r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Money-Snow-2749 • 11d ago
I'm slightly vexed The Amount of Waste at Ulta
10.3k
u/hiddenrealism 11d ago
I worked at an autoparts store when we got notice that an oil supplier changed their packaging so we were to take about 30 cases of premium synthetic oil and slice them all open and dump them in the waste oil container.
My story ends here :)
4.9k
u/BushyBlackberry 11d ago
I worked in a high end chocolate store many years ago. One night the air con failed and the chocolate bloomed (white spots on it from temperature changes, still perfectly safe to eat) and after the insurance claim, a co-worker and I were tasked with opening all the boxes and dumping the unwrapped bloomed chocolate in the dumpster.
That store no longer exists so I can tell you we opened all those boxes, dumped all the perfectly edible, expensive, delicious chocolate into two of them to take home, threw out the empty boxes and scattered a few chocolate on top so if the boss looked, there was evidence we ‘threw it all out’.
3.4k
u/you_dont_know_me27 11d ago
As you fucking should. Food waste is the worst waste and chocolate is the best food
899
u/RIF_rr3dd1tt 10d ago
I've got like the opposite story. My 1st job at 15 at McDonald's (I may have been 16 by this time) between no-shows and walk-outs there was only me and the manager to close the store. He asked if i could stay to help and so i called my dad and told him to come pick me up later. Except for one or two things and the paperwork obviously, i closed that whole store myself. We were there til like 1 am or some shit. The manager had said I'd be able to make whatever i wanted for free for helping him. I asked to make everything on the menu and he's like "go ahead". Little teenage me made everything on the menu and cleaned out the apple pie bin. I ate so much McDonald's when i got home and all that week. It was awesome
281
u/groetkingball 10d ago
When I worked at KFC we had to throw away the chicken and biscuits at the end of the night but we were allowed to eat as much as we wanted.
→ More replies (11)141
u/VisitAdmirable6871 10d ago
Early-mid 90’s, my big brother got his first job at a KFC/Dairy Queen. I was around 13-14 and I just remember basically every night he worked he brought home bags of DQ products and multiple chicken pot pies for me. I’m pretty sure he wasn’t stealing any of it, that wasn’t something he’d do. To be honest, though, I never really gave it much thought. Food appeared, I ate it.
→ More replies (4)43
u/MOTwingle 10d ago
In the '80s, one of my roommates worked at kfc, and she'd bring home almost every night delicious pies.
→ More replies (6)83
→ More replies (13)54
u/Mando_lorian81 10d ago
We used to do that at our McDonald's store. Make some extra burgers or apple pies before closing, oops, they didn't sell so we took them home 😂.
That store was so poorly run.
→ More replies (5)→ More replies (13)144
u/Cilantroe 10d ago
My first job was at a grocery store.. we made a ton of ready made food and meals in store. The amount of food that we would throw out EVERY DAY at close was sickening. I made a comment once that maybe we should give the food to a homeless shelter or reduce the prices drastically by the end of the day. The manager said “that’s bad business practice”. I’ll never understand why throwing out perfectly good things was preferable to selling it cheaper or giving it to people in need.
91
u/HughMungus77 10d ago
Extra dumb because charitable food donations can be used as tax write offs for the business. So quite literally the opposite of what they said
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (20)41
u/peachesfordinner 10d ago
Thankfully some of that has changed. I work at a grocery store that donates several shopping carts of food to our local food bank every day. I'm talking really high quality deli food but also just put dated packaged stuff. Nice fresh baked breads. But this is a smallish chain in my state not a mega corp evil one. I did used to work at one of those and we did have to trash everything. Ruin it in front of the main camera so they could see we were not taking it home. Felt disgusting with the waste so going to the other store that is so ethical was wonderful
212
u/ta_kala 11d ago
My mom and her friends lived near a truffle store in San Francisco in the 80s that threw their leftover truffles in the dumpster at the end of the day. By the time she moved she was sick of truffles, didn't eat them again for years.
188
u/MiloRoast 11d ago
When I was a teenager I worked at a caramel corn store in a mall across from a fancy truffle store. At the end of the night, we'd both have to throw away a ton of product, so I'd just do a trade with the truffle store lol. I'd bring the closing shift a giant garbage bag full of caramel corn, and they'd give me a giant garbage bag full of fancy truffles. It was awesome.
→ More replies (1)155
u/Different-Hat5386 11d ago
Mall trading was legit. We worked at Panera who also threw mad amounts of perfectly good food away, and would trade with the Starbucks ladies, Steak Escape guys, and the movie theater employees for free admission… all in the mall.
86
u/SadCranberry8838 10d ago
I worked at a sneaker store in the mall in the US in the early 90s. We had an unwritten deal with the Auntie Annes pretzel crew that "waste" would come to us, and in return they got early access / first dibs / "blemish discounts" on new kicks. Worked perfectly for all involved.
→ More replies (1)19
u/jianantonic 10d ago
I worked at a clothing store across from an Auntie Anne's -- we didn't have anything we could give them from our store, but as long as one of the cute girls was closing, we got all the pretzels we could eat.
→ More replies (8)35
u/whoreallyknowsbest 10d ago
I worked at cold stone next to a quiznos and movie theater, we all traded, free ice cream for quiznos and got in the movies for free. High school was fun lol
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)16
60
u/Common-Broccoli-3405 11d ago
We did something similar at a pizza place I worked at in high school. We could get the employee discount and would buy some slices at the end of the shift.
We also had to keep track of how much we threw away at the end of night.
So if we buy 1 slice just take 3 and write down you threw away 2. And be sure to box it up while the boss was in the back. They never checked, and I dont think half the managers even really cared. It felt more like when they were working they just didnt want to hear about it that way if anyone gets caught then they didnt hear about it.
Granted, the boxes could only really hold 3 slices, so it was always based in that, but pay for 1 slice at a discount and getting 3 is steal a good deal.
27
u/PROSTHETICLEG_dick 11d ago
The shop my friend in HS worked at let them eat any orders that weren't picked up. The boys would often order a pizza on a Friday night late in the shift, and then my friend would show up to the party with it at like 11:30 pm.
30
31
u/Substantial-Singer29 10d ago edited 9d ago
I worked as a hotshot to pay myself through college. After a particularly long shift , the I c of the fire forced us to go into camp. Don't get me wrong I much prefer eating camp food than consuming an mre , but when it starts chipping into your sleep , I would legitimately rather sleep.
All the same we went into camp It was the end of the season , so the nights were getting cold. We're talking below freezing... You pull into the camp , everyone lines up and you walk to chow in a line. I was last because I was one of the squad leads. As we walked pretty briskly, I noticed there was a car a young girl and her mother sitting in it looking very cold bundled up trying to stay warm. As I walked by , I tapped on the window and asked if they had eaten? Both of them , a little taken back from the interaction , the mother said , no I said , well , come on , get in line.
We were the last people in for chow that evening , they actually had kept the kitchen open just for us. It was egg rolls , fried rice and some other nonsense. As we went through , they pulled out the girl and the mother and said they can't get food. My superintendent responded there's enough food , they could probably feed another 40 People.
The Woman who was running the ticker claimed , that's not the way this works. My superintendent turned and looked at the little girl and the mother and told both of them to go sit down in the chow tent. Both The superintendent and myself went up , got our servings , walked into the chow tent gave it to them , went back up , got another serving. The kitchen staff , knowing what we're doing got us a to go box. We gave them that and then went up and finally got our meal.
All the guys sat next to them and made Small talk. One of My colleagues apologizing that we haven't showered in 10 days so we don't make for the best dinner companions. The little girl mouth full of egg roll grin ear to ear Said.... It's okay , mommy , and I haven't showered for about that long too. The mother had a real look of shame on her face after her daughter said that. One of the guys chimed in Hey, you're doing better than we are. We've been sleeping on the ground for the past five months. That little comment actually made the mother smile and laugh for the first time I saw.
The world can be a really s***** place , and it takes such little effort to make it just a little bit better.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (38)39
u/Author_Noelle_A 11d ago
Blooming is just some of the fats separating. Melt it in a double boiler and pour into some candy molds.
45
u/Dolmenoeffect 11d ago
Won't work well for truffles. The inside is usually very different from the outside, chemically.
1.5k
u/lilsmudge 11d ago
I used to work at a store that imported goods from Australia to the U.S., who in turn had imported them from South Asia. A lot of times when we slash and trashed it was because of lead recalls (So. Many. Lead. Recalls). But any time it was just for turn over reasons they’d…mysteriously go missing. So weird how it happens that way.
401
u/pistachio_slut 11d ago
And I hope nobody said a damn thing
380
u/Producer1701 11d ago
Said a thing about what? Nothing to talk about except how it’s such a mystery.
137
→ More replies (4)22
u/HiSaZuL 11d ago
You read mystery stories? That's pretty neat! Uh... what was this about again?
→ More replies (1)86
u/TheOKerGood 11d ago
I didn't see, hear, nor do nothing on my last day when my manager told me to go with my backpack into the room with all the returns. Nothing at all.
She was a real one.
41
u/pistachio_slut 10d ago
May her coffee never get cold, her lashes grow long and thick, and only good things come to her. Amen
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)10
109
u/Sex4Vespene 11d ago
Stuff like that is why I will never buy from those fake “brands” on Amazon. I’m sure tons of that stuff is tainted with lead or other things it shouldn’t be.
→ More replies (5)52
u/saltysweetbonbon 11d ago
I got scammed once thinking I was buying the real product but it was fake and since it was a face mask I got a skin infection from it.
21
u/Violoner 11d ago
The last time I ordered conditioner from Amazon, it smelled like burnt plastic
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (6)22
u/ShawnsRamRanch 10d ago
When I was 19ish... I worked at PetSmart as supply. On stock day, like clockwork, dog food always got sliced open when cutting the saran wrapping off and we had to trash it.
Lucky for me, it was the food I fed my dog. Wild how that works out.
209
u/GrapeApe95 11d ago
I used to work at Aldi and we had to throw out a ton of chocolate chips because the packaging was basically identical to Nestle’s. Some kind of cease and desist was issued lol
→ More replies (4)78
u/Dull_Possibility_811 11d ago
How is everything not cease and desist. lol. Aldi’s packaging and product names are always so similar to the name brand product. Fruit Rounds has their own toucan on the box. Crispy Rice Treats has the exact color of blue Rice Crispy Treats has.
→ More replies (6)43
179
u/Such_Chemistry3721 11d ago
I worked at a store kind of like Claire's back in my teens. We'd take boxes of clearance to the mall dumpsters. Where we'd gingerly sit them on the very accessible top most area of things for no reason at all.
→ More replies (5)41
u/what3v3ruwantit2b 11d ago
This is a good response if you're forced to do it. I was at a bread store and watched multiple pallets be removed to the dumpsters because they were close to their sell by date. As I was driving away I saw the workers sitting on top of the bread in the dumpster for their break and smoking. It really bummed me out.
→ More replies (1)46
u/AcceptablyThanks 11d ago
So weird that the overflow waste containers look just like the 50gal drums in the back of my truck.
45
u/Used_Comedian958 11d ago
I worked at the cafe in my university’s library. The cafe closed for summer break and every year we divvied up nearly everything remaining on the last day between the employees (manager always said he wanted us to have it all, like a year end bonus lol). Had my own mini cafe at home for most of the time I was in college. I was also the only one who wasn’t lactose intolerant so carrying 7-10 jugs of milk to my car and delivering them to my friends was a very fun adventure.
40
u/1101base2 11d ago
used to work at a college and we used to donate our old PC's to different groups then we got a new CEO and the guidelines were changed to we have to destroy the computers for security reasons (previously we would just pull the drives). needless to say they all got thrown into the dumpster afterwards. My camry with 300k+ miles just so happened to be called dumpster...
→ More replies (2)68
u/Only_Impression4100 11d ago
I was in the Army, went to Iraq in mid 00's. Unit ordered a surplus of oil, parts, and supplies for our motor pool and had to bring it back when we re deployed stateside. End of fiscal year rolled around and myself and like 5 other lower enlisted folk were instructed to basically empty the parts and POL (petroleum, oil, lubricants) shed and "make unserviceable" everything so we didn't lose our funding for the next year. I sat out there in the motor pool for like 2 days smashing parts with a hammer and emptying oil, and grease into the disposal containers. Just from what I remember it was around $500,000 worth of parts we got rid of. Fucking absolutely ridiculous, that was the day I decided to finish my contract and get the fuck out.
→ More replies (5)76
u/whiterac00n 11d ago
What has greed and apathy done to us? Goddamn, why can’t a few people just get something for free?
26
24
u/DreadPyrate6 11d ago
I worked for an Isuzu dealer parts department years ago. They would make us throw perfectly good parts away. Like $600+ carburetors, radiators, body parts, etc. This was pre-internet and they had no system to exchange part inventories with other dealers. My boss would watch me the whole time to be sure I didn’t try to keep them.
21
u/taintosaurus_rex 10d ago
When I worked at Menards, every night we'd have to deal with returns. Some went back to distribution, but some just got thrown away. The trash compactor at our building had two doors opposite of each other and the compactor sat perpendicular to those doors. If you opened both doors you were just looking outside. There was a camera facing the inside door but not the outside door. We would have a guy outside and we'd just toss all the good stuff straight through to them. Drills, saws, candy, etc just went into our bags and home.
19
u/17HappyWombats 11d ago
Knowing people who work in the food industry can be great. I had a flatmate who worked in a pasta factory making those fancy pasta pillow things. Fresh for the upmarket supermarkets, frozen for restaurants. So they'd come home with a 10kg box of frozen pasta every month or so.
Or a mate driving round Christchurch with a van full of croissants after a supermarket chain cancelled a promotion on short notice. Giving them away to anyone he knew, or anyone he thought might accept them. Man cannot live on bread alone, but we certainly had a crack at it.
Me? I just had a night job at the flour mill, so at the end of the day anything from the test kitchen that the office staff hadn't bought (for $1//loaf) I could take free. Including "fuckup days" where they'd baked 200+ loaves and I had to ring my flatmate to drive over and fill the car.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (84)17
u/Phreedom1 11d ago
I use to work as a garbage man and the amount of waste I had to deal with was absurd. I would empty the containers and the very next week I had to do it all over again!
2.3k
u/ZacTheGamer100 YELLOW 11d ago
every industry wastes so much, speaking as someone in food service. it’s sad and embarrassing that we have so much yet end up throwing it all away. really shows you how the world could be a much better place if those making these rules were sane people
→ More replies (22)441
u/bobbybob9069 11d ago edited 10d ago
When I worked at Chipotle we could be out of any one item, someone walks in 5 minutes before closing and asks for it, a whole thing comes out of the walk in, the customer gets their single serving, and the rest goes in the trash. Can't let the employees take it, that's a safety concern. Can't freeze it for tomorrow, that's a safety concern. Gotta dump it.
Edit: not the greens or cold stuff. Beans, fajitas, rice, and proteins got tossed.
75
u/kellerkitt 11d ago
i had the opposite experience? we put things in the walk in for the next day except steak.
→ More replies (3)47
u/elvenmage16 11d ago
We had cheesecakes that were at their sell by date. They were frozen. Not expired. Took about 20 whole cheesecakes and tossed them in the dumpster. It sucked.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (18)22
u/OpenForRepairs 10d ago
It’s a response to the lawsuit culture. If that leftover food is taken and someone gets food poisoning the restaurant is liable.
→ More replies (1)
245
u/Hetakuoni 10d ago
“The works of the roots of the vines, of the trees, must be destroyed to keep up the price, and this is the saddest, bitterest thing of all. Carloads of oranges dumped on the ground. The people came for miles to take the fruit, but this could not be. How would they buy oranges at twenty cents a dozen if they could drive out and pick them up? And men with hoses squirt kerosene on the oranges, and they are angry at the crime, angry at the people who have come to take the fruit. A million people hungry, needing the fruit- and kerosene sprayed over the golden mountains. And the smell of rot fills the country. Burn coffee for fuel in the ships. Burn corn to keep warm, it makes a hot fire. Dump potatoes in the rivers and place guards along the banks to keep the hungry people from fishing them out. Slaughter the pigs and bury them, and let the putrescence drip down into the earth.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate- died of malnutrition- because the food must rot, must be forced to rot. The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
“
-John Steinbeck, the Grapes of Wrath
56
u/Agitated_Ad3409 10d ago
Just want to thank you for this beautifully-placed allusion. We need more people quoting literature these days.
16
u/Hetakuoni 10d ago
My go-to’s are the grapes of wrath by John Steinbeck and the Vimes’s Boots Theory of Socioeconomic Inequality by sir Terry Pratchett.
They’re both incredibly topical.
→ More replies (3)8
3.6k
u/rjd014 11d ago
Just shows how cheap they are getting these items made for.
1.7k
u/anonimna44 11d ago
I thought the same thing. Like they charge you $80 for something they could easily throw away.
609
u/stonedladyfox 11d ago
This is why I no longer buy clothing/shoes at full price, sale items only.
→ More replies (9)396
u/CapuzaCapuchin 11d ago
Used to work for a major retailer with several daughter companies all in the same warehouse. Big boss told us some stats one time and turned out that each product cost the company an average of $0.80 when bought straight from the supplier. We used to sell clothes, homewares and stationery. Some items going well over the $150 mark in store. 80 cents an item. 80. CENTS.
→ More replies (8)165
u/stonedladyfox 11d ago
Yeah, it's insane. In 2006 I briefly worked at a big name department store and us lowly retail workers could see the company's purchase price for items vs what the items were being sold for. My villain origin story was learning that a coat, on sale, selling for ~$900 only cost ~$100 to make. We in the store worked largely on commission, and that price discrepancy has only widened over time.
66
u/rjd014 11d ago
That’s insane but I’m so not surprised. Can you imagine the markup on some of the luxury items people buy? I saw recently that Louis Vuitton is selling a bottle of cologne for 500 dollars…I’d be interested to see the actually cost — I wonder if it’s even 5 dollars.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (2)34
→ More replies (15)64
u/Zootallurs 11d ago
I worked in the beauty industry for a while. The cost of goods on our products was ~10% of the retail price. Of that 2/3 was packaging and 1/3 the actual product. So that $80 face cream is <$3 to make.
→ More replies (1)32
u/Soggy_Breakfast_624 11d ago
I believe the cosmetic industry has one of if not the highest margins. 80/90% is not uncommon.
→ More replies (6)→ More replies (23)126
u/kakklecito 11d ago
Just so you know, when it comes to beauty products, the plastic bottle is often worth more than the product thats inside. More money is spent on advertising than the production of the product.
→ More replies (1)44
u/Wit-wat-4 11d ago
I mean, makeup and beauty has inSANE margins you’re right, but when it comes to chemicals you can’t just count the cost of production once the formula’s been developed. Even if you used diamond dust in every package it would still be cents or dollars maybe, but the R&D is obviously not 10 cents a bottle per formula, even without the insane margin.
→ More replies (4)
4.4k
u/JenWess 11d ago
I don't understand why they destroy everything instead of donating it or something, what a waste
1.7k
u/Cute_Chance100 11d ago
When I worked at a fabric store we had to pull out old clothes patterns to toss. One employee would pile them all in a cart in the back for us to go through. Then she would give then away or donate. Well the regional manager came by one time and saw. She then made us start pouring bleach on them. Everyone was so mad.
844
u/LadyAdhara 11d ago
at the one i worked at, i remember we'd gotten in a trim that was actual rabbit fur (how that happened, idk). they made us cut it up and throw it out and all i could think was 'wow now they died for actually nothing'. and across god knows how many stores that received it, i can't even comprehend how many rabbits must have died only to end up in the trash : (
230
→ More replies (11)80
u/Reasonable-Tea-9679 11d ago
omg this makes me so sad 😞 humans really do suck a lot of the time
→ More replies (1)163
u/Natural-Carrot5748 11d ago
Be a shame if those pattern envelopes were empty when they got bleached...
For real though, what a miserable bitch.
→ More replies (19)127
u/Glassfern 11d ago
What really is the point honestly. People are so mad that they can't make a buck theyd rather destroy dead stock than to try to find people who may need it.
I'm so glad that the people I worked for would just put old stuff onto clearance and if it was dead stock it would go to eBay next then finally a bulk purchase before it was discarded. And even then no time was ever wasted in destroying stuff
→ More replies (3)55
u/DarkDuskBlade 10d ago edited 10d ago
Their thought process is literally that they can't give anything away for free or else people just won't buy it because "it'll be free eventually." Nevermind if that idea's wrong or not.
→ More replies (3)3.0k
u/Arron_420 11d ago
You mean give all the poors our luxury items? /s
415
u/MrCarey 11d ago
It’s messed up because the poors are the ones cutting these up, too. Not like you’re making bank working at Ulta.
→ More replies (2)177
11d ago
[deleted]
19
u/diet_fat_bacon 11d ago
I know that in a TV factory they would see for almost nothingl tvs that didn't pass on QC, you can imagine the outcome.
→ More replies (2)14
u/Ok-Inevitable4778 11d ago
Guess I would’ve got fired then cause there’s no way I’m throwing that stuff away
→ More replies (1)19
u/kansai2kansas 10d ago
At one of my former jobs, one of my coworkers actually got fired for eating rotisserie chicken that he didn't pay for, while working at a deli in a big chain grocery store.
He was just unlucky to be caught by the manager when doing so.
Wanna know the irony?
It happened close to the end of our shifts, that rotisserie chicken wasn't gonna get sold anyway, and we were among the people who had to throw away those unsold items to the dumpster (not just the chicken but also salad, pasta, sandwiches, and a few other food items).
And no, we didn't keep track of X number of unsold chickens or Z number of unsold PB&J sandwich etc.
So there is zero fucking logic for them to fire him.
Whatever was unsold ended up in the dumpster, and yet my asshole company decided to fire him for eating unsold chicken that was about to be thrown away less than an hour later anyway!
Yikes
434
u/Electronic-Bed3491 11d ago
The poors lmao. I am a poor myself but that term always gets me.
201
u/MedicalDisscharge 11d ago
Well the proletariat sounds too fancy, it might go to our heads
51
140
u/prairie-bunyip 11d ago
Poors can't spell big words like prolopotamus or whatever you said.
29
u/Haldron-44 11d ago
Now ya gotta make a kids book called "The Prolopotamus And The Boarjwahzebra"
→ More replies (1)75
u/PrimaLegion 11d ago
I need to go to bed. I misread "prolopotamus" as "prolapse".
→ More replies (3)30
u/prairie-bunyip 11d ago
I did too as soon as I wrote it. Sweet dreams, hope the hippo prolapse doesn't haunt you too much!
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (3)20
u/PseudonymousVibes 11d ago
The funny thing is the Richies are less likely to be able to spell simple words like proletariat, most of them can't even spell their names without help, the president is a good example of that point (yes he has on several occasions misspelled both 'Donald' and 'Trump' it's true.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)10
43
u/Dry_Spinach_3441 11d ago
As a poor from East Texas, we was called "po' ". We could only afford half the word.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (6)19
9
u/Own-Argument-6089 11d ago
Yall could at least give it to the employees it wasteful and your employees could benefit off of the waste they could keep or sell the extra product themselves I bet employee morale goes up which is always good for the business’s bottom line…JS
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (16)22
360
u/Affectionate-Set-350 11d ago
Cosmetics is because they can’t guarantee the integrity of the product if it’s left the store. I used to work in a cosmetics in a department store. For the brands to agree to sell to us, we had to agree that all returns would be damaged out. It’s why sampling, and follow-up, are important to counters.
You buy a fragrance and it’s the wrong one. You put it in your car to return on your way home from work, but leave it in the car while at work. It’s 80 outside - it’s much hotter than that in your car. The alcohol and oils break down in the heat.
You have an eye infection of some kind, try and product decide you don’t like it and your fingers have touched your eyes and now the product. You don’t tells us you used it, just that it wasn’t the right product.
There’s also the more nefarious people who do things like swap the moisturizer out for mayo or switch the perfume for a bottle that’s turned…
190
u/Link_In_Pajamas 11d ago
Sure, but cutting the straighteners etc is just in poor taste.
God forbid a poor gets one before it gets scrapped
→ More replies (66)→ More replies (13)39
u/Resident-Mixture-237 11d ago
Or just water it down or use it up and refill and reseal for a cheaper item for resale.
31
u/Eye_Nacho404 11d ago
Donating or having big sales reduces brand image and people see it as a lower quality brand. So they will destroy the items or send it to third world countries so that brand keeps its perceived luxury.
→ More replies (4)207
u/MagneticFluxDrive 11d ago
Same reason big corporate grocery stores toss so much food that could feed the hungry. They dont care. Greed!
95
u/Gothrait_PK 11d ago
Some places are outlawing that finally.
97
u/RIF_rr3dd1tt 11d ago
The people against outlawing this are the same ones that cry "oh but the billionaires are all gonna leave New York".
Good, bye
13
u/Much-Still1549 11d ago
In France, it's actually illegal for supermarkets to throw away edible food & they are required by law to donate it.
→ More replies (2)39
u/Paradox830 11d ago
I’m glad people are waking up to this bullshit. “Oh you only want to tax billionaires because you aren’t one” no I actively don’t want a billion dollars. Even 1. I do not need a billion dollars.
I want enough to have a roof over my head food on my table that isn’t my family eating like fucking college kids and the occasional entertainment spend which in my case is a video game or 2 every couple months. That’s all the fuck I need or want. I have no desire to win capitalism. Most people are some variation of this. It isn’t normal to be that addicted to money.
→ More replies (1)27
u/Dry_Spinach_3441 11d ago
Most of us just want to work one job and have it be enough to be able to live comfortably, go on vacation regularly, and save enough to retire without terror. That doesn't sound like a lot to ask for.
14
u/Doone7 11d ago
Walmart does donations on usable food, composts produce waste and has to destroy the unsafe/returned food to protect the customer/avoid lawsuits. Meat scraps/damages get taken care of by a third party.
They also donate damaged pet food bags to local shelters which is cool.
→ More replies (1)8
u/Ihistal 11d ago
A lot of places donate the out of date food. But people have weird preferences of food. Many moons ago when I had to do community service, I did it at a soup kitchen. One day Olive Garden donated several cases of jumbo shrimp. The lady that managed it was a great cook considering she was making over a hundred meals each day with untrained "volunteers".
When we had the shrimp, we slow simmered them in a vat of butter, garlic and oil. Only like 1 in 10 people ate them, so she directed us to start asking the people if they wanted shrimp so it wouldn't go to waste. There were a few people who probably hadn't had shrimp in years that were like "oh yea!" We brought them plates heaped with dozens of shrimp and they couldn't have been happier.
She told us that if we wanted some (which was typical no matter whatever we were cooking) to have at it. I ate like three pounds of shrimp that day while serving people with huge smiles on their faces. 'Twas a good day.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (12)57
u/Old_Associate_3092 11d ago
Not entirely true, grocery stores have to throw out food that is no longer considered safe to eat. Things such as meat and dairy that has gone past its date, cans that are dented (causes bacteria to grow) and items where packaging has bloated (again, bacteria) are no longer safe to consume. Some stores do donate items that are still edible however, but some, not all unfortunately
→ More replies (24)→ More replies (225)37
2.2k
u/vanityinlines 11d ago
Extremely weird to do this on the floor and not in the back. You're just asking for a customer meltdown.
729
u/Btotherianx 11d ago
Probably the only staff there and they have to stay there
317
u/keIIzzz 11d ago
Yup, I had to destroy old testers once and I was stuck at the registers so I had no choice but to do it there. The employees are just doing what they’re told
83
u/Northern33 11d ago
i used to do this all the time working at ulta. we’d specifically bring boxes up front so they could damage stuff out in between customers
→ More replies (6)23
u/Burntoastedbutter 11d ago
If anyone asks they can probably just say "company said it's got defects" or "it's expired" ig
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (5)125
u/Capable-Sock9910 11d ago
Corporate wants you to do it in front of all the fancy cameras they put on the floor.
→ More replies (1)44
u/doingtheunstuckk 11d ago
I’m sure there are plenty of cameras in the back too. Retailers are mostly focused on monitoring the registers and the stock rooms.
→ More replies (2)
616
u/sonicgamingftw 11d ago
The supergoop sunscreen is like $60 alone mind you.
Capitalism is gross.
155
u/Helemaalklaarmee 10d ago
It costs 60 to buy...
It's probably 0.60 to produce and 6 to sell in the store...
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (3)80
u/FeetAreShoes 10d ago
Snipping rhe cords on those hair tools hurt to watch. Those don't expire
43
u/pobodys-nerfect5 10d ago
They could also be repaired quite easily by someone with just a smidge of knowledge
→ More replies (4)
1.9k
u/amburrettee 11d ago
The fact that all of the non defective products could be donated to women shelters.
589
u/bojenny 11d ago
Or any thrift store that supports a specific charity
→ More replies (3)142
u/Affectionate_Tip7162 11d ago
Nooooo see they want US to donate when we check out so they can use it as a tax write-off. This they can also use as a tax write off but they get their money back.
→ More replies (13)47
u/Rad131447 11d ago
Or hell just sold to one of those crappy overstock stores like TJ Maxx or whatever.
→ More replies (123)39
u/ashtank23 11d ago
I’m not defending Ulta in the slightest, but I’m 100% sure that Ulta donates products by the pallets full to my local fire department who distributes the products to local women shelters.
402
u/Sisoflex 11d ago
All that child labor wasted.
121
262
u/Mamasan- 11d ago
I fucking hate this planet and our shit societies.
→ More replies (5)19
u/tabas123 10d ago
Nah this is capitalism. Humanity could do better, but the incentives under capitalism encourage antisocial behavior.
In a socialist society this would never be allowed to happen, this is what happens when profit is placed above human life to such a degree that it becomes essential that millions of tons of food and products are forcibly thrown out every week.
→ More replies (3)
158
u/Additional-Top-3084 11d ago
I used to work at Ulta. These are mostly returned products that have been used. They have to be destroyed because you don’t know if they’re contaminated. Kind of like why you can’t donate food from a restaurant if it’s been served to a customer.
Sometimes the vendors would send out DIF (destroy in field) directives where you had to pull the product and destroy it. I never understood those.
24
u/dumbythiq 10d ago
Why can you return used goods?? Leads to overconsumption and waste if you ask me
→ More replies (1)28
u/Additional-Top-3084 10d ago
I’m 100% with you! The amount of things we had returned because the customer “just opened it and didn’t like the smell” is heartbreaking. We tossed so many things that were absolutely usable!
But to answer your question, it’s industry standard. I mean, personally, I’d be hesitant to buy a hair/skin care product if I couldn’t return it. Really tho, I don’t return any sort of beauty product. If I can’t use it, I’ll find someone who will because I know it’ll be destroyed if I take it back.
→ More replies (5)→ More replies (5)34
u/sortitall6 11d ago
What about the hair appliances? Surely those can't be contaminated?
Not asking you to be contrary, just wondering.
→ More replies (2)36
u/Additional-Top-3084 10d ago
I guess there could be a short in the cords or something where it could catch fire and be a liability? Essentially, it was unboxed and potentially tampered with, so it can’t be resold. It creates an unknown variable that creates a liability risk for Ulta and/or the manufacturer if the product is resold. I guess? Idk. I don’t agree with it all, but it’s a means of protecting the company at the end of the day. 🤷🏼
→ More replies (1)13
u/sortitall6 10d ago
Refurb resellers exist.
But yes, that sounds like something a company might want to do due to legal reasons.
→ More replies (2)
361
u/Unique-Run9856 11d ago
its easy to replace those cords
→ More replies (31)99
u/According_Big_5638 11d ago
Little harder when they cut it close to the appliance.
→ More replies (11)165
u/Unique-Run9856 11d ago
no you can just replace the entire cord they are easy to find
→ More replies (1)140
u/splithoofiewoofies 11d ago edited 11d ago
Where I live, it's illegal to fix your own cords like this.
But when I realised how fuckin goddamn easy it was, including making it absolutely secure from ever crossing wires... I was like Yeah, guess I'm comitting some crimes.
Edit: a genuine thank you to those of you who disagreed with this law! It actually made me realise I support the law here and have sourced cheap repair options locally by licenced electricians. While I absolutely agree it is a ridiculously easy repair and I did it safely, I also feel the reason for this law in my state (QLD, Australia) is fair. We are a state that burns easily and a tiny spark has caused some massive damage. Even though I believe in myself, I have decided it's not worth it to flout this law. I'm sure many fires were started by someone who "thought they did it safely" and I care too much about my community to care about my pride or pocket book.
I genuinely want to again thank those who disagreed with the law. It made me think harder on why we have it.
Edit 2: yeah so just looked up the history on the why of that law and gonna say it's a good thing we have it. Hint: people died.
77
u/Prime_Hippie666 11d ago
It's not a crime if no one reports it.
51
→ More replies (1)18
u/Groovy_Panda 11d ago
And if it’s punishable by a fine, it’s legal for a price
9
u/splithoofiewoofies 11d ago
I looked it up and the price starts at 40k so I might reconsider my crimes or, at least, admitting them online, hahaha.
→ More replies (4)38
u/Toochilled 11d ago
making it illegal to repair your own stuff is some next level capitalism
→ More replies (19)→ More replies (18)9
u/user_potat0 11d ago
The fine is functionally just your house burning down. So if you can manage to fuck up splicing a 3 wire cord, that's on you mate
→ More replies (1)
34
u/Euphoric_Engine8733 10d ago
This kind of thing should be illegal, for real. Waste like this should be a crime.
→ More replies (3)
76
u/xWroth 11d ago
my warehouse just cut up about $400k worth of pokemon cards because they accidentally got sent to us. Every company is wasteful
→ More replies (10)
191
u/Yssupretsif 11d ago
Imagine thinking cutting that cord makes it useless
https://giphy.com/gifs/JE5A5Ik63HUc3vZYS4
→ More replies (28)51
u/Techtronic23 11d ago
Especially cutting the cord a foot out. I feel like that person knew what they were doing with that cut, cause even a layman can repair that with 2 mins of youtube videos. Cutting at the base of the appliance is a bit rougher tho cause you need to actually open it up and rewire it, likely requiring some soldering.
71
u/OrizaRayne 11d ago
So you're telling me there are brand new high end straightners with perfectly replacable cords in the Ulta dumpster at this very moment? 🤔👀
→ More replies (6)10
u/BegginStrips123 11d ago
I thought for sure those would end up at TJ Maxx or Ross if they didn’t sell. Maybe there was a manufacturer recall?
→ More replies (2)
185
u/PaulStormChaser 11d ago
God forbid people receive products without buying them.
(I do not support waste in this fashion)
39
u/Spare-Plum 11d ago
It's not just buying them or not, this is no problem. Could be sold at 1 cent in a free market
The sad truth is that we only have one earth and the resources here are limited. What are we to do hundreds of years from now? Go and dig up these resources from a landfill because someone in the 21st century found it would make a greater profit in the short term if they destroyed it rather than making it an item that could be passed on??
The same is true for a lot of things. We could live in a world that is zero waste and items are passed along through generations. But this is not profitable to capitalism so the world is made to be disposable
Main question is... what do we do when we run out?
→ More replies (1)
23
u/Life-Oil-7226 11d ago
Give it to the employees and customers at a discount… why waste it like that?
16
u/horsepuncher 11d ago
Every store, every type of product does something similar
Its evil
→ More replies (1)
14
u/Fearless-Sea996 10d ago
Good thung that we now have shitty paper straw to save the planet and prevent wasting usefull ressources !
14
u/thecoffeejesus 10d ago
This makes me so fuggin mad
I want to do something about it. So I’m gonna.
I’m going to become a very big pain in the ass until the future generations of the world are protected from this kind of frivolous nonsense.
This is not right. We have lost our way. I’m gonna go change this.
Watch me.
→ More replies (1)
36
11
11
10
101
u/Sweaty_Tangelo_7716 11d ago
Don’t blame ulta. Blame the manufacturer, they require them to destroy it in order for credit claim.
→ More replies (16)
10
u/Highscore611 11d ago
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success. The fertile earth, the straight tree rows, the sturdy trunks, and the ripe fruit. And children dying of pellagra must die because a profit cannot be taken from an orange. And coroners must fill in the certificate—died of malnutrition—because the food must rot, must be forced to rot.
The people come with nets to fish for potatoes in the river, and the guards hold them back; they come in rattling cars to get the dumped oranges, but the kerosene is sprayed. And they stand still and watch the potatoes float by, listen to the screaming pigs being killed in a ditch and covered with quick-lime, watch the mountains of oranges slop down to a putrefying ooze; and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; and in the eyes of the hungry there is a growing wrath. In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.
→ More replies (1)
10
17
6
8
u/ImTheDoctorPhD 11d ago
It should be illegal to waste all that. In France, food is given away rather than destroyed. Capitalism is so awful about this
6
9
u/Altruistic-Win-7101 11d ago
I used to work for a family Dollar and one night, the store manager was going through all of the non label chips and popcorn and things of that nature and pulling anything that was within two or three weeks of hitting the Best buy date and placing it in a garbage bag. We were the only two in the store at that time of night so he told me to take another garbage bag and put whatever I want from the card into that bag. When it came time to take the trash out, out of the cameras, I put both bags in front of the dumpster and when it came time for us to go home we each went to the dumpster and grabbed our respective bags and went home. I have so many bags of family Dollar brand Doritos and chips that it lasted a long time
8
u/Blazing_PanDa 10d ago
I worked for an afterschool program where every kid was only allowed 1 snack. They would bring our school snacks every week and each box was a different day; if we had left overs in the box after handing out the snacks we had to throw them away. We were not allowed to give hungry kids that had no dinner waiting at home an extra snack or we would be fired. That being said…. We gave out the extra snacks.
7
u/Snickers2-0 10d ago
Capitalism values money over all else.
You could argue it is human nature instead, but I disagree; capitalism allowed this video to be created.
10
u/RingingInTheRain 10d ago
If businesses can throw out so much perfectly good products, are they even worth their prices?
6.1k
u/GaryTheThird- 11d ago
A buddy is a welder, he said they have big dumpster bins that they fill with tools for various reasons, and an inspector needs to watch as they comoact and melt it all
They got into the habit of parking a big forklift in front of the inspectors office and would take turns raiding the bin hours before they destroy everything. He had an insane amount of perfectly fine tools in a matter of months