agrait said. “We’ve launched an internal investigation into this matter and will take appropriate actions based on our findings.”
Vito Pilieci, a spokesperson for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, said the federal watchdog hasn’t received any complaints about the personal information of online shoppers being on display at liquidation stores. However, Pilieci said the office would be reaching out to Amazon for more information.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Dollarama Inc.’s food aisles may have expanded far beyond sweet treats or piles of gum by the checkout counter in recent years, but its chief executive maintains his company is “not in the grocery business,” even if it’s keeping an eye on the sector.
“It’s just one small part of our store,” Neil Rossy told analysts on a Wednesday call, where he was questioned about the company’s food merchandise and rivals playing in the same space.
“We will keep an eye on all retailers — like all retailers keep an eye on us — to make sure that we’re competitive and we understand what’s out there.”
Over the last decade and as consumers have more recently sought deals, Dollarama’s food merchandise has expanded to include bread and pantry staples like cereal, rice and pasta sold at prices on par or below supermarkets.
However, the competition in the discount segment of the market Dollarama operates in intensified recently when the country’s biggest grocery chain began piloting a new ultra-discount store.
The No Name stores being tested by Loblaw Cos. Ltd. in Windsor, St. Catharines and Brockville, Ont., are billed as 20 per cent cheaper than discount retail competitors including No Frills. The grocery giant is able to offer such cost savings by relying on a smaller store footprint, fewer chilled products and a hearty range of No Name merchandise.
Though Rossy brushed off notions that his company is a supermarket challenger, grocers aren’t off his radar.
“All retailers in Canada are realistic about the fact that everyone is everyone’s competition on any given item or category,” he said.
Rossy declined to reveal how much of the chain’s sales would overlap with Loblaw or the food category, arguing the vast variety of items Dollarama sells is its strength rather than its grocery products alone.
“What makes Dollarama Dollarama is a very wide assortment of different departments that somewhat represent the old five-and-dime local convenience store,” he said.
The breadth of Dollarama’s offerings helped carry the company to a second-quarter profit of $285.9 million, up from $245.8 million in the same quarter last year as its sales rose 7.4 per cent.
The retailer said Wednesday the profit amounted to $1.02 per diluted share for the 13-week period ended July 28, up from 86 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
The period the quarter covers includes the start of summer, when Rossy said the weather was “terrible.”
“The weather got slightly better towards the end of the summer and our sales certainly increased, but not enough to make up for the season’s horrible start,” he said.
Sales totalled $1.56 billion for the quarter, up from $1.46 billion in the same quarter last year.
Comparable store sales, a key metric for retailers, increased 4.7 per cent, while the average transaction was down2.2 per cent and traffic was up seven per cent, RBC analyst Irene Nattel pointed out.
She told investors in a note that the numbers reflect “solid demand as cautious consumers focus on core consumables and everyday essentials.”
Analysts have attributed such behaviour to interest rates that have been slow to drop and high prices of key consumer goods, which are weighing on household budgets.
To cope, many Canadians have spent more time seeking deals, trading down to more affordable brands and forgoing small luxuries they would treat themselves to in better economic times.
“When people feel squeezed, they tend to shy away from discretionary, focus on the basics,” Rossy said. “When people are feeling good about their wallet, they tend to be more lax about the basics and more willing to spend on discretionary.”
The current economic situation has drawn in not just the average Canadian looking to save a buck or two, but also wealthier consumers.
“When the entire economy is feeling slightly squeezed, we get more consumers who might not have to or want to shop at a Dollarama generally or who enjoy shopping at a Dollarama but have the luxury of not having to worry about the price in some other store that they happen to be standing in that has those goods,” Rossy said.
“Well, when times are tougher, they’ll consider the extra five minutes to go to the store next door.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
TORONTO – The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered TD Bank Group to pay US$28 million for repeatedly sharing inaccurate, negative information about its customers to consumer reporting companies.
The agency says TD has to pay US$7.76 million in total to tens of thousands of victims of its illegal actions, along with a US$20 million civil penalty.
It says TD shared information that contained systemic errors about credit card and bank deposit accounts to consumer reporting companies, which can include credit reports as well as screening reports for tenants and employees and other background checks.
CFPB director Rohit Chopra says in a statement that TD threatened the consumer reports of customers with fraudulent information then “barely lifted a finger to fix it,” and that regulators will need to “focus major attention” on TD Bank to change its course.
TD says in a statement it self-identified these issues and proactively worked to improve its practices, and that it is committed to delivering on its responsibilities to its customers.
The bank also faces scrutiny in the U.S. over its anti-money laundering program where it expects to pay more than US$3 billion in monetary penalties to resolve.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
