Valid & Invalid transactions

Unintentionally purchasing a heart shaped doughnut on Valentine's day

Q: I bought a donut from Dunkin Donuts because I was hungry and it ended up being heart shaped because of Valentine’s Day. I do not celebrate Valentine days and did not know that it would be heart shaped. I was not sure if I should return the doughnut but did not want to waste food so I ate it. Did I commit kufr or a sin ?

Online retailers selling items they do not keep in stock

Q: Online retailers often sell items that they don’t keep in stock. They conclude the sale and take payment immediately and thereafter acquire the item from the supplier and deliver it to you. Similarly, when hardware stores sell bricks to customers, they conclude the sale and accept payment immediately. Thereafter, they buy the bricks from the supplier and ask the supplier to deliver directly to the customer. Is it permissible to deal in this manner?

Drop shipping

Q: Is the trading concept of ‘drop shipping’ permissible? In ‘drop shipping’, the trader does not keep stock of any item. Instead, he accepts payment for the goods and then forwards the customer’s details to the supplier who will deliver directly to the customer. ‘Drop shipping’ is commonly found in online shopping. Is this permissible?

Cheating in a sale

Q: My neighbour wanted to buy a cooking pot for R100. I told her not to buy it as I will get one for her for just R70. She agreed because she was saving R30 on the same pot. However, my intention was that I will buy the pot for just R55 and tell her that it cost R70. In this way, I will make R15 without telling her. Is this permissible?

Early settlement discount

Q: Please advise if the following type of transactions are valid, not valid or improper:

A business has an agreement with a supplier to pay after 30 days from date of delivery with a limit of R50 000.00. 

1. The business puts a condition on all purchase orders, that should the supplier request an earlier payment, it will incur a early settlement discount of x% on a daily basis.

2. At times the business goes over the limit of R50 000.00 , hence early payment now becomes binding in order for the supplier to deliver further orders, can the business in this situation claim the x% early settlement discounts.