I heard France has laws that require supermarkets to donate food that barely over expiration date.
It’s ridiculous that within 24h food goes from totally safe to totally unsafe.
Comment on "You can't have our trash because we don't have a way to charge you for it"
Mothra@mander.xyz 2 days ago
I hear you, I hear you and here’s my two stories:
Once at Large Chain Supermarket I found some lamb chops on special. Took them to the self serve checkouts but the item didn’t scan. The team member had a look and said, it’s because it’s past its expiry date ( the date was the day before). The meat was in perfect condition though, no dark spots or dry edges or any discoloration. So I asked if I could take it for free, and she said no, and she put it in the trash bin right next to the checkout.
Now I’m not blaming her since I understand that’s what she has to say since it’s her job, and I also understand the supermarket would be liable if they sold me something that caused me food poisoning. But I believe the real motivation is profits. It would be all to easy to have a law saying supermarkets are not liable for expired items if they are taken for free; but if that was the case most people would be waiting for the nearly expired items and sales would plummet. I think this is messed up, I don’t know. I have no idea about what do supermarkets do with fresh nearly expired food but I have the naive hope they at least use some for their bakery/rotisserie section.
(I took the meat out of the bin after paying for my other groceries so I did, in the end, get it for free. And it was delicious)
The other story happened while working for Well Known Retailer. I had to grab a wheelie cart/trolley or whatever they’re called, to put stock on the floor. But the only cart left was full with old merchandise. So the manager led us to where the big dumpster bins were, and said, okay help me chuck these out. And she started throwing away all these very expensive scented candles in perfect condition with no other flaw than being old. I’m talking about $30 - $50 candles. I asked if I could take some for free, and she said we weren’t allowed. I asked about buying them with a discount, and she said that was also not allowed because the items weren’t even part of the inventory anymore. So we just trashed roughly $1500 worth of merchandise. It’s just messed, those could have gone to a Salvation Army store or something instead of getting dumped (and broken in the process).
trolololol@lemmy.world 2 days ago
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
That isn’t up to the grocery store. That is purely FDA regulations. In the past there were no regulations and everyone was sick and the food was nasty. If you are curious you could read some of the muchracker journalism such as the book titled “The jungle”
Mothra@mander.xyz 1 day ago
I’m not saying there shouldn’t be regulations. If I’m paying for something I expect a certain level of quality and safety.
I’m also saying people should have the right to take a risk if they want to eat something out of a trash can for free. “You can’t take our trash for free because you might sue us” is very much mildly infuriating to me
Dkarma@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Everyone who hasn’t needs to go read the jungle. It’s an incredible book.
QualifiedKitten@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Wow! I don’t know where you live, but where I live, meats generally have a “sell by” date, not a “use by” date, and I very often see meats that have almost reached their “sell by” date in the discount bin. Also, I was recently visiting a town where crabbing is a popular activity, and some of the grocery stores sell meat that’s past it’s expiration date as crab bait at a significant mark down.
The needless waste is so frustrating. One explanation that I’ve heard is that allowing employees take “waste” merchandise may incentivize employees to create more “waste”, but I’m not sure why donating the “waste” would be a problem.
Mothra@mander.xyz 1 day ago
I’m in Australia. Here when meats approach their date they mark them down, but you don’t see them still for sale after the date. I found an item that wasn’t supposed to be on the shelves anymore. Yeah the waste is really frustrating.
shalafi@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Love you! I’m all about dumpster diving, finding free shit, etc.
Coworker of mine used to go out with her husband, crack of dawn, twice a week. They’d pick of trash before the garbage truck arrived, have a garage sale every Saturday. Give away what ever didn’t go.
LMFAO, they would make $300-$400 every weekend! “Yeah, we pick up our neighbor’s trash and sell it back to them.”
In the 90s I had a paper route. Used to pick up vacuum cleaners on the curb. Cleaned with a new belt and bag? Done. I couldn’t keep any in stock. Nice beer money!
Another friend of mine picks up free washers and dryers. The parts are mostly the same and the shit’s free. He’d make $500-$800 a week flipping 'em on Marketplace. And this guy was already clocking $100K at his day job!