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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

In a sane society this would be illegal.

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

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

How very Christian of them.

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.

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.

There are surplus food donation programs: the EPA provides a guide that explains the legal protections & tax benefits with tools to find recipient organizations. When even Chick-fil-a runs one such program, the manager has no excuse to be a certified asshole.