Like many shoppers, Megan McCard of Golden Valley assumed the item she took back to Target recently would go right back on the shelf.
But she admitted she hadn't given the question much thought. "I have no idea what happens to it."
The answer is changing. The liquidation industry, an $80 billion network that gets rid of customer returns and unsold goods, is feeling a pinch as major retailers tighten their grip on inventories after the recession.
Stores are hanging onto more returned goods to try to sell a second time, instead of loading them on pallets for the liquidators to haul away and sell at a discount.
"More of those goods are now going back on the floor," said Tony Hofstede, president and co-owner of Event Sales Inc. in Minneapolis. "They never used to do that."
The change has big implications in the Twin Cities, where Event Sales and Jacobs Trading are two of the major players in the industry.
Ric Tessari closed his liquidation goods store in Brooklyn Park in 2010, for example, when the quality of liquidated goods declined. As major retailers held on to higher-quality returns, the merchandise available to liquidators went south and so did sales, he said.
Tessari, like any closeout retailer who has sold returns from stores such as Target, Wal-Mart and Costco, never had any control over what goods he was buying. Big-box retailers lump all their returns together, regardless of size or department, on pallets or in boxes.