Originally Posted by
glowworm2k
You can re-sell items you've purchased and not used, but purchasing items for the purposes of re-sale is crossing a line.
While you can argue that "once I buy it, it's mine to do with what I want", and "Loblaws buys from someone else and re-sells, so I can do the same", it's not the same thing. Most manufacturers of products sell their products through their wholesale sales divisions (working as a distributor, not selling to the public) only to authorized retailers. While the stores don't advertize that they're authorized distributors in the same way that Avon or Arbonne reps will, the same types of exclusivity contracts exist so that the product manufacturers still have a say over how the products are placed, advertized, etc. Selling outside of these contracts is often forbidden (think of when no name products declare that they are "Manufactured exclusively for Loblaws Corporation"). If you've ever shopped at a P&G warehouse sale for example, your receipt likely states, along with all the "no exchanges and refunds" language, that "Resale of merchandise/products purchased at this sale is forbidden" - at least that's what it used to say when they did this at the truckload sales in my hometown.
If people are doing this as a money-maker, they also should be registered with a business licence or vendor's permit and be charging either provincial sales taxes or HST depending on how much they earn per year in gross revenues. Their gross sales need to be declared as income, sales taxes need to be remitted, and income taxes paid on the income. If those conditions are satisfied, and you are selling things which are not covered by some sort of exclusivity contract for resale, then it's legal.
But, as an aside to my arguments above, buying personal care products at a yard sale, in my humble opinion, is just more than a little bit gross. There are too many possibilities for the product to be expired, recalled, tampered with in some way, or to be a fake/forgery like the ones you see at flea markets. Just my two cents, but I'll stick to going to the 'usual suspect' big retailers for my deodorant, shampoo, and similar products.