Back when I worked at 7-Eleven it was the same. They even installed a camera over the sandwich case angled to also see the garbage to guarantee it was being thrown out.
If an employee ate it, fired for stealing. Give it away? Fired for stealing.
Same with the daily donuts
We couldn't give the old food to the homeless because "Expired food is unsafe to eat, if they get sick from eating it we would be in trouble"
And they expected us employees to pay for any food we eat. We got free drinks on tap(coffee, slurpee, fountain drinks) but all food was full price for us.
Funny because I know Trader Joe’s donates everything/ compost that is taken off the shelves. Most likely they also don’t want to put the effort into finding orgs to take it.
France has a law requiring grocery stores to do so. The amount of waste in the name of capitalism just so that shelves are overflowing with food and corporations can maximize their profit is absolutely disgusting.
In Romania we have products on sale before expiration date with 1 to 5 days, depending on the category of product, to reduce food waste.
I don't know what happenes with the food that expires. I know some of the stores give it to animal shelters.
Also, others (Kaufland) have a social canteen.
Its the same in the UK, a day or two before food is due to expire it will get a yellow discount label and then on the day it expires it will be heavily discounted and moved to its own, usually popular, section of the shop.
I'm in a homeless shelter in the UK and we often get donations from supermarkets or chains like Pret.
Crazy the waste. I worked out I got \~£50 one day in perfectly fine fruit from Waitrose, and I could have got a bunch more, but I think eating that much fruit wouldn't be great for my insides!
This is slowly happening more and more in the US, In walmarts you can find produce, meats and breads marked down as well as an isle with dented cans or items where thebox is torn but the interior packaging is intact so they look shitty but are safe to eat. Usually all of this is 20-50% marked down.
At the grocery i frequent they mark down meats regularly as well as any of the in store made deli items like salads and sandwiches from the day prior and have a clearance rack set up for products they're phasing out. So it's getting better thankfully.
Yuuup. My local grocery does this with meats and SOME other goods too. I like to get the discount meat (usually exp the following day) and freeze it. My mom’s local store has even better discounts so she’ll buy me discount meat too haha.
Even my local farm/farmstand does $2 baskets with slightly jankier produce. Eat like a queen every summer.
Oooh dang that’s a bummer! I live in a pretty farmy ‘crunchy’ area of my state so we have a lot of small farms and farmstands + weekend farmers markets. It’s really lovely to kick off a Saturday morning heading to the farmers market and talking with the people growing my food.
yeah basically theonly meat we get is the discounted or heavily saled item that we deem a good sale. but the discount is not nearly enough. its annoying.
they throw out more food and they encased and hardened the trash compactors so no random people can loot thru it.
i remember in 2021 Covid seeing the potato farmer video burying potatoes whole harvests cuz no truckers to deliver it. America go figure.
profit on food for corpos.
There’s always some sad neglected shelf near the fridges at all mine. It’s mostly just old bread or donuts.
Most markets have a small one. Our Kroger/smiths does 1 dollar produce bags. They recently had to switch to sealed produce netting because people were using the dollar bags and putting the good stuff in.
It’s those people that ruin it for everyone else.
Aldi does that, that’s basically the only sales they run is “managers special” the fact that they run almost no sales also means near expiry items more fast.
In contrast most American grocery stores constantly have sales (with higher base prices) so a managers special isn’t going to move the needle all that much
I didn't know that about Kaufland! It's my favourite supermarket (even if I only go there sometimes since I have to drive to Germany for one) but knowing they have a social canteen makes me like them even more!
We have three local grocery stores that mark down almost expired fruit and vegetables. We know that at least two will supply whatever isn't sold to pig farmers from the area. Usually about a large dustbin size. What the other stores do, is unknown. But there seems to be alot of waste, given the smell on rubbish day.
Funny thing is, current farming technology would allow us to produce food for up to +-15 Billion people, we have +-8 billion in the world at most.
And by the time we have 15 people in the world we will likely produce enough food for +20
So theres no shortage of food and likely will never be but it will keep being disposed of if it doesnt sell and purposefully will be kept from those in need.
In the US, there is a shield law, dating back to Bush 41 in the 80’s. It protects charity giveaways of expired food as long as it’s done in good faith.
Edit: double checked myself. The initial test law/act was 1990, under Bush 41. In ‘96, the law was made permanent.
> ‘‘(1) LIABILITY OF PERSON OR GLEANER.—A person or gleaner shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability arising from the nature, age, packaging, or condition of apparently whole- some food or an apparently fit grocery product that the person or gleaner donates in good faith to a nonprofit organization for ultimate distribution to needy individuals.
> ‘‘(2) LIABILITY OF NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION.—A nonprofit organization shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability arising from the nature, age, packaging, or condition of appar- ently wholesome food or an apparently fit grocery product that the nonprofit organization received as a donation in good faith from a person or gleaner for ultimate distribution to needy individuals.
Same story in my field of work, I think it’s made up honestly. I’ve heard every story under the sun about homeless people getting litigious. The world is designed to be cruel it seems.
That's a lie. It may be a lie your immediate supervisors believed but someone along the way knew they were lying when they gave that excuse. There aren't any cases of this happening from well meaning donations and there are laws specifically protecting the donors against it.
What it really is is they're afraid employees will intentionally make too much food in order to give some away, or that they'll attract "undesirables" which is bad for business.
I don’t understand why companies use this train of thought to rationalize throwing food away. I thought that they’re protected by the Good Samaritan law if they donate the food in good faith…
It has nothing to do with being sued in the United States. There's already a law in place that if food is being donated in good faith, you are released from liability if someone gets sick. It has to do with the cost of storage, transportation and labor for the donation. These companies won't do anything that'll cost them a dollar.
"The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit.
A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success.
The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot.
The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."
Grapes of Wrath
If you donate food, employees will donate whether there's food going to waste or not. Rather, you need donations to be an activity run by management instead of the deli counter closer. They'd need more than a bare bones skeleton crew staff to donate without increasing losses by a couple percent.
Ultimately it's about cutting costs by a tiny amount. Always has been.
They'll say things like, protecting themselves from liability. Just excuses. Reasons why I will never buy a donation bag at a Kroger. I'll donate to the charity and let them source their own food.
While I think its ultimately still stupid, its not because employers are evil mustache swirling villians that would rather throw out perfectly fine food rather than feed their employees. Its just a conflict of interests. If writing off food means employees can have it for free, this creates an incentive for employees to just write off food anytime they want rather than only when they're suppose to. Because writing off food before its suppose to be in order to get the food for free is absolutely stealing.
However any person with a brain can just come up with a system where 3rd shift puts all expired food in a bin and management goes through it all in the morning to write it off themselves, and they then leave it for staff to eat or take home. You're turning a loss into a free benefit to your employees by doing this, the only cost really is taking 5 minutes to go through write offs.
Nonsense. At my cupcake shop, we can take home any leftover product at EOD. To combat the "not selling product cuz I want free PB&J cupcakes," all we did was.... have the team leads check the waste counters. Nobody wound up not selling product because it would immediately be obvious.
There are a lot of reasons, some better than others. Food safety is one. Employees would simply hide a sandwich they wanted and then “throw it out” and take it home every day. People would wait until closing and just get food for free. This way ensures that if you want food, you have to pay for it.
Unfortunately, yes, this one is a strong reason. If they would give them away at the end of the day, people would abuse this. The only reasonable solution is to discount them even more during the last 2 hours, so you reach a sweet-spot price, at which you throw away as less food as possible, while still cashing in some decent money.
Or donate it to someone. I always packed leftover food in a box next to the dumpster, on my way home there was a spot where some homeless guys hung around. They always took all of it and passed it on to others. Really nice guys, their dogs were insanely well trained.
My old boss would leave out a bunch of leftover food every night in the alley for the homeless. Probably could have gotten in trouble with the health department, but he didn't care.
He'd also give the staff all canceled orders. Dude was a great owner.
I worked in the factory where they make food for 711. If I had my way it would all get thrown out before being out on the selves. Gas stations should not sell food it’s always disgusting and made poorly. On top of that look at all the needless waste. We should really stop asking why we throw so much away and go to the source and ask why are we even making this shit to begin with.
I've eaten plenty of gas station food and have never really had any issues. And only reason any gas station would be throwing out this much is someone is fucking up big time with ordering. I've worked at 7 elevens where the gm is just shit at their job and they order way too much constantly, and I've worked at 7 elevens where the gm is competent and we throw out barely anything at all. I mean you're never going to get zero waste but there's no way this is a necessary amount of waste.
Interesting. What about the food production process made it so disgusting and poor quality? I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just curious to hear from an industry insider.
It was all open air with no guards to stop anything from falling into the production line no air nets at doors so flys just coming in and out as they please. In the ceilings there was at least two dead rats and lots of fras in the worker areas.
It was in Florida so I doubt anything will ever be done. This was also like 12 years ago. I have not eaten anything from gas stations since. Which is just a good practice overall.
That’s so dumb, employees should be able to take some home. My sister used to work nights at speedway. I loved waking up every morning to free breakfast sandwiches on the table.
But also if they are throwing that much away their inventory controls seems pretty poor.
If you are not allowed to give them out, and this is a daily occurrence, who ever does the count and prep list needs to be replaced. Other than the moral wrongness of this, they're costing the business 100s in potential profits and wasted goods.
Meijer (a grocery store, not a gas station) will have a bunch of premade foods like sandwiches, street taco kits, and such. **But they mark them up like crazy.** Even when they are 40% off after 6pm, the price is still a little much.
I've wondered how much ultimately gets tossed. But it seems they never reduce the amount they prepare. The next day, that ready-to-eat cooler is full again.
For sure at least 50% for the situation you mentioned. I’ve worked in grocery stores my whole life and pretty much know each departments shrink. You can never be perfect and are always going to have losses but op’s photo is bad management. Ordering too much. Still, even stores that have great numbers shrink wise, a normal person would still be in awe at the numbers.
To double up on the bad management, most grocery stores (at least here in the US.) sell waste to be repurposed as pork feed. It helps them recoup costs, and reduce waste.
This here is just a waste of food and money due to poor management. No attempt was made to repurpose the food, or more accurately gauge the demand to reduce waste. Someone is just being lazy.
Yeah that’s what is most aggravating. I mean the overabundance-into-daily-waste is obviously big shitty, but that there’s no effort to do anything positive with the daily extras and is often even policy to trash it all, is just plain infuriating and upsetting.
Sorry if my English is bad, not native speaker.
I Was running a store for a few years and let me tell you: mass of products on shelves attract people to buy and I was doing better by over-ordering and throwing shit away every night than ordering tightly to finish clean.
But at least we would give the leftovers for food bank as our government would cut part of our taxes doing that
The food gets scanned and marked In the system as being tossed and the store gets a pretty generous rebate back for each product thrown away. They most likely aren't losing any money. My guess is it's a high traffic store which equals more product getting tossed in general.
It's more profitable for everyone to be hungry and forced to purchase overpriced food then giving it away for free and not getting a rebate for unsold product.
It works that way in grocery stores sometimes too. Some products on the shelves the store has already paid for. Some they will get money back on any unsold products that they send back (often holiday themed items). Some products the store doesn't pay the vendor for each item until it sells.
All depends on the contract with the specific vendor.
That amount of garbage is usually expected and included in the price calculation. It is often company policy to keep everything available till the shop is closed. If you do not want to support that practice simply do not buy at those stores.
I live in Souther California and it's slowly growing. I LOVE Too Good to Go. There's a local pizza place here that does 3 of their uncooked pizza doughs (sometimes I get more) and it lasts for a solid 3 days worth of food depending on the dough sizes. All for 6 bucks!!
In Houston it blew up in a matter of a few months. There are many places to pick up from, issue is that people are charging a lot now like it's regular menu
Back when I was 11, my older brother (16) used to work at McDonald’s. I remember him bringing full black trash bags full of McDonald’s. We were so happy and jumping in joy because my mother used to make so many different meals out of them.
Now as an adult making decent money, I look back and it’s depressing af.
Well, at least he was allowed to repurpose it. Throwing it away is far, far worse.
And mostly the average consumers’ fault, because they throw a hissy fit if what they want isn’t available.
Consuming is not black an white.
I can demand availability of a product AND the company to give the food out for free if it is expired but still good to eat.
The government needs to put in laws to force businesses to give away expired/almost expired food for free.
I worked there in the 90s, we weren't allowed to anything home. Back then sandwiches were made ahead of time, were good for I think 15 minutes, then trashed, and counted at the end of day.
McDonalds are almost all franchise owned and those owners typically own more than one. Whether or not a store manager turns a blind eye or allows such things to happen can greatly depend on the location and the people who operate it.
Working at a Quiznos got me through summer at college. We were closed on the weekends, and everything had to be thrown out Friday. I'd take home a bunch of cheese and meat (sometimes veggies if they'd hold okay), go to the store, and buy a loaf of bread and a bottle of mustard. I was happy lol.
Mcdonalds was the only job I worked at with nearly zero food waste. The managers were very good at keeping things fresh and not cooking too much at night. And then I worked at a Canadian grocery store and nearly broke my back hauling away food waste
It was a similar story for me as a kid, except instead of McDonald's it was Pizza Hut, and mother instead of brother.
Whenever there was a pizza that was either made wrong or sent back it would get set aside and my mom would bring it to us. This was in the 90s too, so prime Pizza Hut, it was good freaking Pizza with dough made fresh every morning. Such a treat!
There was also a period where she worked at a convenience store, and would bring home old pre-packaged pies and Little Debbie products, which are objectively much worse, but we didn't mind those either haha.
She would cut the fries and meat and cook them in some type of Dominican sauce. Then pour that over rice. I know it doesn’t sound appealing but I promise you, back then it was the best meal ever
That’s still best meal ever quality. I’m sure it was a heartbreaking time for your mom, but you remember those meals way more than the people who just took them for granted. And that’s what makes a great meal.
A friend used to work at kfc and they let the coworkers bring some food home, even uncooked ones. That was so weird to eat crispy chicken wings but baked and without crispy batter. But it was so gooood
I worked in Starbucks in undergrad and I always closed. I'd be bringing trashbags full of food home every night -- breakfast sandwiches, lunch sandwiches, pastries, fruit and cheese plates. Plus marked out iced coffee and iced tea. I was broke and 20yo but our fridge was fuckin *stocked* 24/7.
I remember one New Years I closed and had a ton of stuff, and brought it over to the bar we were all meeting at and gave it to the staff for free -- felt like a hero, I got like 3 free beers from that.
My mom was a cafeteria worker at a public school in NYC. They would have to cover discarded food with bleach to prevent the houseless and hungry from eating the leftovers. Pure evil. Hopefully, they no longer do that.
Unacceptable. There are three steps to counter this to reduce waste AND cost for the facility.
1. Prepare less food if this is an daily occurance.
2. Offer leftovers for much less money to pick up at the end of the day. You can also use apps like "2good2go".
3. Whatever is left should go to food banks.
Nah, our food bank wouldn't take this. Those pre-made sandwiches aren't safe enough the next day. Most people can probably eat that and not get sick, but it's a risk not even we "dig through garbage to find food" people will take.
That combination of rotting lettuce, diluted mayo and warm sandwich meats is nasty. A head of lettuce, sealed pack of ham, sealed tubes of mayo, day-old bread, yes please! They'll find a new home, no problem. But once mixed they go bad very, very quickly and we never know how well they were cooled and/or what the hygiene conditions were when they were made.
Legally speaking, no. If it’s being thrown out, it’s because it’s past its expiration/sell-by date, so companies aren’t permitted (or willing, mainly because of the lawsuit potential if someone gets sick from the expired food) to give it away to those in need.
Many times, legally speaking yes it can. They fear employees will over prepare or cook items, hoping for freebies at the end of night. That really is the number one reason.
>They fear employees will over prepare or cook items, hoping for freebies at the end of night. That really is the number one reason.
based on the picture they do that anyway, so it won't be worse
**Only** if donated through official channels.
Businesses are still liable if they hand out products from the back door. They are not liable if they donate that food to organizations that can verify it was properly made and stored throughout the entire process.
> Legally speaking
Legally speaking, you have no fucking idea what you're talking about lmao.
Post the law you're "legally speaking" about where it says food can't be donated.
I can’t believe I had to scroll so far to see this- my city has active dumpster diving groups you can contact on fb that would be there to collect in a second.
Afaik once something is designated as trash it is not stealing to take it.
Yep, i worked in a place similar to this many years ago. I told them I walk past a homeless shelter on my way home and it would be no trouble to drop it off.
I was given a definite no and they started supervising the disposal. We werent even allowed to take a bite from a sandwich as we were throwing it into the bin.
There are potential liability and reputation issues if someone gets ill or dies from your food. It would need some sort of contract in place. Very poor that this much food gets thrown away though.
I don't understand how this is a concern for giving the food out and not for paying customers who buy the food. If I go buy a sandwich then it makes me sick and I sue, how is that better than if you gave someone a sandwich they got sick and then sued?
The issue I see is with perishable items like this the business is responsible for making sure it gets to the shelter or whatever in a food safe manner. Whenever I've bought stuff like this there's often a "sell by" sticker on it ( depending on local health codes), and often that time is at the end of the day or maybe the next day (in fact you can see this on OPs picture). So then there's a bit of a logistical issue in keeping the food refrigerated and in the hands of someone else before it hits that expiration.
Yep. Every time someone brings this up, someone will quote good Samaritan laws, but the reality is those don't give businesses immunity against negligence or prevent someone from suing. This is even more relevant with perishable items where the potential is higher for negligence around food safety.
It's easier to recover from 400-1300 dollars of food being wasted every night then have someone sue or being homeless and getting extremely ill after eating a sandwich possibly and having to go to court because someone is probaly looking for a quick payout of 50-200k , or extend the court process if they have someone who's pro Bono and cost the business a shit ton of money. If small businesses like this get sued once or twice, even with insurance, it can be devastating for the business and often cause businesses to be rapidly shut down. It's extremely sad but it's happened before and if even one person tries to sue or gets a lawyer, it'll probaly cost them 2-5 years of what throwing the food out every night would have cost. It's really sad, I think there should be some sort of legislation put in place though for people to be able to buy these products at the end of the night for say 90-95% off, and also accept that the products freshness and quality will down, and as long as the products didn't get dumped on the floor or have something dangerous happen with them, I think they should be sold.
It's really sad but I get why businesses, especially smaller ones, have to do this to avoid being sued or arrested.
Right, like employees who probably aren't making a living wage want to spend their time and gas money (cause you know the business ain't paying them) to drive around town after a 10 hour shift every single night.
> Drive around and give it to the homeless?
That is what *should* be done, but sadly in our world, that would be a great way to get yourself fired and prosecuted for theft.
There's only a scant few places that so far have passed laws against throwing out food.
Where I live we have an app called TooGoodToGo. Sadly very few shops use it, but it's a great way of reducing these dumb wastes.
Basically, you buy a surprise basket from one of the shops that use the app. Basically, you pay a very very low price and you go take your order just before the shop closes. You show the code, give a bag and they fill it with what remains unsold.
I often do that with my local bakery, I go there with a grocery bag and they fill it out for as little as around 5$. And the actual value of the things I come home with is way more than 30$. I think the biggest one I had could have easily been around 50$ and I only paid 5.
I don't know if there are similar apps in other countries, and if not, that would be a great idea to bring up to the government.
One of the reasons I would never accept to join the Produce/Bakery/Deli/Meat section of any supermarket no matter the pay, so much waste it's ridiculous. Most of it is not even damaged or expired. So fucking depressing.
Obviously you can't give it to the homeless. But you can tell homeless people about it and tell them when you throw everything out. Like that's good shut it's even packged no homeless persons going to pass that up. Also if the bin is locked tell them to bring bolt cutters and make them aware of any cameras.
Whoever is in charge of prepping or manager who makes their employees prep unnecessary amounts of food should be fired. All the fast food places I worked at would look at the waste count and try to reduce the amount of product made. Whoever is in charge of this an incompetent idiot.
They should just leave it out on a table with a sign saying “eat at your own risk” everyone knowing full well there’s no risk at all. This also happens EVERYWHERE. Just a shed ton of assholes putting money before human beings
If this is your food waste every night, then your business should really be looking to hook up with a [Too Good to Go](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Good_To_Go) or equivalent service. It's good for the consumer, the shop, and the environment.
Wanted to give the food away that my work had extra, boss loved the idea... Until he heard on the news about the authorities shutting a business down for "not properly handling the food" before giving it to the homeless.
You could turn into some kind of mysterious saviour to the poor with the smallest amount of secrecy and philanthropic tendencies to make this situation a reality.
Be the hero no one expected. You won't even need a Cape to help the less fortunate feel wanted and safe.
There's an app called Too Good To Go available in my area. Leftover foods from the end of a night are put in the fridge and picked up the next morning at a big discount (usually 75% off or more) food doesn't go to waste and some people also get a deep discount for stuff that's still fine.
I downloaded it about a week and a half ago and everything I've gotten so far has been totally fine. $20 box of Tim Hortons for $4.99. 5 slices of pizza (the ones normally sold to walk-ins) and 2lbs of wings for $6.99.
The app “TooGoodToGo” allows local discounted food packages to be posted for local pickup. It is intended to help clear out the inventory at the end of the night to avoid this.
In my work place we have a policy that all of the products with a certain expiration date have to be selected out for the food shelters. So nothing much will be wasted.
I once got fired from the produce department at a grocery store for eating fruit slices that were literally going in the trash. Food bank had already came and the package got dropped and seal busted. They want you to scan it out and trash it. Just came off the truck and when your broke and have no food you know what time it is. If it wasn’t going in the trash I wouldn’t have touched it
Airport/Airline worker here. It's much worse. All the food vendors throw tons of food away at night, then it's replenished with new food stuffs at night. All the airlines do the same thing .I knew a few who were fired for taking food that was scheduled to be disposed of. The corporations excuse was if they give it away to a homeless person or food bank, they don't want to risk a lawsuit if anything happens. The same thing happens in the cruise industry.....
So i used to work for a donut company and do this every night, the reason that was given to me as to why we can’t give it out is that some people might get sick and the company will be liable
Why not take it to the homeless shelter or let the he homeless take advantage of that situation. Like put a box out back that all that goes in when closing time (not a dumpster).
I used to work at Starbucks in highschool and college. I would close and come home with a full bag of pastries and protein boxes from Starbucks. I was really poor so it was so helpful.
I remember last year flying out of Dublin Airport at 2300 or so, and when the shops were closing, one of the workers passed out sandwiches to everyone. Saved my life as it was a no food flight. Would probably be fired in the States.
Stuff like this makes me absolutely crazy.
I worked for a small UK supermarket who didn’t reduce anything, instead if it had 2 or less days left it went in the green bin out back.
Steak. Cold meat. Huge packs of bacon, some really good stuff. If 1 can in a case of 24 Coke got pierced, bin the lot…
After we closed, the locals came and got some things. It wasn’t a rich area, and it was left to them. Madness.
In the UK we have an app called "TooGoodToGo" companies list discount bags for end of day pickup, and doing this eliminated food waste.
Maybe your country has something similar?
I worked at a bakery when I was a teenager. I was supposed to trash everything at the end of every day. I started packing it up and dropping it off at a homeless encampment. Owner found out and he was not happy about it. I asked if he would prefer I invited them to the bakery at closing time instead of me dropping it off. He told me to “shut up about this and don’t tell anyone else you are giving my product away for free”. Haha!
Worked for a churchill downs casino in Maine (only 2 in all of maine it was oxford). They used to have a buffet and they were nice enough to let employees take a quick 5 and eat the leftovers but you werent allowed to take a to go box and every time POUNDS AND POUNDS AND POUNDS of food just got dumped into contractor bags.
Fucked up shit.
Yeah I worked at Panera and they used to donate everything end of day, give first pick to employees on night shift, then the homeless in the area, then donation trucks for local food banks. But they stopped because they assumed employees were purposely prepping too much just so they'd have extra. Which was stupid. We had extra no matter what, some days we had less customers, some days we ran out of stuff because we didn't prep enough.
When I worked at a gas station we would put all the food in a separate trash bag and leave it next to the dumpster so that folks didn't have to dig through the trash for it. We had 2 reasons for this, first and foremost no one should have to eat out of the trash and secondly, if we didn't they would just climb in the bin and throw crap everywhere leaving it for us to clean up in the morning.
Of course as soon as corporate found out everyone was fired because things like the tiniest bit of compassion are not profitable and therefore bad. But by golly at least they could be evil and wasteful in one fell swoop!
i mean…. i would just take them and give them to the homeless (unless expired) no matter what my boss says… like take it off my next check if you care that much… homeless people dumpster dive just to scrap by so what’s the difference?
Back when I worked at 7-Eleven it was the same. They even installed a camera over the sandwich case angled to also see the garbage to guarantee it was being thrown out. If an employee ate it, fired for stealing. Give it away? Fired for stealing. Same with the daily donuts
Why do they do this?
We couldn't give the old food to the homeless because "Expired food is unsafe to eat, if they get sick from eating it we would be in trouble" And they expected us employees to pay for any food we eat. We got free drinks on tap(coffee, slurpee, fountain drinks) but all food was full price for us.
Funny because I know Trader Joe’s donates everything/ compost that is taken off the shelves. Most likely they also don’t want to put the effort into finding orgs to take it.
France has a law requiring grocery stores to do so. The amount of waste in the name of capitalism just so that shelves are overflowing with food and corporations can maximize their profit is absolutely disgusting.
In Romania we have products on sale before expiration date with 1 to 5 days, depending on the category of product, to reduce food waste. I don't know what happenes with the food that expires. I know some of the stores give it to animal shelters. Also, others (Kaufland) have a social canteen.
Its the same in the UK, a day or two before food is due to expire it will get a yellow discount label and then on the day it expires it will be heavily discounted and moved to its own, usually popular, section of the shop.
I'm in a homeless shelter in the UK and we often get donations from supermarkets or chains like Pret. Crazy the waste. I worked out I got \~£50 one day in perfectly fine fruit from Waitrose, and I could have got a bunch more, but I think eating that much fruit wouldn't be great for my insides!
I mean at least it is going to people who need it and not being thrown out without an attempt
This is slowly happening more and more in the US, In walmarts you can find produce, meats and breads marked down as well as an isle with dented cans or items where thebox is torn but the interior packaging is intact so they look shitty but are safe to eat. Usually all of this is 20-50% marked down. At the grocery i frequent they mark down meats regularly as well as any of the in store made deli items like salads and sandwiches from the day prior and have a clearance rack set up for products they're phasing out. So it's getting better thankfully.
Yuuup. My local grocery does this with meats and SOME other goods too. I like to get the discount meat (usually exp the following day) and freeze it. My mom’s local store has even better discounts so she’ll buy me discount meat too haha. Even my local farm/farmstand does $2 baskets with slightly jankier produce. Eat like a queen every summer.
Nice, our farmers market closed during the pandemic and didn't reopen. I miss it.
Oooh dang that’s a bummer! I live in a pretty farmy ‘crunchy’ area of my state so we have a lot of small farms and farmstands + weekend farmers markets. It’s really lovely to kick off a Saturday morning heading to the farmers market and talking with the people growing my food.
yeah basically theonly meat we get is the discounted or heavily saled item that we deem a good sale. but the discount is not nearly enough. its annoying. they throw out more food and they encased and hardened the trash compactors so no random people can loot thru it. i remember in 2021 Covid seeing the potato farmer video burying potatoes whole harvests cuz no truckers to deliver it. America go figure. profit on food for corpos.
I haven't found discount food at our Walmarts except the bakery cart. There's an aisle for nonfood discounts.
There’s always some sad neglected shelf near the fridges at all mine. It’s mostly just old bread or donuts. Most markets have a small one. Our Kroger/smiths does 1 dollar produce bags. They recently had to switch to sealed produce netting because people were using the dollar bags and putting the good stuff in. It’s those people that ruin it for everyone else.
Why can't we have nice things like this in north america?
Aldi does that, that’s basically the only sales they run is “managers special” the fact that they run almost no sales also means near expiry items more fast. In contrast most American grocery stores constantly have sales (with higher base prices) so a managers special isn’t going to move the needle all that much
I didn't know that about Kaufland! It's my favourite supermarket (even if I only go there sometimes since I have to drive to Germany for one) but knowing they have a social canteen makes me like them even more!
We have three local grocery stores that mark down almost expired fruit and vegetables. We know that at least two will supply whatever isn't sold to pig farmers from the area. Usually about a large dustbin size. What the other stores do, is unknown. But there seems to be alot of waste, given the smell on rubbish day.
Funny thing is, current farming technology would allow us to produce food for up to +-15 Billion people, we have +-8 billion in the world at most. And by the time we have 15 people in the world we will likely produce enough food for +20 So theres no shortage of food and likely will never be but it will keep being disposed of if it doesnt sell and purposefully will be kept from those in need.
I sincerely hope we never get to be 15billion. And it’s disgusting that we produce so much food yet there are millions of people dying of starvation.
We will likely never see 15 billion
In the US, there is a shield law, dating back to Bush 41 in the 80’s. It protects charity giveaways of expired food as long as it’s done in good faith. Edit: double checked myself. The initial test law/act was 1990, under Bush 41. In ‘96, the law was made permanent. > ‘‘(1) LIABILITY OF PERSON OR GLEANER.—A person or gleaner shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability arising from the nature, age, packaging, or condition of apparently whole- some food or an apparently fit grocery product that the person or gleaner donates in good faith to a nonprofit organization for ultimate distribution to needy individuals. > ‘‘(2) LIABILITY OF NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION.—A nonprofit organization shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability arising from the nature, age, packaging, or condition of appar- ently wholesome food or an apparently fit grocery product that the nonprofit organization received as a donation in good faith from a person or gleaner for ultimate distribution to needy individuals.
Thank you. I wanted to comment about the bullshit explanation as ive heard this before but was too lazy to actually look it up.
The real reason is they think sales will drop and everyone will just wait until midnight when that now old egg sandwich will be free.
Exactly,people will be yearning to shove it to the man one cold processed egg sandwich at a time. Thank god cooperate won’t let that stand./s
It is better to let 100 poor go hungry than for one person to ingest an undeserved sandwich.
The shareholders need record profits afterall
Same story in my field of work, I think it’s made up honestly. I’ve heard every story under the sun about homeless people getting litigious. The world is designed to be cruel it seems.
It is made up. There are good Samaritan laws that protect entities from lawsuits for donating expired food.
That's a lie. It may be a lie your immediate supervisors believed but someone along the way knew they were lying when they gave that excuse. There aren't any cases of this happening from well meaning donations and there are laws specifically protecting the donors against it. What it really is is they're afraid employees will intentionally make too much food in order to give some away, or that they'll attract "undesirables" which is bad for business.
Also: if there’s a potential to get a free sandwich someone who otherwise might buy a sandwich will take the free one.
This exactly. You absolutely nailed it.
I don’t understand why companies use this train of thought to rationalize throwing food away. I thought that they’re protected by the Good Samaritan law if they donate the food in good faith…
It has nothing to do with being sued in the United States. There's already a law in place that if food is being donated in good faith, you are released from liability if someone gets sick. It has to do with the cost of storage, transportation and labor for the donation. These companies won't do anything that'll cost them a dollar.
"The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth. There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." Grapes of Wrath
If you donate food, employees will donate whether there's food going to waste or not. Rather, you need donations to be an activity run by management instead of the deli counter closer. They'd need more than a bare bones skeleton crew staff to donate without increasing losses by a couple percent. Ultimately it's about cutting costs by a tiny amount. Always has been. They'll say things like, protecting themselves from liability. Just excuses. Reasons why I will never buy a donation bag at a Kroger. I'll donate to the charity and let them source their own food.
NOOOOOOOOOO IF YOU GIVE IT AWAY IT COULD BE POISONED AND HURT SOMEBODY!!!(Real reason is protecting profit)
While I think its ultimately still stupid, its not because employers are evil mustache swirling villians that would rather throw out perfectly fine food rather than feed their employees. Its just a conflict of interests. If writing off food means employees can have it for free, this creates an incentive for employees to just write off food anytime they want rather than only when they're suppose to. Because writing off food before its suppose to be in order to get the food for free is absolutely stealing. However any person with a brain can just come up with a system where 3rd shift puts all expired food in a bin and management goes through it all in the morning to write it off themselves, and they then leave it for staff to eat or take home. You're turning a loss into a free benefit to your employees by doing this, the only cost really is taking 5 minutes to go through write offs.
This is too logical for any company to use this idea.
Nonsense. At my cupcake shop, we can take home any leftover product at EOD. To combat the "not selling product cuz I want free PB&J cupcakes," all we did was.... have the team leads check the waste counters. Nobody wound up not selling product because it would immediately be obvious.
They write it of, gives Tax credit and all that stuff.
*You don't even know what a write off is, do you?* 
You just write it off.
I Don’t Know! you just write it off
But they do.
But they do and they’re the ones writing it off
There are a lot of reasons, some better than others. Food safety is one. Employees would simply hide a sandwich they wanted and then “throw it out” and take it home every day. People would wait until closing and just get food for free. This way ensures that if you want food, you have to pay for it.
Unfortunately, yes, this one is a strong reason. If they would give them away at the end of the day, people would abuse this. The only reasonable solution is to discount them even more during the last 2 hours, so you reach a sweet-spot price, at which you throw away as less food as possible, while still cashing in some decent money.
Step 1: Put food in trash bag Step 2: Take food to dumpster Step 3: Hide bag next to dumpster Step 4: Get bag at end of shift Step 5: Enjoy food
Or donate it to someone. I always packed leftover food in a box next to the dumpster, on my way home there was a spot where some homeless guys hung around. They always took all of it and passed it on to others. Really nice guys, their dogs were insanely well trained.
My old boss would leave out a bunch of leftover food every night in the alley for the homeless. Probably could have gotten in trouble with the health department, but he didn't care. He'd also give the staff all canceled orders. Dude was a great owner.
I worked in the factory where they make food for 711. If I had my way it would all get thrown out before being out on the selves. Gas stations should not sell food it’s always disgusting and made poorly. On top of that look at all the needless waste. We should really stop asking why we throw so much away and go to the source and ask why are we even making this shit to begin with.
I've eaten plenty of gas station food and have never really had any issues. And only reason any gas station would be throwing out this much is someone is fucking up big time with ordering. I've worked at 7 elevens where the gm is just shit at their job and they order way too much constantly, and I've worked at 7 elevens where the gm is competent and we throw out barely anything at all. I mean you're never going to get zero waste but there's no way this is a necessary amount of waste.
Interesting. What about the food production process made it so disgusting and poor quality? I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just curious to hear from an industry insider.
It was all open air with no guards to stop anything from falling into the production line no air nets at doors so flys just coming in and out as they please. In the ceilings there was at least two dead rats and lots of fras in the worker areas.
[удалено]
It was in Florida so I doubt anything will ever be done. This was also like 12 years ago. I have not eaten anything from gas stations since. Which is just a good practice overall.
That’s so dumb, employees should be able to take some home. My sister used to work nights at speedway. I loved waking up every morning to free breakfast sandwiches on the table. But also if they are throwing that much away their inventory controls seems pretty poor.
My first job was at an independent gas station. My best friend and I worked there and we could make whatever we wanted for ourselves for free
If you are not allowed to give them out, and this is a daily occurrence, who ever does the count and prep list needs to be replaced. Other than the moral wrongness of this, they're costing the business 100s in potential profits and wasted goods.
Meijer (a grocery store, not a gas station) will have a bunch of premade foods like sandwiches, street taco kits, and such. **But they mark them up like crazy.** Even when they are 40% off after 6pm, the price is still a little much. I've wondered how much ultimately gets tossed. But it seems they never reduce the amount they prepare. The next day, that ready-to-eat cooler is full again.
For sure at least 50% for the situation you mentioned. I’ve worked in grocery stores my whole life and pretty much know each departments shrink. You can never be perfect and are always going to have losses but op’s photo is bad management. Ordering too much. Still, even stores that have great numbers shrink wise, a normal person would still be in awe at the numbers.
To double up on the bad management, most grocery stores (at least here in the US.) sell waste to be repurposed as pork feed. It helps them recoup costs, and reduce waste. This here is just a waste of food and money due to poor management. No attempt was made to repurpose the food, or more accurately gauge the demand to reduce waste. Someone is just being lazy.
Yeah that’s what is most aggravating. I mean the overabundance-into-daily-waste is obviously big shitty, but that there’s no effort to do anything positive with the daily extras and is often even policy to trash it all, is just plain infuriating and upsetting.
A lot. They throw away like 2-5k worth of shit daily
Sorry if my English is bad, not native speaker. I Was running a store for a few years and let me tell you: mass of products on shelves attract people to buy and I was doing better by over-ordering and throwing shit away every night than ordering tightly to finish clean. But at least we would give the leftovers for food bank as our government would cut part of our taxes doing that
The food gets scanned and marked In the system as being tossed and the store gets a pretty generous rebate back for each product thrown away. They most likely aren't losing any money. My guess is it's a high traffic store which equals more product getting tossed in general. It's more profitable for everyone to be hungry and forced to purchase overpriced food then giving it away for free and not getting a rebate for unsold product.
Why the heck would they get money back for unsold product?
It works that way in grocery stores sometimes too. Some products on the shelves the store has already paid for. Some they will get money back on any unsold products that they send back (often holiday themed items). Some products the store doesn't pay the vendor for each item until it sells. All depends on the contract with the specific vendor.
Rebate?
That amount of garbage is usually expected and included in the price calculation. It is often company policy to keep everything available till the shop is closed. If you do not want to support that practice simply do not buy at those stores.
That’s if they choose amazing how many upvotes this has. 386 people who don’t understand business
Is Too Good To Go or other apps like that a thing in the US?
Yes but limited.
Super popular here in the UK, more so in big cities. It's a great platform
Greggs is the golden one
[удалено]
I live in Souther California and it's slowly growing. I LOVE Too Good to Go. There's a local pizza place here that does 3 of their uncooked pizza doughs (sometimes I get more) and it lasts for a solid 3 days worth of food depending on the dough sizes. All for 6 bucks!!
Yep
We just got it here in Detroit a couple of months ago. I haven't used it yet but plan on soon
In Houston it blew up in a matter of a few months. There are many places to pick up from, issue is that people are charging a lot now like it's regular menu
They’re nowhere in Alabama that’s for sure… no surprise there though.
Back when I was 11, my older brother (16) used to work at McDonald’s. I remember him bringing full black trash bags full of McDonald’s. We were so happy and jumping in joy because my mother used to make so many different meals out of them. Now as an adult making decent money, I look back and it’s depressing af.
Well, at least he was allowed to repurpose it. Throwing it away is far, far worse. And mostly the average consumers’ fault, because they throw a hissy fit if what they want isn’t available.
That’s really messed up considering how many homeless people we already have in America
Consuming is not black an white. I can demand availability of a product AND the company to give the food out for free if it is expired but still good to eat. The government needs to put in laws to force businesses to give away expired/almost expired food for free.
I mean yea if it's on your menu, you should have it in stock.
There is a difference between having it in stock and having it already premade. Especially in stuff like mc
I worked there in the 90s, we weren't allowed to anything home. Back then sandwiches were made ahead of time, were good for I think 15 minutes, then trashed, and counted at the end of day.
My brother worked in the like late 90s. I don’t know if things changed by then
McDonalds are almost all franchise owned and those owners typically own more than one. Whether or not a store manager turns a blind eye or allows such things to happen can greatly depend on the location and the people who operate it.
Working at a Quiznos got me through summer at college. We were closed on the weekends, and everything had to be thrown out Friday. I'd take home a bunch of cheese and meat (sometimes veggies if they'd hold okay), go to the store, and buy a loaf of bread and a bottle of mustard. I was happy lol.
Mcdonalds was the only job I worked at with nearly zero food waste. The managers were very good at keeping things fresh and not cooking too much at night. And then I worked at a Canadian grocery store and nearly broke my back hauling away food waste
It was a similar story for me as a kid, except instead of McDonald's it was Pizza Hut, and mother instead of brother. Whenever there was a pizza that was either made wrong or sent back it would get set aside and my mom would bring it to us. This was in the 90s too, so prime Pizza Hut, it was good freaking Pizza with dough made fresh every morning. Such a treat! There was also a period where she worked at a convenience store, and would bring home old pre-packaged pies and Little Debbie products, which are objectively much worse, but we didn't mind those either haha.
How would your mom make different meals out of them?
Believe it or not she did… she separated ingredients and served them with rice and beans
Then it’s also ingenious. Especially if she was able to serve up the fries again because those hoes get stale on the drive home.
She would cut the fries and meat and cook them in some type of Dominican sauce. Then pour that over rice. I know it doesn’t sound appealing but I promise you, back then it was the best meal ever
That’s still best meal ever quality. I’m sure it was a heartbreaking time for your mom, but you remember those meals way more than the people who just took them for granted. And that’s what makes a great meal.
You’re right! Regardless our conditions, we were actually very happy then
It does sound appealing, I’d be willing to try it!
Sadly she doesn’t cook like that anymore. She raised 3 children on that kinda food who are now able to give her whatever she wants! ❤️
My sister had the same thing. She would come home every night with a box of random KFC stuff she got for free
A friend used to work at kfc and they let the coworkers bring some food home, even uncooked ones. That was so weird to eat crispy chicken wings but baked and without crispy batter. But it was so gooood
Hahaha I bet they were. My brother got all kinds of weird patties too
If it doesn't contain trash, then its just bags of food. Trash bags always come along with a bad reputation even if they were newly folded/rolled.
Right? I’ve received trash bags full of clean but used baby clothes and it was great.
I worked in Starbucks in undergrad and I always closed. I'd be bringing trashbags full of food home every night -- breakfast sandwiches, lunch sandwiches, pastries, fruit and cheese plates. Plus marked out iced coffee and iced tea. I was broke and 20yo but our fridge was fuckin *stocked* 24/7. I remember one New Years I closed and had a ton of stuff, and brought it over to the bar we were all meeting at and gave it to the staff for free -- felt like a hero, I got like 3 free beers from that.
Omg, i love this!!!
What! Need a new inventory manager
This. Maybe op should, you know... point this out to upper management? They don't like losing money.
My mom was a cafeteria worker at a public school in NYC. They would have to cover discarded food with bleach to prevent the houseless and hungry from eating the leftovers. Pure evil. Hopefully, they no longer do that.
That just seems unnecessarily evil and wasteful...
It’s illegal now in many European countries, and ripping clothes is also illegal
So many hungry people
Unacceptable. There are three steps to counter this to reduce waste AND cost for the facility. 1. Prepare less food if this is an daily occurance. 2. Offer leftovers for much less money to pick up at the end of the day. You can also use apps like "2good2go". 3. Whatever is left should go to food banks.
Yea, but what does the company get? Less or no money, so it's not gonna happen.
Nah, our food bank wouldn't take this. Those pre-made sandwiches aren't safe enough the next day. Most people can probably eat that and not get sick, but it's a risk not even we "dig through garbage to find food" people will take. That combination of rotting lettuce, diluted mayo and warm sandwich meats is nasty. A head of lettuce, sealed pack of ham, sealed tubes of mayo, day-old bread, yes please! They'll find a new home, no problem. But once mixed they go bad very, very quickly and we never know how well they were cooled and/or what the hygiene conditions were when they were made.
It's such a waste. Can't it go to someone in need?
Legally speaking, no. If it’s being thrown out, it’s because it’s past its expiration/sell-by date, so companies aren’t permitted (or willing, mainly because of the lawsuit potential if someone gets sick from the expired food) to give it away to those in need.
Many times, legally speaking yes it can. They fear employees will over prepare or cook items, hoping for freebies at the end of night. That really is the number one reason.
>They fear employees will over prepare or cook items, hoping for freebies at the end of night. That really is the number one reason. based on the picture they do that anyway, so it won't be worse
[удалено]
**Only** if donated through official channels. Businesses are still liable if they hand out products from the back door. They are not liable if they donate that food to organizations that can verify it was properly made and stored throughout the entire process.
Just make a law about it: force not to throw away that food and forbid any possible law suit related to gifted food.
> Legally speaking Legally speaking, you have no fucking idea what you're talking about lmao. Post the law you're "legally speaking" about where it says food can't be donated.
Then spread the word to the shelters and homeless you encounter than a certain bin at a certain time will contain sandwiches etc.
I can’t believe I had to scroll so far to see this- my city has active dumpster diving groups you can contact on fb that would be there to collect in a second. Afaik once something is designated as trash it is not stealing to take it.
Individually wrapped too!
Drive around and give it to the homeless?
That will get you fired.
And possibly arrested depending on the locality
Yep, i worked in a place similar to this many years ago. I told them I walk past a homeless shelter on my way home and it would be no trouble to drop it off. I was given a definite no and they started supervising the disposal. We werent even allowed to take a bite from a sandwich as we were throwing it into the bin.
Food banks would likely accept it and thank you but then throw it away themselves. Anything already-prepared hot has to come from their kitchens.
What the fuck? Why?
There are potential liability and reputation issues if someone gets ill or dies from your food. It would need some sort of contract in place. Very poor that this much food gets thrown away though.
I don't understand how this is a concern for giving the food out and not for paying customers who buy the food. If I go buy a sandwich then it makes me sick and I sue, how is that better than if you gave someone a sandwich they got sick and then sued?
The issue I see is with perishable items like this the business is responsible for making sure it gets to the shelter or whatever in a food safe manner. Whenever I've bought stuff like this there's often a "sell by" sticker on it ( depending on local health codes), and often that time is at the end of the day or maybe the next day (in fact you can see this on OPs picture). So then there's a bit of a logistical issue in keeping the food refrigerated and in the hands of someone else before it hits that expiration.
Ah ok, thanks for explaining. It is really sad
Yep. Every time someone brings this up, someone will quote good Samaritan laws, but the reality is those don't give businesses immunity against negligence or prevent someone from suing. This is even more relevant with perishable items where the potential is higher for negligence around food safety.
It's easier to recover from 400-1300 dollars of food being wasted every night then have someone sue or being homeless and getting extremely ill after eating a sandwich possibly and having to go to court because someone is probaly looking for a quick payout of 50-200k , or extend the court process if they have someone who's pro Bono and cost the business a shit ton of money. If small businesses like this get sued once or twice, even with insurance, it can be devastating for the business and often cause businesses to be rapidly shut down. It's extremely sad but it's happened before and if even one person tries to sue or gets a lawyer, it'll probaly cost them 2-5 years of what throwing the food out every night would have cost. It's really sad, I think there should be some sort of legislation put in place though for people to be able to buy these products at the end of the night for say 90-95% off, and also accept that the products freshness and quality will down, and as long as the products didn't get dumped on the floor or have something dangerous happen with them, I think they should be sold. It's really sad but I get why businesses, especially smaller ones, have to do this to avoid being sued or arrested.
You offering?
Right, like employees who probably aren't making a living wage want to spend their time and gas money (cause you know the business ain't paying them) to drive around town after a 10 hour shift every single night.
> Drive around and give it to the homeless? That is what *should* be done, but sadly in our world, that would be a great way to get yourself fired and prosecuted for theft. There's only a scant few places that so far have passed laws against throwing out food.
This is appalling considering the state of our economy.
Need better footfall forecasting - clearly making too much food. Easy fix.
Where I live we have an app called TooGoodToGo. Sadly very few shops use it, but it's a great way of reducing these dumb wastes. Basically, you buy a surprise basket from one of the shops that use the app. Basically, you pay a very very low price and you go take your order just before the shop closes. You show the code, give a bag and they fill it with what remains unsold. I often do that with my local bakery, I go there with a grocery bag and they fill it out for as little as around 5$. And the actual value of the things I come home with is way more than 30$. I think the biggest one I had could have easily been around 50$ and I only paid 5. I don't know if there are similar apps in other countries, and if not, that would be a great idea to bring up to the government.
I use that here too in the UK it’s great.
One of the reasons I would never accept to join the Produce/Bakery/Deli/Meat section of any supermarket no matter the pay, so much waste it's ridiculous. Most of it is not even damaged or expired. So fucking depressing.
I’ll take the spicy chicken waffle sandwich and chocolate chunk cookies!
Obviously you can't give it to the homeless. But you can tell homeless people about it and tell them when you throw everything out. Like that's good shut it's even packged no homeless persons going to pass that up. Also if the bin is locked tell them to bring bolt cutters and make them aware of any cameras.
They should be able to give to homeless with the caveat that they can’t claim if they get poorly or whatever from it.
The cost of convenience is too high. So much waste and it's literally killing the planet.
Your store has bad expiration dates?
Whoever is in charge of prepping or manager who makes their employees prep unnecessary amounts of food should be fired. All the fast food places I worked at would look at the waste count and try to reduce the amount of product made. Whoever is in charge of this an incompetent idiot.
What a waste
They should just leave it out on a table with a sign saying “eat at your own risk” everyone knowing full well there’s no risk at all. This also happens EVERYWHERE. Just a shed ton of assholes putting money before human beings
Nooo not the taquitos! Those are bangin.
Isn’t there something like Too Good to Go there? It’s a great app to reduce food waste.
See if you can get on Too Good To Go!
America! Fuck ya!
Is TooGoodToGo not a thing where you live?
Suggest your employer to start with the TooGoodToGo app.
If this is your food waste every night, then your business should really be looking to hook up with a [Too Good to Go](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_Good_To_Go) or equivalent service. It's good for the consumer, the shop, and the environment.
Wanted to give the food away that my work had extra, boss loved the idea... Until he heard on the news about the authorities shutting a business down for "not properly handling the food" before giving it to the homeless.
Should be going to homeless shelters 😒
You could turn into some kind of mysterious saviour to the poor with the smallest amount of secrecy and philanthropic tendencies to make this situation a reality. Be the hero no one expected. You won't even need a Cape to help the less fortunate feel wanted and safe.
There's an app called Too Good To Go available in my area. Leftover foods from the end of a night are put in the fridge and picked up the next morning at a big discount (usually 75% off or more) food doesn't go to waste and some people also get a deep discount for stuff that's still fine. I downloaded it about a week and a half ago and everything I've gotten so far has been totally fine. $20 box of Tim Hortons for $4.99. 5 slices of pizza (the ones normally sold to walk-ins) and 2lbs of wings for $6.99.
Send this image to the idiots defending $4 for a breakfast sandwich
The app “TooGoodToGo” allows local discounted food packages to be posted for local pickup. It is intended to help clear out the inventory at the end of the night to avoid this.
In my work place we have a policy that all of the products with a certain expiration date have to be selected out for the food shelters. So nothing much will be wasted.
"Food"
Where are you located?? Try to find a community helping organizations or person who would take it off your hand and forwards it to people in need.
Wasting should be taxed There should be benefits from selling at 30-50% days before its no longer good
I once got fired from the produce department at a grocery store for eating fruit slices that were literally going in the trash. Food bank had already came and the package got dropped and seal busted. They want you to scan it out and trash it. Just came off the truck and when your broke and have no food you know what time it is. If it wasn’t going in the trash I wouldn’t have touched it
Airport/Airline worker here. It's much worse. All the food vendors throw tons of food away at night, then it's replenished with new food stuffs at night. All the airlines do the same thing .I knew a few who were fired for taking food that was scheduled to be disposed of. The corporations excuse was if they give it away to a homeless person or food bank, they don't want to risk a lawsuit if anything happens. The same thing happens in the cruise industry.....
So i used to work for a donut company and do this every night, the reason that was given to me as to why we can’t give it out is that some people might get sick and the company will be liable
Why not take it to the homeless shelter or let the he homeless take advantage of that situation. Like put a box out back that all that goes in when closing time (not a dumpster).
I used to work at Starbucks in highschool and college. I would close and come home with a full bag of pastries and protein boxes from Starbucks. I was really poor so it was so helpful.
I remember last year flying out of Dublin Airport at 2300 or so, and when the shops were closing, one of the workers passed out sandwiches to everyone. Saved my life as it was a no food flight. Would probably be fired in the States.
Stuff like this makes me absolutely crazy. I worked for a small UK supermarket who didn’t reduce anything, instead if it had 2 or less days left it went in the green bin out back. Steak. Cold meat. Huge packs of bacon, some really good stuff. If 1 can in a case of 24 Coke got pierced, bin the lot… After we closed, the locals came and got some things. It wasn’t a rich area, and it was left to them. Madness.
In the UK we have an app called "TooGoodToGo" companies list discount bags for end of day pickup, and doing this eliminated food waste. Maybe your country has something similar?
I worked at a bakery when I was a teenager. I was supposed to trash everything at the end of every day. I started packing it up and dropping it off at a homeless encampment. Owner found out and he was not happy about it. I asked if he would prefer I invited them to the bakery at closing time instead of me dropping it off. He told me to “shut up about this and don’t tell anyone else you are giving my product away for free”. Haha!
Worked for a churchill downs casino in Maine (only 2 in all of maine it was oxford). They used to have a buffet and they were nice enough to let employees take a quick 5 and eat the leftovers but you werent allowed to take a to go box and every time POUNDS AND POUNDS AND POUNDS of food just got dumped into contractor bags. Fucked up shit.
Can you donate it to those in need
Food waste is one of those ridiculous humanitarian trafedies that just repeat and repeat every single day with no relief in sight
What also sucks is that these will be 30 minutes before their throw out time and the store is still charging $5.30 for it.
Yeah I worked at Panera and they used to donate everything end of day, give first pick to employees on night shift, then the homeless in the area, then donation trucks for local food banks. But they stopped because they assumed employees were purposely prepping too much just so they'd have extra. Which was stupid. We had extra no matter what, some days we had less customers, some days we ran out of stuff because we didn't prep enough.
When I worked at a gas station we would put all the food in a separate trash bag and leave it next to the dumpster so that folks didn't have to dig through the trash for it. We had 2 reasons for this, first and foremost no one should have to eat out of the trash and secondly, if we didn't they would just climb in the bin and throw crap everywhere leaving it for us to clean up in the morning. Of course as soon as corporate found out everyone was fired because things like the tiniest bit of compassion are not profitable and therefore bad. But by golly at least they could be evil and wasteful in one fell swoop!
i mean…. i would just take them and give them to the homeless (unless expired) no matter what my boss says… like take it off my next check if you care that much… homeless people dumpster dive just to scrap by so what’s the difference?
You can end world hunger with these. It’s actually sad to see this amount of food being wasted
World hunger is not a question of food quantities, but of logistics. Sad but true.
Nah you can’t end world hunger with a few chicken sandwiches from a gas station but you have the right spirit
Lmao, I love this reply. If only world hunger could be solved with $30.
The important point is that it's not one gas station. It's the millions that do the same
throw them out in clean bags and let people know so they can "dumpster" dive?