What Happens To Returned Camping Items At Home Depot? Here's Where They Actually Go

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'Tis the season for last-minute holiday shopping. If you're looking for gifts for the outdoor enthusiasts in your life, there's plenty to choose from at Home Depot, with more than 2,000 stores across the country. Gift-giving isn't a perfect science, though — perhaps you'll buy a camping chair for someone who already has one, or purchase a sleeping bag in the wrong temperature range. What happens, you may wonder, to camping items returned to the store? In short, they might go back on the shelf, or they might be packed into a pallet with other returned items and resold in a different market. 

Consider the first scenario, which is the most straightforward and the easiest to understand. You gift a friend a camping lantern, and it turns out she already has one. Ideally, you've included a gift receipt to simplify the returns process. She'd simply take the receipt and the item, unused and still in its original packaging, to the returns desk at Home Depot. In this case, since the camping lantern would be in perfect condition, it may be loaded back onto store shelves or added to the stock in the store's storage area. Learn about the top five holiday gifts for avid campers that they'll actually use, according to outdoor adventurers.  

The second scenario is more complicated. Some items returned to the store aren't in perfect condition: maybe they've been deemed defective, or perhaps they were opened and used once. (Home Depot has different return policies for different product categories, but most camping gear can be returned for a full refund, with proof of purchase, within 90 days. Home Depot may offer store credit instead of a refund for items that have been opened or used.) 

Customer-returned items in acceptable condition, along with other overstock, may end up in a pallet that's liquidated online through B-Stock Supply, a business-to-business marketplace that helps companies sell excess inventory. On B-Stock's Home Depot Liquidations page, you can bid on pallets or truckloads of tools and hardware, home decor, seasonal products, and outdoor equipment (including camping items). 

Interested in investigating the topic, reporters from the Wirecutter team at the New York Times recently purchased a pallet (which cost $742 plus shipping for a 450-pound box) filled with products from Amazon and other retailers. While browsing the liquidators' warehouse, a journalist spotted a top-rated shop vac in the Home Depot section. Now it's part of the busy "secondary sales" marketplace – along with the camping lantern and that sleeping bag you returned last summer. If you're looking for a holiday gift but don't have time to shop in person, check out these five essential Amazon camping items perfect to bring on any trip.