News: Supermarket Throws Away an Entire Store Worth of Food

Proof positive that just because it's law doesn't mean it just, nor right. It's times like this that make me wonder how the hell things ever became some screwed up.

Scott

Originally Posted by NobleMetalWorks

Proof positive that just because it's law doesn't mean it just, nor right. It's times like this that make me wonder how the hell things ever became some screwed up.

Scott

I understand the frustration but our country(USA) and many other westernized countries are bound by the rule of law. This means that we follow them or change them. But until they are changed they are to be followed. The Sharif could have simply asked the tenets if they cared if the food was taken. I could have been avoided simply by asking Chois's if they cared. the church that was given the food could also have given permission to the people.

Eric

Originally Posted by Russell

. The business failed because people failed to BUY the food from them in the first place.

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The business failed more because they had a poor business model resulting in people failing to show up , Donating the food to a soup kitchen or food pantry would of been nice and maybe tax deductable. I do agree that giving it out to a mass of beggars would of resulted in more CHAOS.

Every time a law is passed, "we the people" are not afforded a freedom but either having a previous freedom restricted or outright taken away. The laws that are passed are not my laws, they are laws enacted by elected officials who most often have been elected because of the huge amount of money that was donated by pacs, which were infused with money from corporations.

You can be a good law abiding citizen and follow the laws, or you can do what is right and just. Personally, I try very hard to be a just man. I feel that if you are not standing up for something, you are falling for anything. There should be a law against wasting as there is in some countries.

Gleaners pull good food out of dumpsters to re-purpose it.

This is what I don't understand:

"We don't have authority to take possession of the property; we just have to make sure that it's handled, disposed of by law," Smith, said.

By allowing people to take away the food, they would not be taking possession of the food, strictly speaking. However, by hauling it off to the dumps, they are either taking possession of it, or allowing the garbage company to take possession of it and then dump it in their landfill instead of someone dumping it in their cabinets and refrigerator.

People will twist laws to mean whatever they want them to mean. I think law enforcement tends to look at people who are poor or destitute with jaded eyes, and then many times do not want to help. It makes me sick. I used to give away 200 turkeys every year for Thanksgiving when I was in the grocery business. One year I had a local police officer tell me that I couldn't give turkeys away out of the back of a semi in my own parking lot. He said that it was causing a disruption. He then attempted to tell everyone they had to leave, which really caused a disruption. Everything was nice and orderly before he interceded. I had employees helping and even rope set up so that people could stand in line to receive a turkey.

I don't know why this is, but it seems that people in power always get nervous when food is given away to needy people.

I can tell you why there will never be a law passed that makes it illegal to throw food away. It's the same reason that grocery stores do not like marking down close dated product and prefer to throw it away. If people ever decided to wait out grocery stores until the food was almost bad, so that they were forced to mark it down or give it away instead, then it would be happening all the time. If people are given food for free, they would stop buying food and save their money for other things. Grocery Stores chains have some of the most powerful lobbying groups working for them, and are constantly fighting, and donating money to fight, any law that would make giving food away legal!

Now how can you change laws when you have millions upon millions of dollars going to keeping unjust laws in place so big corporations can make more profit?

The Dairy Council is one of the most powerful lobbying groups. So powerful, that milk prices are not only fixed, but if a grocery store attempts to sell milk for less than the price dictated, they could be fined, or arrested. Read this, it may open your eyes a little.

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Scott

What's even worse is the amount of food that get's thrown out at schools that provide free breakfast, snack and lunch...they will exaggerate the need they have to make sure they get plenty then toss it when it doesn't get used.

Originally Posted by unknownk

Grocery store food goes to waste all the time, they pay for insurance and when the stuff goes bad they get insurance money for it.

This is simply not true. Grocery stores do not get insurance money for food that has gone bad, not unless it was a natural disaster like a fire or flood, and even then it's considered inventory that was destroyed, not food that went bad. I was in the grocery business for many years, I have never heard of any grocery store getting insurance money for food that has gone bad. If that was the case, then grocery stores would never mark anything down because they could get the full price from their insurance if they just let it go bad.

Originally Posted by unknownk

I guarantee if the ex store owner just opened up the doors a day ahead of time and said it was all free he would be in court later in the month after somebody got a stomache ache from bad food and sued him. Why would the banks want to have legal issues over food that could be expired and tainted, that legaly they don't even own (just the building not the contents) by giving it out?

Either volunteers could have sorted the food by date and handed it out, or waivers could have been signed leaving the responsibility up to the individual person. It could have been handled in the right way, instead of in the wasteful way. I am sure if the right groups were called, that more than enough people would have shown up to ensure that the food that was passed out in an orderly fashion would be good wholesome food and not anything out of date.

Originally Posted by unknownk

My old neighbor (now deceased) used to haul food around to needy people that grocery stores donated to his church. He would have all kinds of bread and sweets (store made) to hand out, and some canned goods that were at the expiration date but nothing else.

I used to give food to churches and shriners, gleaners, etc all the time. Matter of fact, I used to give things like cheese that was out of date, and yogurt because it's a little known fact that cheese is still good months and months after the date of expiration, and yogurt can legally be sold 30 days out of date without any risk of harming people. It's the Dairy Council who requires dates to be put on product so it has to be thrown out, and not because the food spoils but because they need to keep dairy products churning out.

Throwing good food out is just plain wrong, period. In my humble opinion there is just no good reason or argument for doing so.

Scott

I guarantee if the ex store owner just opened up the doors a day ahead of time and said it was all free he would be in court later in the month after somebody got a stomache ache from bad food and sued him. Why would the banks want to have legal issues over food that could be expired and tainted,

If that was the case there would be no food banks. Here in Ind. part of the food is bought by donations from the public, some is Gov't funds. Then you have the food donations from the public and from the grocery stores.

^^I guess that would go for boycotting the Feds too then or which ever government that won't allow expired donations even though it's perfectly good.^^