You Can Now Hire Someone to Return All Those Unwanted Gifts
Business is booming for returners for hire who collect unwanted items, slap on return labels and stand in long lines to return them
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| Photographs by Matt Genovese for WSJ
Dec. 31, 2025 11:00 am ET
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Gig work for returns is increasing, with Taskrabbit seeing a 62% rise in return-related bookings in November and December.
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Retailers expect 17% of holiday purchases to be returned, totaling $850 billion in returns for the industry this year.
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Post-Christmas returns are projected to increase by 25% to 35% compared with earlier in the season, remaining elevated through early January.
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- Gig work for returns is increasing, with Taskrabbit seeing a 62% rise in return-related bookings in November and December.
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RAMSEY, N.J.—’Tis the season after the season—when gifts are unwrapped, budgets are blown and second thoughts sink in.
Which has led to a mushrooming after-holiday market for gig workers and businesses willing to put in the time to go on a box-laden trek to return clients’ unwanted purchases to retailers or the nearest UPS store.
Taskrabbit, which connects shoppers to gig workers, has seen a 62% year-over-year increase in return-related bookings during November and December, with more people hiring its “taskers” to do the return leg work. ReturnQueen, a six-year-old startup, expects a 15% to 20% increase in January and February, historically the biggest months for returns.
On the morning after Christmas, Paul Caldeira, who works for ReturnQueen, looks through dozens of pickup orders and preps his van with stacks of bags and sorting labels.
Then powered by a glazed doughnut and extra-large energy drink, he zips around driveways in northern New Jersey and nearby New York, ringing doorbells, photographing doorsteps and hauling away the physical aftermath of holiday optimism.
Later he stands in long return lines, with so many boxes stuffed into bags hanging from both arms that others nearby ask why he has so much. “That’s basically what I do for a living,” he tells them. “I save people time.”
Returns are now as much a part of the holiday shopping season as Black Friday discounts.
Merchants expect four out of five people will return an unwanted gift within a month of receiving it this year, and 17% of holiday purchases will be sent back, according to the National Retail Federation. Total returns for the retail industry will reach $850 billion this year.
The givebacks are set to rise in the days after Christmas by 25% to 35% compared with earlier in the season, according to Adobe Analytics. Returns will remain elevated through the first two weeks of January, up 8% to 15%, Adobe said.
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