# Inside Amazon's $890 Billion Returns Mafia

## Метаданные

- **Канал:** Slidebean
- **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r89GW3mXcyw
- **Источник:** https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/27725

## Транскрипт

### Segment 1 (00:00 - 05:00) []

I shouldn't be putting this story on this channel, but I want to tell you a story that hits very close to home. This is Costa Rica. This is my favorite place in the entire world. It's not because of the crazy, yet cozy weather. sloth. It's not that I just got married here. It's not that there's a best buy now. I was actually born and raised in Costa Rica. No, wait, stop, stop. Go back, go back. That's not a best buy. That is a bin store, and it's the tip of the iceberg of a drug trafficking nightmare that Costa Rica is going through. We even spoke to a few people who worked for these bin stores who, I kid you not, wanted to remain anonymous because they were scared of what these companies might do to them. This is very real. Bin stores started here in the US a few years ago, and the concept was very simple, just reselling returned items, right? As liquidation sales have become a $100 billion industry. Once they pull the seats, it's like a crazy- Crazy line started forming. A lot of this used to be controlled by the Mafia. It's a good way to hide money. Just like this video took a sour twist, innocent Amazon returns and discounts, they've been a sour twist for Costa Rica. I'm telling you this story today, not because I'm blaming anybody for returning items. There's nothing wrong with returns. I'm telling you this story because this is the country I love, and I don't think anybody's talking about this. I don't think that anybody has any idea of the butterfly effect that e-commerce returns are having in a country like Costa Rica. Now, in Costa Rica, bin stores are called outlets, and these outlets, they're fed by billions and billions of dollars worth of e-commerce returns that the US makes every year. The fact that this place is ripping off the Best Buy branding, that's the last thing that I care about. These outlets have started appearing in Latin America, but nowhere like in Costa Rica, where some sources say we have around 800 stores for a country of 5 million people. They are an invasion that's not just killing local e-commerce, but turned into a drug trafficking gateway that police have been powerless to stop... United States. By the way, mandatory disclaimer, there is a drug trafficking and a money laundering ring around these outlets. This has been in the press. It's been acknowledged by the government. Now, I don't know which outlets are involved in that, so I'm not implying that the ones that you will see in this video are the ones involved in any legal shit. Just in case you didn't know, Costa Rica is here. It's not an island. It's not the same as Puerto Rico. These tiny countries here in Central America, they're basically in the shadow of the US, which has some advantages, but we also happen to be a bridge between the drug-exporting countries and the biggest drug market in the world. But I'll get to this in a moment. Part of the influence of American culture in Costa Rica is that despite Amazon not having any Amazon. Cr stores, Costa Ricans still shop at America's Amazon. Electronics are a great example of why Amazon is so popular here. Because you see, Central America doesn't manufacture PCs or iPhone or Playstations. Most countries are pretty small anyway, so these products need to be imported from somewhere. But this is a foreign product, and there are usually import duties for foreign products, which are way too different by countries. Electronics manufacturers, they don't want to deal with the different duties that every country has, especially for these tiny markets. And we, consumers, end up paying the price, and that's the seed of this problem that we've gotten into. Sony, for example, has a Costa Rica website, but there are no prices for any product. It's like a sad illusion of e-commerce. Here's the US website, here's the Mexico website, here's the Panama website. Those are our neighbors to the South. They all have the same template, but they have prices, and you can buy online. Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras' websites, no price. Sony's website for these Central American countries, it just points you to the local resellers. But because of those import duties and because there's no MSRP, TV, each one of those resellers ends up setting their own prices, and prices are high. $1,300 for a Q-lid 65-inch? No way. I'm sure that's worth 600 bucks in the US. Discounted to 389,000 colones, which is 850 bucks, I think. Q-lid 50-inch TV. The TV of this size is half this price in the US, I'm sure. This used to cost $1,000. It has a $250 discount now.

### Segment 2 (05:00 - 09:00) [5:00]

We'll see what the price is of this. I would have to bet it's like half. Here's the price of an iPhone at the Apple official reseller in Costa Rica, almost 50% more than the US price. This is a country with a fraction of the purchasing power because US retailer prices are a reference. The general consensus in Latin America is that we are being cheated, either by the local retailers or by the import duties. When people feel cheated, people will find a workaround. The obvious is flying back with three checkbacks of stuff whenever they go to the US. But those who can't travel have found ways around these crazy prices, which accidentally became the gateway for these cartels. My first Amazon purchase ever was my Lord of the Rings DVD collection. Extended DVD edition, never released in theaters or on DVD. Probably around 2006. You just can't find this stuff in Costa Rica. Or if you did, it would have been more than twice the US retail price. An entire industry has existed for 20 plus years where you buy an Amazon package from Amazon US. You ship it to this warehouse in Miami that puts it in a package on a plane, ships it to a different country, puts it through customs, and then gets it to your door. And that is still cheaper than buying that same piece of electronics locally. This is a huge business. Just MIA, Miami International, exported over 288,000 tons and $34 billion worth of cargo to Latin America and the Caribbean in 2024. But I'm a nerd. I had figured out how to order stuff online 20 years ago. But here in Costa Rica, ordering online and getting a product is something that's somewhat young, tech-savvy, probably when people do. And that's part of the reason why people go to outlets. It's a Friday today, which means it's the day when new merch comes out. I'm heading out to this outlet that's just right across the street from the US Embassy, ironically. But I'm sure they don't allow cameras, so I'll apologize in advance for the iPhone footage. I have a pair of Raven stories, so that'll maybe let me capture some stuff inside, undercover. It's about 10: 00 AM now. It's about open time. People are lighting up out here. That was actually rather bizarre. There was this VIP shelf with the premium items. They were $32, which is mad because these items are not worth $32 in the States. It's just trash and missing pieces. And we have these guys with the IKEA bags sprinting in and grabbing this stuff first. I'm assuming a resale value. Maybe there's a thrifting aspect to it, I suppose. That's the only way I can rationalize it, man. And once I saw someone who got a 42-inch TV for less than $20 at an outlet's grand opening. I'm going to call this person Maria. A couple of days after we spoke about their experience working with some of these companies, they texted us, very worried about what these companies might do to them if they found out what they told us about them. We spoke in Spanish, but for their safety, we're going to obscure their identity, and we're going to use AI to translate what they told us. Also a DJI drone, which is valued at around $900, and they got it for $18. Not everything they advertise is real. They hire people to lie about having found a phone or having found a computer when the computer doesn't even power on. But where do these packages come from? Again, it's not all defective items, so where are these bargain items coming from? Now, all of that is one of thousands of Amazon fulfillment centers across the US, and that's where problems begin. For years, Amazon's e-commerce operated at a loss because they were growth hacking. Whether you like them or not, you have to thank Jeff Bezos for same day delivery It's not just on Amazon, but honestly on every platform. Hell, yes. Amazon had decades of cheap VC tech investor capital and was able to set this standard for e-commerce in the US. Free shipping, then two-day shipping, then one-day shipping, and of course, returns without questions asked. But that standard of returned items, that was a standard that other companies had to catch up with. Free returns are the standard, and everybody expects free return the math. Let's say that you're a small business, you're selling on Amazon, and I order this $100 speaker from you. Now, most retailers will use FBA, Fulfilling by Amazon, which means that Amazon operates as their warehouse. There are 3.