I know its the point of the QOTW
But I cant believe all these big companies just destroy products!

I work for a well known department store.
Sweets and chocolate nearly out of date? Staff gets them :)
Food going to waste from the restaurant? Staff again
Clothes that haven't sold? Go to local charities.
Clothes off my department that are faulty/haven't sold? Go to Africa

Other items that have not sold? Looked to see where the majority of the items have been sold then shipped there OR to stores that haven't stocked them before.

I dont actualy know if its protocol to give things to staff but I think its a better than just getting rid of it.

Sorry for lack of Scrooge.
(i should have joined myspace, Sun 26 Oct 2008, 22:05, 6 replies)

I fully agree
I sometimes work for a rather small catering company, and until recently, if we had leftovers, we just threw them away. I was FINALLY able to convince my boss after a few months of nagging at him that it would be much better to take this food to charity or *at least* give it to the employees, I even offered to do it myself and he still wouldn't budge. Until now, that is. :-)
Where were these people raised? I consider it a sin to throw away food, any part of food, it makes me feel guilty for days...
(St. Dymphna, Mon 27 Oct 2008, 0:03, closed)

Good work
We need more people like you.
( enoughblueskyforsailorstrousers, Mon 27 Oct 2008, 6:23, closed)

I used to work in a cake shop.
They had previously given food away to a local charity but they then couldn't come and pick up the food for one reason or another so that fell through.

Staff packing up at the end of the day could have whatever they wanted though, anything to subsidise our meagre minimum wage pay.

Damn those cakes were tasty, but I was so fat by the end of the year that I worked there...
(Stu Moo winner of five nobble piece prizes, Mon 27 Oct 2008, 1:18, closed)

Out of date stock.
I worked nights for two weeks. Stock goes out of date at the stroke of midnight... 30 seconds later it's in the staff room consumed by everyone thats timed their 'lunch' to be there when it arrives.
I had so much junk food those weeks...
(engekomkommer, Mon 27 Oct 2008, 9:30, closed)

Never understood the electronics shops that did this
surely giving it away/holding a weekly raffle/etc would remove and problems associated with disposing of waste electrical equipment (not to mention paying someone their hourly rate for smashing up kit)?
( uberdeity Wondered why Owen Lars knew of the term "hell" on, Mon 27 Oct 2008, 12:20, closed)

I manage a record label.
Our CDs are sold all over the world. Some sell better than others, as is the case with all record labels. Our distributor in the US insists on destroying surplus stock of titles that they can't sell, even though I ask them to resell them back to us so we can send them to another territory (like Germany or Japan) where these titles will sell (what's popular in Japan might not be popular in the US).

However, this US company is so bloody bogged down in beaurocracy ("our company has never done that before - we'll need to schedule a series of meetings to discuss it in 6 months time. In the meantime, we'll just smash up some more of these CDs") that it's proving impossible to get them to just send them back and let us resell them elsewhere. Eejits.
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Mon 27 Oct 2008, 14:29, closed)