Reddit Is In Disbelief Over Target’s ‘Sad’ Amount Of Food Waste After ‘Coolers Went Down’
May 2, 2023 by Carrie McCabe
Shockwaves rippled through Reddit’s r/Target subreddit last week when a user posted a shocking image of hundreds of pounds of refrigerated food items that “had to be thrown away” because the coolers went down at their local Target store—and commenters were in complete disbelief at the amount of waste.
The image, posted by Reddit user u/Brodyvossen, shows a giant dumpster filled with hundreds, if not thousands of refrigerated products that had been trashed due to the coolers malfunctioning, including dozens of bags of string cheese, tubs of cookie dough, and boxes of Lunchables. The Redditor noted it was “nearly $50k worth of food”.
Commentors on u/Brodyvossen’s photo were horrified at the staggering amount of food that had gone to waste at the Target due to the cooler issue, all because they were meant to be refrigerated. “I absolutely hate to see it. Should have called some local food banks or something,” noted one commenter. “Trader Joe’s gives it away for free to the customers who are currently in stores, not sure why Target can’t follow the same,” responded another.
Though it does appear that Trader Joe’s does donate food in these kinds of situations, Target’s policy is strict: they can’t donate or give away any items that are “out of temp”, which means “30 minutes off the coolers,” according to one Redditor. Still, many felt that TJ’s policy was a better one than Target’s: “Or they could just give the food away to customers like that Trader Joe’s in Louisiana did a few weeks ago…what a waste,” bemoaned a commenter on the post.