It's one thing for food to go to waste because it spoils or gets damaged in shipping. It's another matter for a store to continuously throw out perfectly good food or drinks out of laziness. One Target employee was deeply frustrated by their employer's wasteful practices and took to r/Target to complain.
What's happening?
The original poster shared a photo of just how much unopened juice their location was throwing away.
The pile, surrounded by other garbage, contained dozens of bottles of Tropicana in multiple flavors.
"The amount of juice my store had to throw out a few weeks ago," said the original poster with a facepalm emoji. "My store has had a consistent problem of getting the same things over and over again for market. Not only has it made our lives harder, but the coolers/freezer look terrible consistently."
Why is wasted juice important?
When stores make a policy of overstocking products and throwing away what doesn't sell, they have to make up for the wasted stock somehow. They do it by jacking up the prices of their items, so whatever does sell makes up for products that don't. That hurts consumers, who are paying more than necessary for food and drinks.
Meanwhile, all of the labor and materials that went into making this juice have gone to waste, increasing the drain on the environment. What's even worse is the pile of discarded plastic from the bottles, which will spend more than 100 years rotting in a landfill and polluting the air with methane.
Is Target doing anything about this?
According to the original poster, the employees were doing what they could to fix the situation. Unfortunately, the wasteful orders were coming from higher up the chain.
"We keep on auditing the amount we have, but the supply depot doesn't care and hits repeat on the same product every time we get a truck (about every two days)," they said.
Target's store policies also lead to waste in other departments.
🗣️ What's the most common reason you end up throwing away food?
🔘 Bought more than I could eat 🛒
🔘 Went bad sooner than I expected 👎
🔘 Forgot it was in the fridge 😞
🔘 Didn't want leftovers 🥡
🗳️ Click your choice to see results and speak your mind
On a larger scale, Target is making some efforts to reduce waste. On its sustainability page, it says, "Our circular design principles of thoughtful material choice, durability, repairability, and recyclability can be seen in two of our owned brands, Universal Thread and Everspring, and we accelerated our commitment to sustainable packaging in 2018 when we became signatories to the Global Commitment, led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme Global Commitment."
What can I do to reduce food waste and plastic use?
If Target's policies strike you as wasteful, you can look around for a different, more eco-friendly business to support. You can also try growing food at home to replace some of what you would buy in a store. Many plastic products also have plastic-free alternatives. A few small changes in your life could make a big difference.
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