This used to be a thing. My dad always talks about going to the local scrap yard and picking usable car parts out of scrap metal piles for scrap prices back in the day. I do some refrigerant reclaiming for my local scrap yard so I talk to the guys there a fair bit. From what Ive heard the reason you can’t dig through the piles anymore anywhere isn’t because of the loss in profit (because they would make you pay for it anyways) it’s because of liability and people making a mess. Scrap yards are dangerous places, if you got injured there then they would be on the hook legally speaking. Also when people would dig through the piles they would often throw shit everywhere leading to a large amount of extra cleanup. If it wasn’t for those two issues, I know my local scrap yard would love to go back to being able to sell some scrap locally.
Haven’t used amazon or walmart in years. Still ocasionally go to target though because I have to shop somewhere.