Not just food that shops waste
There are several stories already about shops ditching food rather than give it to the needy....its not just food they waste.
I used to work for Halfords while at Uni, and a while afterwards.
I remember very soon after starting there, I was shown half a dozen mountain bikes in the stock room and was told to cut the frames up with a hacksaw, use a hammer to smash the gears, wheels etc and render them completely useless.
Why? I asked.... they were to be binned for whatever reasons, customer returns, repaired bikes that had never been collected etc etc (we couldnt sell 2nd hand stuff)
Why not give them to a charity shop? I asked.
EH? give them away? are you mad? they have to be destroyed.
"urm..ok."

It was beyond rediculous. In all the years I worked there, I saw dozens and dozens of bikes, car stereos, tools, clothes, toys etc all smashed up and binned. All of them perfectly useable.
I remember one year the shop was involved in one of those local radio schemes to provide toys for disadvantaged kids for christmas. The store stumped up money for a few wee teddies and stuff. Meanwhile, I was out the back, smashing up 19 pairs of brand new rollerblades with a hammer because they were discontinued stock that the warehouse didnt want back. Farce.
(dave likes cheese, Sun 26 Oct 2008, 20:39, 7 replies)

Why
...didn't you nick them, then pass them on yourself?
(scentless_apprentice takes two bottles into the shower!, Sun 26 Oct 2008, 20:45, closed)

I think thats disgusting

(i should have joined myspace, Sun 26 Oct 2008, 20:56, closed)

Probably because they were shit
£59.99 "mountain bike" death traps. Doing everyone a favour keeping them off the streets IMHO.
( buffet_the_appetite_slayer ٩(●̮̃•)۶ jacked in to the ICE on, Sun 26 Oct 2008, 21:42, closed)

I was a bike monkey at Halfords for a while.
I managed to make an entire bike out of cannibalised parts that I found in the warehouse, and I am still riding it today!
(Mr._Pickles, Sun 26 Oct 2008, 21:18, closed)

in my dictatorship fantasy...
...such deliberate wastefulness would be a criminal offence.

Think about how much pollution (eg C02) is released, and finite resources consumed (eg rare metal alloys, oil); in the mining, smelting, moulding, assembly and shipping of bicycles; only for them to be sent to landfill.

Society simply cannot afford to deliberately waste in this manner. On a global scale; the more of a given material consumed by the affluent west, the less remains for subsequent generations and the rest of the world.
(The Incredible Sulk Finally remembered his password on, Sun 26 Oct 2008, 23:20, closed)

Plus if the bikes don't get smashed up
our kids can have those as well as an un-fecked-up planet.
(Stu Moo winner of five nobble piece prizes, Mon 27 Oct 2008, 1:07, closed)

This.
Possibly even worse for the similar stories people have posted about electronics - Plasma TVs etc. Also applies to food, of course. Should be a criminal offence, definitely.

But then that's what the "system" is based on, with the consequence that when people start being sensible (keep stuff like cars, TVs, computers going or buy secondhand) it causes people who make those things to lose their jobs. And probably the manufacturer's share price to drop, which just so happens to then kill your pension fund or cause your bank to collapse. It's all broken, but how do we fix it?
(julius, Tue 28 Oct 2008, 9:23, closed)