Whatever happens to unsold ponies?

[Jupetto]

I'm really curious, will they collect dust in warehouses for years or will they be thrown away? Sometime I have to urge to ask a store if they still have older G3/G2's in their storages. I just feel bad these ponies will never see the light of day again. :/

[Iris]

I'm sure it's different everywhere, but most of the places I know when something sits for too long on their shelves they clearance it in an attempt to get it out of their store.  And if that doesn't work then sometimes they'll donate it to Goodwill or other charities just to get rid of it/for the tax write off.

It isn't incredibly likely anyone is using up warehouse space on something they don't intend on selling.

[Sapphire-Light]

In a supermarket here they still have the small  newborn cuties G3.5 packs  

[spottedslug]

Generally things sell at deep discount. It would cost more to store things than to sell them cheaply, so stores will lower the price until they are gone.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Depends on the store... many of them destroy unsold product.  But many sell to secondhand markets and discount chains, especially in other countries.  As Sapphire-Light pointed out, many end up in markets that do not have their own major manufacturing/supply chain.  Most of the time, if they can make money from it, they sell it onto another retailer that specializes in bargain items. 

Do you have stores like that in the Netherlands, that sell dented tins of food or slightly crushed boxes of cereal?  We have LOTS of those in North America.  And I just started finding LPS and early Bratz stuff at a Dollar Store here this week so I wouldn't worry too much about ponies being trashed and compacted and incenerated.    The Disney Store is a huge culprit for destruction of product, Hasbro.... not so much. 

[PandoraFox]

Well, I can't tell you for certain what goes on in the storage spaces of stores around here, but I know I've still seen ponyville, G3.5 and sometimes even G3 stuff appear on the shelves in more then one store around my area.
Sometimes with incredibly big discounts, placed with similarly discounted old products. (My friend picked me up a 2 buck "Read along with Rainbow Dash" set a year and a half or so back.) More often, priced normally and snuck in with the g4's.
The latter mostly seem to be ponyville things, but I've seen Lilly Lightly pop up at one point.

It happens somewhat sporadically, so I always wonder if they just randomly found a forgotten box of ponies in storage, but they really do seem to want to sell the ponies, before thinking of trashing them. I've seen the same happen for other toy lines.

[Jupetto]

Most of my toy stores put older productes in storages or very high where no one can reach and tell them they aren't for sale anymore.  One day I found there to still be plenty of playful ponies around like Blossomforth and a few days they were completely taken out and replaced with the newer sets. I have noticed multiple times that a lot of discounted items that still don't sell, just get taken out and dissappear somewhere and never reappear for discounts.

I know a few stores that keep their products for great discounts but that's about it. Probably some things go to charity. Bargain stores usually sell knock offs. There are a few times ponies did show up. ( Usually items that were never sold in the usual toy stores in the first place!)

I still see ponyville things scattered at the most random places though, those just don't seem to go away.

[hathorcat]

As others have said initially there is normally a discount in order to clear the bulk. But often you will find larger retailers have agreements in place with discount retailers [such as stores like TK/TJ Maxx] who will take on unsold stock. They tend to discount enough that things move. On other occasions sometimes retailers have agreements with manufacturers to take back unsold stock. Those manufacturers can then sell them on to the same discount retailers. And of course there are retailers who simply allow stock to sit - and do not replace with new stock - until things sell - which can take years!

However, for most big retailers, buyers are very very good at their jobs. Stocking for big retailers is a bit of science so excess stock should never reach levels where it cant be cleared through one of the above channels. With none perishable product there is typically a way to move it on without dumping it.