Underpaid Worker Berated by Boss for Salvaging Perfectly Good Food From Dumpster

When I was a teenager, a certain upscale grocery store chain in my hometown got exposed for dumping bleach into their dumpsters (usually full of perfectly good food) to prevent people from dumpster diving. When I found out about this, I was dumbfounded. Did they really think the sort of people who could afford to shop at their bougie grocery stores would immediately stop shopping and start rummaging through their dumpsters the moment they found out they throw away perfectly good food? No, obviously the people salvaging wasted food were usually ones who couldn't afford to shop there in the first place. But for the sort of business owner whose brain is poisoned by profits, the precedent is all that matters. Case in point—this unbelievably heartless text that u/heartsofdownfall recently received from their manager after salvaging some food from the business' dumpster. In the text, OP mentions struggling to afford food, which their boss chooses to ignore and instead berate them in a threatening tone. "If a customer saw you picking through garbage for food, could you imagine what they would think?" OP's boss says in the text exchange. Yeah, they'd probably think, "this person's boss doesn't pay them enough to afford food."

Posted by Mel Dawn

“Just trying to get enough to eat and my manager sends me this” Posted by u/heartsofdownfall

The comment section

“Gee it’s almost like helping people helps people to be helpful. What a concept!” said u/Pump_Up_The_Yam.

“NO, IT LOSES MONEY BECAUSE 'NO BUY = NO MUNY' THEREFORE BAD. There's so little gray thinking in favor of black/white within modern America it makes me sad.” said u/StopReadingMyUser.

"'The employees there have to eat out of the trash because they aren’t paid enough.' I know I personally wouldn’t eat there." said u/MittenstheGlove.

“My partner used to work at a gas station, and one day he told me that a girl got fired for ‘theft’ because a guy whose job it was to review store security footage (employee spy cameras) all day caught a girl eating a pepperoni off a pizza she had to throw away per store policy because it had been in the warmer too long.” said u/MeanderingMissive.

“I would think ‘what a shitty employer. At least donate it.’” said u/Sutekiwazurai.

“For-profit institutions are actively disincentivized from donating to their excess stock because that cuts into the store's potential consumer base. Feeding people makes it harder to sell food. The more you meet demand for your product, the less demand there is for your product. It is one of capitalism's most bizarre and naked contradictions.” said u/_Joe_Momma_.