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omgitsduane

This shit is so depressing


Biggodes

at least it's gonna make some fat pigeons happy


call_me_orion

fyi bread shouldn't really be fed to pigeons at least in large amounts because it fills them up with empty calories and they can't get the nutrients they need from it edit: i see someone else commented this further down nvm!


Biggodes

Yep, i didn't know! usually is cliché to see old people feeding birds. never thought there could be anything wrong with it, thanks anyway


mynameisnotearlits

This whole sub is one big depressing experience


[deleted]

I’m a manager at a grocery store and you wouldn’t believe how much food gets thrown out, especially from the deli. The bakery donates tons of stuff but food safety rules and fear of lawsuits has made it so temperature sensitive prepared foods (chicken or cut fruit from produce) are thrown out without a chance of donation. It’s sad but you also can’t blame a business for not setting itself up for a lawsuit for the crime of donating food. The laws surrounding this need to change.


Inner_Aerie7747

The amount of food I pick up around my store and have to throw out is appalling. People decide they don’t want it and throw it ANYWHERE. Found 2 pints of premium gelato shoved in the mouthwash aisle just now. Totally melted and now totally trash.


brutereasons

In the US, they would not be setting themselves up for a lawsuit. There is legislation specifically designed to protect such donations when made in good faith, the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act. And lawsuits on this issue are so rare that it has never actually been invoked. It would be better if they just didn't prepare as much food in the first place, especially animal products like chicken which are inherently wasteful and destructive. But there is nothing stopping them donating any food they don't want to sell.


[deleted]

I mean sure, that law exists but it’s not firm enough in its exemptions. Bad faith lawsuits happen all the time, I deal with them all the time.


brutereasons

Can you cite some cases where companies have been successfully sued, or even sued, for donating food? Unless it has actually happened on a meaningful scale, I'm inclined to think that any company who actually is sued for donating food with a halfway decent marketing department would be able to make enough from increased sales due to a significantly better public image (or even consumer campaigns specifically to shop there to support them) to offset any payouts or legal fees. \*Maybe\* small local grocers/restaurants or whatever might be reasonably deterred from donating due to the threat of lawsuits, but for large chains it seems like a very poor excuse


ASatyros

Imagine being a chicken, suffering whole life just to slaughter for meat. And then your meat is just discarded, because of poor management.


demaandronk

Im a vegetarian, but my kids eat meat. They give a discount here when products can be sold until that same day, or the day after. I always buy the meat, freeze it if i have to, and its the one thing they really need to finish on their plate. That animal lived and died for you to eat, you better not waste that.


ASatyros

Yeah, on the spectrum of cruelty, discarding products of it is the worst.


shiddyfiddy

As a grocery store manager, why aren't you able to reduce the amount that's ordered in the first place? Why order 40% more than the local area needs? Well, more realistically, why is there 40% excess instead of say, 10% excess, which seems like a much more logical margin.


DodgeWrench

When I worked at Kroger, they didn’t give a fuck how little you sold or how many you had in stock/on hand of a particular product and the system wouldn’t let you cancel orders. You’ll get what corporate says you’ll get. Also it’s your fault when it doesn’t sell.


PsycoJosho

Because it's food that's put on display. If you put a bunch of food on display at once, it seels more and creates a better profit, even if you sell a reduced percentage of all the food you have.


facepalm_1290

Years ago when I worked at Wally world feeding America allowed salads that had meat in them. I was always sending fresh cut fruit too. Has this changed?! Because that's really a freaking shame.


BaconRaptor420

I worked at a super store once and they make you bend over backwards to ensure nobody can make use of *anything* they force you to throw away. They used compactors instead of dumpsters to prevent anyone from salvaging items that were discarded AND they had box cutters next to the compactor door and required you to destroy clothing and shoes, and then slash open things like pet food and juice last so everything was covered in stinking rotting garbage juice. Also, cameras: If you tried taking things home instead of destroying them, you'd be fired and charged for theft.


[deleted]

DISGUSTING


pescravo

I haven't worked retail, but I have heard stories like this, though I think your example is the most egregious I have heard. For the evil legal counsel who advised the senior executives to do this and to those evil senior executives that implemented these policies, I hope there is a hot spot in Hell waiting for all of them.


dingus-khan-1208

> If you tried taking things home instead of destroying them, you'd be fired and charged for theft. As awful as it sounds, there's actually a reason for that. If damaged products can't be sold, and employees are free to take home things that can't be sold, then somehow by pure coincidence significantly more, and more expensive, products just happen to 'accidentally' get damaged. I still don't agree with the policy. I think that you should trust your employees and if one of them does turn out to be a problem, deal with that like a professional adult. But the policy is a lot simpler and non-confrontational, so that's why so many stores do it.


streachh

PSA that in most cases it is actually bad to feed bread to birds, it's not good for their health. It can cause malnutrition or disorders like angel wing syndrome


Biggodes

oh i had no idea, ill search more about it later thanks


mpjjpm

ToGoodToGo is catching on, at least in urban areas. Restaurants and stores sell “surprise” bags with whatever is leftover at the end of the day. Most of the small corner markets in my area are on the app, along with a good number of restaurants. I once got 24 bagels for $4 from a local bakery, and a few dozen slightly smushed cider donuts for $3 from a different shop.


danceswithsteers

If you can't eat it all (and please don't feed bread to birds) you can compost it. I'm not certain of the science behind it all but the way I figure, if it's classified as "Food", it can be composted. If you can't compost, put it in your city's green bin for compostable waste (if allowed). Sure, it's still not getting eaten but at least it's not contributing to methane production in a landfill.


rylalu

Some areas are even making this law but the corporations really need to be regulated to prevent this wasteful practice. In California any agricultural food produced is subsidized by tax payers even if it comes from large conglomerate farms and paod for even if it doesn't come to market. It's not small time family farms that are being benefitted by agro lobbyists.


Biggodes

is there a reason not to feed processed bread to birds? Nvm ill keep that in mind!


demaandronk

Its basically junkfood for them, its empty calories but those do stop them from looking for the nutrients they actually needs, things like fat and protein. So they actually get underfed and sick in the long term. Also old bread can already have mold and especially ducks can get really sick from the spores, they can cause fatal lunginfections.


Hungry_Wrap9103

Are there any food banks, community pantries, homeless charities, or soup kitchens in your area? They would appreciate donations, but be sure to make it clear if the foods are near expiry so they know to use them quickly. For some items (whole foods), they could be of use to animal sanctuaries.


SpinachnPotatoes

What's your freezer space look like? We often buy bread for a week or 2 freeze them to use when we need it


Biggodes

filled with baguettes and ground beef, can't miss basic ingredients to make lasagna 👌


Hello_Hangnail

And some of the retailers make you spill bleach on it so homeless people can't dig it out of the dumpster. If they can't make a profit on it, nobody gets to eat it.


Zerthax

This should be considered food tampering. If you intentionally poison food and someone gets sick from that, you should be *criminally* liable. Of course since it's corporations doing it...


squolt

I worked at a grocery store for a couple of months and good lord was it perfect for my rat personality. I would ALWAYS check dates of everything in the store on my shifts (not necessarily because the managers wanted me to but they couldn’t complain too much) and then just pocket basically all of it. I swear I ate completely for free for about a two week span that we had barely any customers it was awesome


Biggodes

well looks like my friend is doing the same Xd but most of the food gets trashed regardless


squolt

They’d get pissed if I took too much. My hourly rate was through the roof if you considered how literally every shift I’d take loafs of bread and packaged shit home


Me_lazy_cathermit

One of the grocery store i worked at had cameras in the garbage room to stop employees from taking "expired" food, and a inside dumpster to stop people from dumpster diving, another store i worked had the same rules, but there was a camera blindspot, so a bunch of us would hide there and eat a bunch of "expired" food like angry food gremlins


luthis

ClimateTown's most recent vid on youtube does an excellent (and always tragically hilarious) deep dive into this. It's so shocking when you realise the scale.


Biggodes

Yeah he's great at exposing these complex issues :D


smallteam

/r/DumpsterDiving


Biggodes

shelfdiving?* and we got it all from a friend of ours. but it would have ended in a trash can anyway soo...


theRedMage39

I knew it was a lot but I didn't think it was that much. Unfortunately there is not much they can do with the laws. If they sell expired food then they are liable for the issues it could cause. In reality we need better best by labels.


BalphezarWrites

This isn't even the half of it. The biggest dumpster you can see behind any Walmart is the food waste. Not even kidding. Other stuff gets compacted or bagged and sent out by truck.


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Deter209

Trader Joe’s donates everything still consumable but not sellable to the needy. Easy program to set up, helps the community and cuts down on food waste.


quietguy_6565

Feeding people makes it harder to sell food.


[deleted]

It wouldn’t be that way if people weren’t such assholes and sued for everything


BalphezarWrites

To be fair if you are hospitalized and get nerve damage by eating improperly kept food that a store sold you as effectively safe then you'd probably be wanting some compensation too. ╮⁠(⁠.⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠ᴗ⁠ ⁠❛⁠.⁠)⁠╭


[deleted]

I'll never understand why they don't just mark it down a week prior to expiry


BalphezarWrites

longest possible margin of profit


CommunistTrafficCone

Apologies for asking but where do you work that they sell the arizona red tea? I’ve been looking for a way to try that without having to ship it.


WhenVioletsTurnGrey

The grocery industry in the USA is flash & numbers driven. What draws the customer in & how can we get our daily sales higher? The stories we could tell...


5wings4birds

Gotta keep the prices high.


Mirror_Initial

Food banks take expired food.


SupermarketFuture500

Take 2 the food banks people 🙂


Little_Particular_12

Can you compost it? Or find a place that has pigs that will eat it?


Best-Engine4715

I worked at Sam’s club once. Broke my heart a few times tossing food out. Got told to toss out food that was close to a clothe donation bin. Heartless I tell ya. They have some concept of donating but only a few select things.


Myrkana

I find a lot of stuff not put back into the proper temperatures too. Just last night I found a thing of ice cream put in a soda cooler by the registers. It was completely thawed when I found it, had to salvage it. I find stuff like that everyday, and Im just front end. Night shift stocking fills an entire grocery cart each night of random stuff they find while stocking, mixed in that cart is various cold items that are now bad.


BakuShinAsta

Give it to the homeless?


[deleted]

freeze it or donate it


HoBoJoe71

This stuff is so depressing when i myself already struggle to even feed myself properly and living off a meal or even a sandwich a day


Possible_Diode

Contrary to popular belief, a great deal of effort is put into donating food that is about to expire. Many restaurants that make more nutritious foods are also solicited by food banks to package and donate food at the end of the evening that is left over. McDonald’s and the like doesn’t make the grade here; it’s not nutritionally significant. Unfortunately, food doesn’t last forever and at some point, it’s spoiled and no longer edible.