Bri, of Figs with Bri fame, recently wrote in with a tale of waste. She passed along a story from an acquaintance of hers who worked at a California outlet of bulk retailer CostCo. I’ll let him tell the story:
One night when I was helping close up the store, I overheard some of the employees who prepared pizzas complain that they had to throw away 20 pizzas that night because they didn’t sell them. They said that if they took one home, Costco would consider it theft and they would be fired.
We have to introduce Costco to the idea of food recovery! It’s sad that the store won’t allow employees to enjoy perfectly good pizzas. But surely they woudln’t mind them enjoying a slice on the go, right?
On another occasion, we had a “party” at the store, because we had met some monthly sales goal. They had pizza and sodas for us in the break room. When we left, one employee tried to walk out with a slice of pizza to take home. One of the managers came up to him and told him that he had to throw it away. He tried to reason with her and she said that it would be stealing if the food left the premises. There was at least 1 1/2 pizzas left after the party that just got thrown out.
Unrelated to food, I had to pass this electronics waste tidbit along. It’s just too shocking:
We sold a LOT of LCD and Plasma screen TV’s. Several times, I would help a customer carry a brand new flat screen TV out to their car, only to have them come back the next day and return it. Another employee, who had worked at Costco for several years, told me that before Super Bowl Sunday they sell a ton of flat screens and the day after, a lot of them are returned. People just buy them to watch the game and then take them back for a full refund. There is nothing wrong with the TV’s, but due to Costco and the manufacturer’s policies, the brand new TV’s are slapped with a “defective” sticker and destroyed in the trash compactor. While this is happening, the managers are standing by to make sure no one tries to take one home.
No word yet if the store managers strangle baby seals while overseeing the televisions’ destruction.
6 Comments
Not that I condone it, but the pizza practice seems to be in operation at a lot of places. The one that just blows my mind is the TVs/electronic goods! Certainly this isn’t true?! How can they be taken to task for this since those sorts of goods contain incredibly harmful materials?
The only thing I can recommend is to take personal responsibility for your food purchases and consumption – it will help reduce your waistline and improve your “bottom line” with savings!
As a costco employee, I can assure you that televisions are not thrown in the compactor. That is the most ridiculous thing that I have heard. They are sent back to the manufacturer for processing to ensure they are functioning and then they are sent to discount retailers who sell these items as refurbished. I can’t believe anyone would actually believe that they do this.
And as for the pizza’s, it is not costco’s policy to throw these away, it is the health department who makes us do that. We cannot donate these to the local shelters here in Kansas City because they won’t take them. Costco and the shelter are assuming a liability for the food if someone gets sick. Don’t start pointing fingers unless you have your facts straight. We would love to be able to donate food stuffs to the shelters, but it just isn’t possible.
Aaron, thanks for commenting. The facts are that if a pizza is served to staff by another employee, then it can be donated. If the box is opened and staff take their own, it can’t. I find it hard to believe that a food pantry, given all of the recent shortages, won’t take pizzas that have gone unserved.
Further, CostCo is free from liability for donated food. There is a federal shield law–the 1996 Bill Emerson Good Samaratan Food Donation Act. CostCo may be ignorant of such law or hiding behind it because they don’t want to donate. Thousands of grocery stores and restaurants find it possible to donate food. If CostCo wants to donate, they’ll make it happen.
What seems ridiculous is not allowing employees to leave the store with a slice of pizza. That just seems mean spirited.
As for the TV scenario, I’ll admit that your version sounds more likely. But I can’t say that the person involved didn’t see televisions destroyed in that instance. We’ll never know, as neither of us were there.
Jonathan,
Have you thought about writing to Costco’s corporate office? I was tempted to send this page to them and see if they will respond.
CSN
I should get in touch with them…Not that they’ll never admit to those TV practices, if they’re true. Feel free to send away…