the great waltz of resale and exchanges

This text corresponds to part of the transcription of the report above. Click on the video to watch it in full.

Gifts just unwrapped and already back in a toy store. Lisa, 8 years old, had asked for an elf, but Santa clearly didn’t have the compass in his eye. A Santa Claus who sometimes saw double. A customer came to exchange gifts for her two grandchildren. So the Christmas puzzle begins again. Little Christmas hassles, sometimes a little more annoying, like a remote-controlled car. Electronic toys are the number one reason for returning to after-sales service. “It’s often a subject about batteries. We’ll take batteries that come from different sources, we’ll put them together, but they don’t have the same charge and therefore, the toy doesn’t work. Or, quite simply, we put the batteries in reverse. It happens”indicates Franck Mathais, spokesperson for JouéClub.

Customers who have been coming since Friday morning. This is the case in a specialized brand. The brand plans around twenty returns per day until the end of January, with a deadline which may be extended. “It’s a month. Afterwards, we are very flexible. If the product is new, generally, we always find solutions with our customers”assures Maryam Kerroum, director of Cultura in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-France).

Exchanges and resales, Christmas has barely passed, like here in a family in the Paris region. Gifts received in duplicate or that children do not like. Parents have gotten into the habit of reselling them. “Sometimes there are things that no longer suit them too much. So when that’s the case, we put them on sale and then with the money raised, they go and buy their own gifts afterwards.”explains Kahina Ziouche, mother.

With this money, the children hope to buy construction sets and go to an amusement park. A trend that is confirmed. According to a study by a resale site, a third of French people are ready to take the plunge.