Many store owners have a fine-grained control over return policy.

I remember ctown@Bayonne. I think the owner has a policy that any returned merchandize must be absolutely good enough for resale. If an ice cream is opened but apparently untouched, then he needs to judge the customer’s integrity. He once put my returned ice cream back on the shelf, right in front of me, as a silent but /stark reminder/ to me “Hey, if you are dishonest then another buyer will eat your leftovers.”

In contrast, many shops esp. big shops like Walmart accept returns without hesitation. Most of the items would be sent back to producer for refurbishment/recycling, automatically, but some returned items would be discarded, such as food.

I often feel guilty about the waste. So I often return the item unopened, in original packaging, either in SG or U.S.

I think these shops have a bigger profit margin to absorb this kinda “marketing cost”. The generous return i.e. try-buy is a marketing policy.