So, my step daughter has for the last few years been doing the penny shopping at Dollar General. Well lately she has been dumpster diving there after seeing them putting buggies full of perfectly good stuff in the dumpster. Lately there’s been unopened boxes full of stuff like maybe they just took it out of the storeroom and dumped instead of putting it on the shelf. Yesterday she got an unopened box full of pizzas and some other stuff. I asked about the expiration date thinking well it was about to go out of date. NO, didn’t expire till 2025. Same with the lasagna, hot pockets, etc….and yes, she has good timing as she gets it while still frozen. Lots of snack cakes, chips etc that are also not about to expire. And it’s not just one store, she goes to several different ones in different towns. I just thought this to be very strange as it is a lot of money going in the dumpster.
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Tha is very odd as I would think the employees would just take it home.
We do at my work usually it's just some chips.
A job i worked at in oz wouldn't allow it. Guess they suspected we'd make shit up just to write off
Perhaps they should rebrand their company as "Dumpster General"?
I seem to remember a show that discussed DG's supply chain system and it was a cluster. Their stores are always overloaded to the point of being unshoppable. Maybe they ran out of merchandising space for frozen food and dumped it instead. It makes me wonder if business is really as difficult as advertised. I've worked for some pretty successful small businesses and without fail they are run so illogically and wastefully yet they still make money. It's just so hard to get that startup cash
Long ago, I read a book by Don Aslett. He ran a service for large companies putting up and taking down Christmas Trees and decorations. He said when they started out, they would store everything for the next year. Until he figured out that it was cheaper for him to not pay the labor hours taking it all down and packing it up, the transport, the storage locker fees. They just started tossing it all and re-buying the next year with a tidy profit.
I know this isn't the same, but it stuck with me. I was dumbfounded by this way of thought at that time in my life.
Dollar General seems to have terrible food storage. Mine keeps thier extra chocolate and candies in a non air-conditioned storage container out back. Their candy bars are all misshapen and chalky. They said they get double what they need often. The only other option is to throw it all out. I guess the ones in your town throw out extras. Our current food supply system wastes so much.
Sounds suspicious
That was my same thought
Are you sure that food isn’t tainted in some way? I wonder if Dollar General was ordered to get rid of food from certain processing plants. Or particular batches? Maybe OP should see if the manufacturers of the food that was thrown out are connected with all the food processing plant disasters. Please tell your daughter to research before she eats it.
I've had to destroy tainted products before that someone else might think was perfectly good. Fortunately, my boss was a stickler for doing things the right way and we made sure it wasn't usable, but other people might just throw it in the dumpster. Or they received too much of a product and have to throw stuff out since there isn't anywhere to store it. The warehouse shipping you frozen stuff doesn't care that your freezers are already full.
She did check for recalls
Ever been to a store that resells salvaged crap?
Literally ALL of the big names throw away perfectly good stuff. Tho, they do get something for it, vs just tossing it.
It may just be a disgruntled employee?
Strange. But if the freezers webt down like they did at walmart and the food thawed. Refroze is still bad and should be thrown out
Not sure if that is what happend. But.if someone eats a hot pocket and gets sick. Maybe save it all for the apocalypse
Freezers not down. Plus there’s a lot of non food items
Our local dollar general is always a mess narrow aisles and friegjht is never put away.
When I worked in Family Dollar we had very little food go outdated. However when it did we had to pour bleach on it so no one could dumpster dive. Now where I work very little goes outdated
My son-in-law worked for Dollar General around February until April of this year. It seems they were so shorthanded that when the food comes into the store, they only have 2 hours to stock the freezers with it. With only one person doing this, which at the time was him, he didn't have time to remove any old food and replace with new without the new food sitting past the 2 hour wait time. Therefore the food had to be thrown in the dumpster and written off as a loss. I thought, what a pity with people out there in food banks and people starving.
Sounds similar to my local Dollar General. They get so much merchandise that it sits out in stacks before they have time to put it away. Usually only one or two people working there at any time. The fridge/freezer section is very small but they don't seem to order more than will fit at one time. I often see people dumpster dive at Aldi though.
You would think with the loss of this food, they would donate it to the nearest food bank. However, I can see if it makes someone sick the lawsuit it would cost that store. But on the other hand; when people are desperate for food, they will just about eat anything.
Restaurants have wanted to donate fresh food to food banks here, but it never got off the ground due to liability issues.
My worry on that stuff is that perhaps they had a freezer die on them. They knew it was down for a day. Stuff thawed, was refrozen but manager said later to toss it?
Most stuff is still frozen
Its possible their freezers broke down one night and then started up again which would result in them needing to toss the food that unfroze. Possibility of getting sick er what not. Or maybe some stupid teenagers licked all of the packages lol idk
Freezers are fine. This has been an ongoing thing
This is common practice with chain stores of all stripes. People have been dumpster diving Gamestops and filming the hauls for over a decade.
With such a variety, it probably isn't recalls either. Also, you would think they would have a plan in place for food bank donations or something?
Yep, I’ve thought that about the food too.
The problem with Dollar General is their lack of staff. Their overturn of employees is amazing. They work them to death until they find another job somewhere else.
I'm wondering whether they're getting so far behind with shelving products out front that they have to throw out items just to have room to put the new stuff in the back storage areas.