A worker at an organic beauty retailer here in the city has accumulated a stash of perfectly good products — shampoos, conditioners, eyeshadow palettes, lipsticks, body butters, night creams, the works — all in mint condition but with slightly imperfect packaging or lightly swatched. The kind of stuff that's functionally identical to what you'd pay full price for on the shelf.

So naturally, they tried to donate it. And naturally, the donation centers said no. They only want *newly bought* products.

Let that sink in. We live in a city that spends billions on social services and homelessness programs, a city where nonprofits multiply like sourdough starters, and yet when someone tries to hand over free, usable goods to people who need them, the bureaucratic gatekeepers say "no thanks, the box is dented."