I’ve been calling around various grocery stores this week, trying to get a hold of pork fat trimmings so that I can make my own lard for some recipes. One of the stores I called today said that they couldn’t give me the trimmings because they don’t have a code for it. I forget exactly what I said, but it was something to the effect of, “so you’re just going to throw it away instead?” “Yes.”
I understand that it does require some effort to separate from the rest of the waste, so I don’t mind paying a bit, but its upsetting that they have no way to pass scraps along to someone who will use them instead of just tossing them in the waste.
Edit for anyone invested: I called around to a few other stores after making this post. One or two mentioned that they don’t necessarily throw all of those bits away, but often use them for other products, such as sausages. I also found a store that will be putting aside their trimmings for me tomorrow, and they should have more than I need. It’s almost an hour away on the bus, but right next to another store that should have any other hard to find ingredients that I’ll need for the tamales.
Also interesting was that different locations of the same chains had different answers for me regarding even their ability to provide the scraps to me, so the suggestions that a manager might be able to make it happen are probably very accurate.
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).
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.
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.
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”
Everyone who hasn’t needs to go read the jungle. It’s an incredible book.
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!