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The grocery store near me has a food bank donation that you can put items in before you exit.

tuukkah 4y ago
I've been thinking it would be a win-win-win situation if I had the choice to donate the other half as money instead of as an item: I get one item cheaper, someone gets a useful, extra donation from me, and the store gets to sell the other item again.
- boomboomsubban 4y ago
  It's only a win for the store if they would sell out of the product if you purchased two, as they would only make the profit off of selling one item to you rather than two. That's why those food bank donations annoy me, they supermarket effectively takes a cut of all the donations.
  - b112 4y ago
    Not completely true! For emergency preparedness, I keep a few hundred cans of food around. I live in a rural area, and this is prudent. I never eat them all best-before, and as this is canned food, best-before is not an expiry/safety date, even remotely. It is a flavour date. So I donate my stuff, before purchasing new. And before anyone gets all weird about it, I eat from the same stock I donate, even the day of donation. This means people get good quality food, I get to renew my stocks, and the grocery store with the donation bin, may or may not have been where I bought the food. If more people did this, we'd all be better able to handle disasters, and those in need would be better fed. A real win-win.
    - sgerenser 4y ago
      Have you talked to the food bank about their policy on past-date canned food? I know at least one food bank where they told people not to donate any food past the date as it will get tossed (plus additional staff and volunteer labor to sort through the stuff). I assume this is common for liability reasons at least.
      - hcknwscommenter 4y ago
        Sounds like someone at the "at least one food bank" doesn't understand that there literally is no liability for past-date canned food. I am pretty sure dates on canned food wasn't a thing when I was growing up. It's just another way of prodding the customer to consume.
        thaumasiotes 4y ago
        > It's just another way of prodding the customer to consume. Not really; expiration dates are printed on food (including canned food) because customers want them. Manufacturers are responding to, not attempting to drive, customer demand.
        pempem 4y ago
        Not sure that's true: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1rZAT2GtmI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1rZAT2GtmI
        thaumasiotes 4y ago
        That video doesn't even address the question. It says, correctly, that the dates have no particular meaning and are generally unregulated. It doesn't say why they're there.
        pempem 4y ago
        Hah okay: thats a fair point and I googled this just for you - and for future me. Marks & Spencer introduced them in 1970 in the UK (1) It's true there was a survey of consumers and folks favored them, but I will refrain from posting the enduring veracity and reflectiveness of a survey and point out that consumers likely wanted dates that meant something They are often meaningless and we can assume the consumer wasn't in love with dates that are more complex than not. 1. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/sell-and-best-dates-food-are-basically-made-hard-get-rid-180950304/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/sell-and-best-date...
    - giraffe_lady 4y ago
      I have had all three possible experiences with food banks (used them, volunteered at them, employee of one) and I would be really surprised if that gets used, or benefits the food bank if it does. Food banks have grocery store-like buying power and relationships with wholesalers and local producers, and in my experience nearly all of the food they distribute comes from those sources. The can drives around the holidays are mostly just for awareness. At the ones I worked at checking, sorting and packing those was very costly in labor both paid and volunteered. We always accepted direct food donations because americans are super fucking weird about donating money to the immiserated, but will also get very mad if you turn away their useless donations. Which is bad for PR, so against the goals of the org. We always accepted them but "how can we not" was a constant question.
      - BenjiWiebe 4y ago
        Some charities spend lots of money on things other than their main mission. Whereas if food is donated, you can be quite sure that isn't funding a yacht for the CEO.
  - rhino369 4y ago
    Don't free too bad. Grocery store margins are atrocious.
sdenton4 4y ago
Yeaaaaah, but do you really want to put a bone-in pork roast in the donation bin? Sounds unsanitary.

I've been thinking it would be a win-win-win situation if I had the choice to donate the other half as money instead of as an item: I get one item cheaper, someone gets a useful, extra donation from me, and the store gets to sell the other item again.

boomboomsubban 4y ago
It's only a win for the store if they would sell out of the product if you purchased two, as they would only make the profit off of selling one item to you rather than two. That's why those food bank donations annoy me, they supermarket effectively takes a cut of all the donations.
- b112 4y ago
  Not completely true! For emergency preparedness, I keep a few hundred cans of food around. I live in a rural area, and this is prudent. I never eat them all best-before, and as this is canned food, best-before is not an expiry/safety date, even remotely. It is a flavour date. So I donate my stuff, before purchasing new. And before anyone gets all weird about it, I eat from the same stock I donate, even the day of donation. This means people get good quality food, I get to renew my stocks, and the grocery store with the donation bin, may or may not have been where I bought the food. If more people did this, we'd all be better able to handle disasters, and those in need would be better fed. A real win-win.
  - sgerenser 4y ago
    Have you talked to the food bank about their policy on past-date canned food? I know at least one food bank where they told people not to donate any food past the date as it will get tossed (plus additional staff and volunteer labor to sort through the stuff). I assume this is common for liability reasons at least.
    - hcknwscommenter 4y ago
      Sounds like someone at the "at least one food bank" doesn't understand that there literally is no liability for past-date canned food. I am pretty sure dates on canned food wasn't a thing when I was growing up. It's just another way of prodding the customer to consume.
      - thaumasiotes 4y ago
        > It's just another way of prodding the customer to consume. Not really; expiration dates are printed on food (including canned food) because customers want them. Manufacturers are responding to, not attempting to drive, customer demand.
        pempem 4y ago
        Not sure that's true: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1rZAT2GtmI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1rZAT2GtmI
        thaumasiotes 4y ago
        That video doesn't even address the question. It says, correctly, that the dates have no particular meaning and are generally unregulated. It doesn't say why they're there.
        pempem 4y ago
        Hah okay: thats a fair point and I googled this just for you - and for future me. Marks & Spencer introduced them in 1970 in the UK (1) It's true there was a survey of consumers and folks favored them, but I will refrain from posting the enduring veracity and reflectiveness of a survey and point out that consumers likely wanted dates that meant something They are often meaningless and we can assume the consumer wasn't in love with dates that are more complex than not. 1. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/sell-and-best-dates-food-are-basically-made-hard-get-rid-180950304/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/sell-and-best-date...
  - giraffe_lady 4y ago
    I have had all three possible experiences with food banks (used them, volunteered at them, employee of one) and I would be really surprised if that gets used, or benefits the food bank if it does. Food banks have grocery store-like buying power and relationships with wholesalers and local producers, and in my experience nearly all of the food they distribute comes from those sources. The can drives around the holidays are mostly just for awareness. At the ones I worked at checking, sorting and packing those was very costly in labor both paid and volunteered. We always accepted direct food donations because americans are super fucking weird about donating money to the immiserated, but will also get very mad if you turn away their useless donations. Which is bad for PR, so against the goals of the org. We always accepted them but "how can we not" was a constant question.
    - BenjiWiebe 4y ago
      Some charities spend lots of money on things other than their main mission. Whereas if food is donated, you can be quite sure that isn't funding a yacht for the CEO.
- rhino369 4y ago
  Don't free too bad. Grocery store margins are atrocious.

sdenton4 4y ago

Yeaaaaah, but do you really want to put a bone-in pork roast in the donation bin? Sounds unsanitary.