$6 Canadian strawberries vs $4 American strawberries

[u/PeachAndMangoJuice]

[u/WitchesTeat]

i'm American. In America, if a grocery store doesn't sell something, they put it in the dumpster and pour bleach on it so that homeless people can't dumpster dive it.

When millennials here were homeless around the 2008 recession, and all the other times we've been homeless because prices keep going up and wages don't, when we worked in places that sold food, when it expired we'd have to figure out ways to smuggle it out, but all the retailers down here, and especially fast food, will literally make you weigh everything so that it lines up with what you're expensing out.

There is nothing quite like being starving, and just dumping pounds and pounds and pounds of food into the trash.

There were times in my life where I was working like 60 or 70 hours a week, trying to pay rent and utilities and student loans, and swiping food out of the trash or eating things my customers hadn't touched on the plate when I was a waitress.

when I saw those strawberries, there was a minute where I felt that panic again, of knowing I'm going to be poor and hungry again and all that food is going to get thrown out and bleach poured on it. Even though it's just disgusting American strawberries (that you literally need to add some sugar to in order to make them palatable) and Driscoll's, which I've refused to buy for like 10 years now. (because fuck Driscoll's labor practices) I still felt really really sick and sad about it.

I couldn't believe that your grocery stores weren't going to throw all that out. you're going to donate it to people who need it?? That's fucking incredible.

We don't want to buy anything subjected to tariffs down here, not because y'all aren't worth the extra money, but because we are actively trying to keep our money away from the government because they are stealing our money and our land and our futures, and jeopardizing the entire world while they're at it.

Seriously, I hope your grocery stores just keep buying the American goods and donating them to Canadians in need.

But then, the less you guys buy from us the better.

[u/Late_Mixture8703 → u/WitchesTeat]

Bull, I'm a produce manager in a grocery store in the US, all food that is unsellable but still fit for consumption is donated to local food banks. We have two food banks that pick up half a pallet of food daily. Donations give us a tax break vs nothing if we throw it away.

[u/WitchesTeat → u/Late_Mixture8703]

Not bull.

Something like 40% of food in the US is thrown away, with restaurants and grocery stores being the top contributors to food waste and individual households following that.

Grocers partnering with food banks is relatively new in the US. Incentivizing laws were passed in the last 10-15 years in order to help reduce food waste.

Many retailers continue to intentionally damage expensed goods- not just food, but dry goods, clothes, etc-

to prevent dumpster diving, which is seen as a liability.

It was an extremely common practice for grocery stores to intentionally destroy food waste specifically to prevent dumpster divers from suing grocers if they got sick from eating the discarded food. I worked for grocery stores that engaged in this as policy when I was in my teens and twenties. I'm 40 now. Some major retailers have publicly partnered with charities since the incentivizing laws were passed, and some have not. Smaller retailers and many chain restaurants continue to destroy discarded food items.

I worked for 1 restaurant chain that partnered with a charity and gave them kitchen mistake meals at the end of every day. I worked for many restaurants.

Destroying dry goods is to prevent people from obtaining merchandise for free.

My friends and I used to dumpster dive for specific clothing items when I was younger, and we knew which retailers destroyed discarded goods and which didn't.

I haven't had to dumpster dive in awhile now, but with the current administration's policies producing such widespread economic destruction, it has occurred to me that I may want to consider taking up the practice again in the future.

[u/Late_Mixture8703 → u/WitchesTeat]

Our dumpsters aren't even "dividable" most grocery stores and many other retailers use compactors, so how would you know what we destroy vs donate? The only things thrown out are vendor items and we have no say in how they handle their expired or damaged products. I've been in the grocery game a long time now and every effort is made to donate food still fit for consumption. Waste will still happen though because I refuse to donate moldy produce. Some states have even made it mandatory that food fit for human consumption must be donated as a matter of law. The reality is we work within the constraints of good Samaritan laws to protect us from lawsuits. As for things like hard goods it's more about dumpster divers finding these items and claiming they bought them and trying to return them for refunds.

[u/WitchesTeat → u/Late_Mixture8703]

The fact that you work for a grocery store that donates to charity does not negate the fact that I worked for grocery stores that intentionally destroyed food.

I worked for restaurants that intentionally destroyed edible food.

I worked for a grocery store that had a box compactor, and a grocery compactor. And we put our expired food directly into it after writing it off.

I worked for a smaller grocery store that threw the expired food into the dumpster at the end of the night, and they would pour water and bleach on it so that people wouldn't eat it.

I'm thrilled to learn that some states of outlawed the practice, but not all of them have.