this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2025
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Actually Infuriating

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[–] shyguyblue@lemmy.world 100 points 1 week ago

When i was a manager at Michael's, I would usually be the one to "scan out" items that went past their sell-by date.

I would always put the expired candy/soda/chips in a box, write "Trash: These items are expired and are NOT to be taken home and enjoyed ;)"

Stick it in the break room in the morning, throw away the empty box about mid-day.

[–] nimble@lemmy.blahaj.zone 90 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Very common. When i worked retail we had to do this. I would make sure to always bag it in their own separate (clean) trash bag, and wouldn't you know it i just couldn't lift it into the dumpster. And somehow that food was always gone within a few hours before i locked up.

It seriously was fucked up how much food got 'wasted' every day

[–] ordinarylove@lemmy.blahaj.zone 47 points 1 week ago (24 children)

oh gosh i think the imperial cult themed chicken corpo might be bad

you there, reading the replies! do you think there is a possibility that the openly hateful soggy sandwich dump is bad?

nobody can be sure if Hater's Extra Christian Chicken is a bad establishment until we all weigh in

[–] Gnugit@aussie.zone 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)
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[–] Booboofinget@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

As far as I know this is nothing new. They did the same at McDee's back when I worked there in the 80's. Bookstores used to do it too. When a book was unsold we tore the cover to send it back to the publisher and destroyed the rest of the book. Only capitalism at work.

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[–] caboose2006@lemmy.world 45 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Solution. Have the amount of cookies made everyday set by management, then take the excess home/to the food bank.

[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Also: track sale and production on a spreadsheet to optimize this amount. Easy stuff for a restaurant manager. No need to be this wasteful in the first place.

[–] piranhaconda@mander.xyz 19 points 1 week ago

Easy stuff for a competent manager

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[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 33 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Shouldn't the number of cookies to make be a management decision, or do I misunderstand the word "management"? Make a decision, Manager, and if it's too low you run out early and lose a few sales, and if it's too high you let the employees take the leftover cookies home and maybe you get some employee appreciation. Either way, that responsiblility should be yours. More responsibility is one of the reasons you get paid more.

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago

Yeah, if he has no control over how many cookies employees make, he's clearly a shitty manager. Plus I might just make extra cookies to throw away to cut into their bottom line and spite them.

[–] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 30 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Same thing happened to me at my high school job at Steak n Shake. Normally, if something was ordered and, for whatever reason, never made it to the customer (server mistake, customer changed their mind, order made wrong, etc.) we would hold it for a time under the heat lamp, and if someone else ordered the same thing, we would offer it to them. If, after some time, no one took it, common procedure was to take it to the break room where it could be snacked on by the staff. It was a very rare occasion that it happened, and none of the managers were concerned about it... until Andy transferred to our store.

Andy was a dick, and was constantly watching for anything that MIGHT be theft and harassed everyone all the time about the purchases they made with their employee discounts (who rang you up, did they ring up everything, did you pay for that, etc.). One day we had someone order a large fry late into their meal, then had to leave in a hurry, paid and left before they got the fries (unclear if they paid for the fries or if they took it off the check, idk). So they sat for like 2 hours under the heat lamp, way longer than we would ever have served them to a customer as they were going dry and stale by this point. I confirmed the situation with the fries and started to take it back to the break room for munching if anyone was so inclined. Andy, who was at the shake station, though, saw me walk toward the back with the fries.

He sprinted to the back and doubled back to cut me off. He asked where I was going with the fries and if I bought them. I said to the break room and no and explained that they got left, were old and stale, etc. He said, "oh, ok. Here, I'll take it." So I handed it to him and without taking his eyes off of me, he dumped the whole thing in the trashcan next to him and tossed the dish on the dishwasher station counter, and said nothing while continuing to stare at me. I said, "okaaaay...." and walked away. Fucking psycho.

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[–] JokeDeity@sh.itjust.works 30 points 1 week ago (5 children)

In a sane society this would be illegal.

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

In America, if you take garbage cookies that is stealing and you will be fired.

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[–] ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 30 points 1 week ago

It's easy to prevent this by tracking waste. This location is just dumb if they have this much of a surplus. Their manager is bad and doesn't understand how to adjust prep amounts. If they say to prep this many then how would an employee prep extra for themselves? Every restaurant I've worked at the manager gives prep amounts.

[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 29 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They did this at the supermarket I worked at as a teenager.

Fuck that noise though, no one was watching me work so I'd just eat some pastries I was supposed to be throwing away. Didn't take anything home, but you better believe I'm not going to just throw it all away without eating something!

Their mentality was "if you want it enough, pay for it, otherwise you don't really want it."

Mother fucker it's going in the garbage that's the only reason I'd "want" it... I don't "need" to buy it, but I don't want it go to waste.

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[–] Zephorah@discuss.online 27 points 1 week ago

The level of spite in this policy exemplifies the class war we are all in right now.

[–] UncleGrandPa@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago (2 children)

You know what would keep that from happening? Free food for the employees while at work.

[–] mad_lentil@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 week ago (10 children)

Sounds like one of them radical Christian teachings.

[–] pachrist@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Yeah, Jesus didn't teach these kind of things. Don't feed a man a fish, teach a man to fish.

Definitely don't magic fish and bread out of thin air to feed thousands of people for free. That's socialism.

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[–] CobraChicken3000@lemmy.ca 19 points 1 week ago

How very Christian of them.

[–] Flames5123@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I used to work at Chick-fil-A in high school for about 2 years. At first we were able to take ice cream home at the end of the day since it would just be poured down the drain anyways. Same with nuggets and fries. It was so fun and rewarding to have a little extra treat. Corporate said the exact same thing, so now we had to pour the soap cleaner into the ice cream machine before emptying it so no one drinks any. It’s so sad.

Capitalism breeds innovation, this is the Innovation that capitalism brings

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[–] Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago (6 children)

One day I went to Chipotle before work, with the plan to buy something to later have for lunch. They had recently raised the prices, but I still got my usual burrito. When we got to the guac station, it was fresh out. "They're making more." Cool! I'll just wait then.

When the fresh guac came out a few minutes later, the worker casually went to throw the burrito they'd already made for me away. I stopped them and asked, "What are you doing?!"

They said, "I'm making you a fresh one."

What?! It wasn't even five minutes. I told them, "Just put the fresh guac into the same burrito. I'm not eating it until my lunch break anyway. Four hours from now."

Thankfully the worker complied, but I was shocked. If that's what they typically do, I can't imagine how much food they needlessly waste on a daily basis. Do people seriously think burritos go bad after sitting under foil for a few minutes? Especially when all the exact same ingredients are kept out and uncovered at the prep station for much longer? I just... I can't understand. I paid $9 for something they would have just thrown away?

If food is that easily disposible to a restaurant, then they have no business raising prices so often. Maybe employees can offer to remake food in a situation like I had, in order to satisfy the pickiest of us. But to train people to automatically do it in every circumstance? You're pretty much driving your own food costs up for no reason. I just can't logic this.

[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

There is even more food lost at the warehouse step.

"Packaging is slightly wrinkly to be put on shelf" is enough at times and losing half the dairy due to no air conditioning is still cheaper than keeping food and employees cool.

[–] LePoisson@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

Late stage capitalism is kind of broken so y'know, gotta chase the quarterly profit, can't just enjoy success and pay employees more.

Also, the world produces more than enough food for everyone to get their nutritional needs soundly met. The problem is our food distribution system and profit motives if you ask me

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[–] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

The key is everybody takes the good parts home/gives them away, no matter what any manager says.

Tough to fire an entire franchise at once.

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (6 children)

I just had to do a swap with Domino's because they gave me the wrong pizza. Just watched them throw the pizza in the trash. It pissed me off, they should have let me keep it. Bullshit sick corporations throwing editable food away. This picture pisses me off.

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[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 week ago

Those cookies are wrapped and sitting at the top of the trash.

The George Costanza in me says it’s okay to take them.

https://youtu.be/nbN3OWjkEmo?t=61

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 12 points 1 week ago

I used to work at a supermarket that had a little pizza shop inside, in the deli. They'd throw out all the unsold pizza at the end of the night.

I was like, "wait. What? Let us take some home. Or give it to some homeless people"

They were like, "we can't give it away because of liability. And we don't want to attract homeless people. And you can't have it just because "

I'm pretty sure the liability thing is made up. The "don't want homeless to show up" thing is cruel, and not really applicable to rich suburbs.

Well, joke's on them I was friends with the deli guy and he'd "throw out" the pizza directly to me.

Then they went out of business because the upper management types over leveraged themselves

[–] Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There are services out there that even take rejected food! This is so infuriating! Shame that owner, and shame the capitalistic system that made this all possible!

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[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Sadly, just about every product at retail has a version of this. Mass production produces waste at every stage, including the final product. At the same time, those waste streams have value and need to be managed to avoid hurting the bottom line. Usually it's a practical money-making thing, but I suspect that there's ample room here for spite.

For example, "expired" magazines get the covers ripped off, so they can't get re-purposed somehow. Also, new cars are downright rage-inducing when you learn about the full picture.

[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I am just now learning about the "sabotaging the product so it doesn't get repurposed." Wtf...

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[–] Sarmyth@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

They should be producing baeed on sales anyways. They wouldn't bake extra to keep because you would be reprimanded for baking extra at the start vs wasting food at the end. It takes the human element out of decision making which also, ironically, let's you react more humanely to the system.

[–] OldChicoAle@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Then make less? Or set a number of how many to make so there isn't waste?

Has this company ever done LEAN transformation or any corporate practice to reduce waste?

Or are they just concerned about donating to conversion therapy and dumb Christian hate stuff?

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[–] cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

yeah exactly what'd i'd expect from chick fill-a

[–] laranis@lemmy.zip 7 points 1 week ago

How Christian of them.

[–] Etterra@discuss.online 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

When you're too stupid to work so you manage instead.

The part I'm mad about is that part of his job is to keep track of how many of what they make and throw out. He's literally wasting food because he's too stupid or lazy to do his job.

[–] NatakuNox@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Manufactured scarcity. Millions of people right here in America are going without the calories to be healthy. And our government literally just burned millions of tons of USAID ment for overseas. They refused to give it to the fucking tax payers let alone donate it to needy people in Africa. Conservative beliefs is a death cult. (specifically the poor, queer, and minorities death...)

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