General Discussion

Diamond_Dog

(41,207 posts) Sat May 30, 2026, 11:15 AM 1 hr ago

Why Do Stores Throw Away So Many Perfectly Good Products? I Went Dumpster Diving to Find Out.

(Not me, Diamond_Dog, the author of the article).

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Before I flew to Texas to fully immerse myself in the reality of dumpster diving, I spent hours online watching videos of people pulling scores of discarded products out of various stores’ trash bags. As I scrolled, I saw influencer after influencer yelping with excitement as they found all sorts of delightful stuff for free — a bicycle! makeup! candles! Lego sets! luxury leather handbags! — just by digging through the garbage.

Dumpster diving is a treasure hunt and a game of chance. What will you find next? A bounty of gold jewelry? Or … a pile of trash?

And all I have to do is peek (or dive) into a dumpster to find out? Count me in!

So over the past few months, I descended into the muck — following dumpster divers both online and in person — to get an intimate look at what’s hiding in our trash bins.

The experience made me uncomfortable, dirty, tired, and a little nauseated.

And I had an absolute blast.

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/dumpster-diving-investigation/?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20260530&instance_id=176410&nl=from-the-times&regi_id=74838209&segment_id=220702&user_id=a9aa4f5d6050c1b2fa535a7ed5551a5b

2 replies

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Highlight:

Why Do Stores Throw Away So Many Perfectly Good Products? I Went Dumpster Diving to Find Out. (Original Post) Diamond_Dog 1 hr ago OP

Economy of scale and tax write-offs. marble falls 50 min ago #1

Not Really A Write-Off ProfessorGAC 26 min ago #2

marble falls

(72,657 posts)

1. Economy of scale and tax write-offs.

Reply to Diamond_Dog (Original post)

Sat May 30, 2026, 12:02 PM

50 min ago

ProfessorGAC

(77,371 posts)

2. Not Really A Write-Off

Reply to marble falls (Reply #1)

Sat May 30, 2026, 12:26 PM

26 min ago

The cost of goods at wholesale is already part of the expenses, so on a P&L statement, the expenses have no revenue offset. No taxes are paid anyway.
Now, if they gave away stuff past it's sell-by date, (but still suitable for consumption) to a food pantry, the lost margin IS a write-off. But, only the margins, not the retail value, as what the store paid is already non-taxable.
In our tax accounting class in MBA school, retail was a focus for about 40% of the term, and grocery was a case study for a quarter of that. Learned quite a lot in that class.

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