Closing Time in the Market!

[»K.ßliss]

Dumpster Diving with a Twist

In a week of buying groceries, some people can pay up to $2-300 (depending on the size of the family). It's absolutely crazy the prices for food! Though, I've found a way now to cut down on prices.

There is a market by my school which closes at 7PM -- closing time is brilliant. Since it's a highly competitive market, every night they dump hundreds of pounds of fresh produce into the organic dumpsters -- pounds and pounds of asparagus are thrown out at the end of the day, perfectly fresh and unscathed! Garlic, ginger, watermelons, lettuce, yams, potatoes, onions -- you name produce, and it gets tossed.

So between 4PM and 7Pm they start wheeling out boxes upon boxes of fresh vegetables and fruit which have not been bought over the day and out they go! Right into the dumpster -- so some days I will wait there for them to come and gather up what I want for the week from all these fresh boxes before they are thrown out -- the same quality food that everyone else during the day bought, I instead get for free.

NEXT! Bread shops! Keep an eye open for bread shops in market areas, where high competition is key. They will not sell day old bread, rather they will just throw it out, or give it out for free at closing time.

My friends and I call our little style of living, "Freegian." A variation of vegetarian, for we try to live off the most for the least. Just meats, milks, eggs and the such are bought (when I can avoid it, I get fresh eggs from my mum's chickens).


Yours,
»K.ßliss

[Xin Lu]

yup...supermarkets do dump a lot of food. A lot of the time it's perfectly good food. A local Safeway regularly gives the bread and cheese they don't want anymore to my church. Last weekend there were three coolers of cheese that were perfectly good. I mean, some of the expiration dates were like August 2008. Each block cost $4 to $8 in the store, and I have no idea why they would just throw perfectly good food away.

[lucille]

Our local grocery chain keeps things on the shelves PAST their date all the time. I find already rotting produce on the shelves frequently. They also put all of their old produce and bread into these sealed dumpsters connected to the building. I was at one of the stores getting some empty apple boxes and they had a pallet full of strawberries going into the dumpster. They had some over ripe ones in the boxes but they hadn't gone fuzzy yet. I kept thinking the soup kitchen in town could have used them or I could have taken them home and froze them after picking the good ones from the over ripe ones.

How do you obtain past their prime items? All the stores where I live seem to keep their dumpsters under lock & key and don't seem real open to giving away things they are going to toss anyway.

[mcnerd]

That's amazing that these markets toss everything in the trash. Around here it almost all goes to Food Banks and other non-profit groups to feed the needy and homeless. The companies get a good tax write off and recognition from the community for their involvement.

I'm now a senior and on a limited income now so I would really be struggling if I didn't have access to such things. I go to two food banks, one has mostly can goods and the other mostly produce.

Some of the produce of course is pretty ripe, but everything that cannot be eaten immediately is either dehydrated or canned (especially fruits). Dehydrating produce -- carrots, zucchini, celery, apples, fruit, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, etc., makes these available without worry of it going bad and can be added to soups, stews, or rehydrated into other meals.

[mcnerd]

Originally Posted by lucille

How do you obtain past their prime items? All the stores where I live seem to keep their dumpsters under lock & key and don't seem real open to giving away things they are going to toss anyway.

I would talk to your local church(s) and see if they would start a community project of collecting that stuff and making it available to the community once a week. They could even charge $1 or more per person to help cover the costs.

When parishioners start realizing all the people they are helping, often they start up another program of delivering boxes of food stuffs to seniors and other shut-ins that have a hard time being mobile. One little church I'm aware of, gets such a variety of perfectly good food that they cook and deliver meals to shut-ins once or twice a week. The potential is endless, if people actually want to get involved.

Something to think about.

[lucille]

Originally Posted by mcnerd

I would talk to your local church(s) and see if they would start a community project of collecting that stuff and making it available to the community once a week. They could even charge $1 or more per person to help cover the costs.

When parishioners start realizing all the people they are helping, often they start up another program of delivering boxes of food stuffs to seniors and other shut-ins that have a hard time being mobile. One little church I'm aware of, gets such a variety of perfectly good food that they cook and deliver meals to shut-ins once or twice a week. The potential is endless, if people actually want to get involved.

Something to think about.

Cool idea. We have a local clearinghouse group that works with the local religious groups and non profits.

[Finally_Frugal]

Has anyone tried calling their local grocery stores, to find out when/whether they discard "old" vegetables, fruits, other perishables? I seem to remember reading an article by a woman who did this, and had some luck.

Another way to go is to wait until the farmer's market is allllllllllmost over. You can get some good deals on great, mostly organic/locally grown fruits and veggies at the end of the day. The farmers don't want to haul it all back to the farm, and are sometimes willing to do a 'two for one' deal on certain items.

[rachael24]

The Farmer's Market is the best bet. I wouldnt rely on grocery stores, especially big chains

[ThePennyMine]

I always go to local markets at closing and ask for discounts. Cinnabon also gives me half price in the last 10 minutes that they're open, so a cinnamon bun for $2 or so is quite a nice indulgence.

[»K.ßliss]

Originally Posted by Xin Lu

... I have no idea why they would just throw perfectly good food away.

What delight there is in the capitalistic world of today, where to the best means one will be on top. Though it really is awful the way the economy works in what is wasted and what is not, it unfortunately is something that will never change -- and it ends up for people like us to work our way around those little snares and traps they place.

So what does one do in the battle against capitalism? -- nothing. Unless a group of people can change a system of economy of which has survived and lasted for hundreds of years, we just need to find ways to adapt.

There are always loop holes to get around, there are always doors to slip under, but any way you look at it, if you can buy it, they will put a new twist on it so that you have to pay just a little more than last time.

I mean honestly, look at the new Shreddies commercials. "We've changed our shape to diamonds!" And check the prices, they're just a little bit more expensive.


And no, personally, I can't get mad at it. It's really life, and there are better things to fret about for now, but it's still out there.