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 I asked about the expiration date thinking well it was about to go out of date.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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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.