The general corporate answer is that the misappropriation of waste is theft. They’ll try to propose that Joe might hide boxes of cookies to take them, causing disproportionate waste. Giving them to the pantry instead of keeping them for himself is immaterial to their rules.
Realistically, some companies move near-out-of-date products to the sale rack and then offer them up to pantries after they pass their best-by date. They should easily be able to look at waste and sales here and make a judgment call. I’m betting someone local had a beef with Joe, didn’t get their preferred day off, and turned him in.
Handled correctly, corporate would have donated a shit ton to the food pantry, taken a tax break, improved the community and told Joe to cut it out if they really cared.
When I was in retail, we were required to destroy anything we threw away.
If we had a warranty issue on a product, the manufacturer would usually just ship us a new one because it was cheaper than a repair, and we’d have to provide proof of destruction. My favorite was for kayaks. We had to mail back a portion of the body at least 1 square foot in area that included the serial number stamp.
Big Box retail, we used to have to ship most everything non-salable back to depot. The trucks would unload 10 pallets and load one back up every couple weeks. The depo would trash the stuff with proof and get the credits from the manufacturer.
I worked in fast food too, some of the managers would allow some waste to be taken, but it would have been their asses if the DM’s caught wind. Slippery slope from accidentally cooking too much chicken to making enough to feed your family dinner. Had one manager once who traded food with Little Caesers and we all had pizza that night, it was awesome.
We had this substitute manager once, she was from a busy store. They always sent the chicken guy home at 7 to save cash and had the back line cook throw down another tray if things got low. Before they sent the chicken guy home, she had him put down two trays. That’s 8 chickens worth of parts. On a busy night, we might maybe sell a half a tray between 7 and close.
hey, Rumba, can you tray up the chicken and finish cleaning if I send C home? Yeah sure. (C was always clean AF) I go back there and there were 2 fryers full. Ohhh SHIT.
End of the night we sold maybe half a tray. She came back all worried. Hey, we have kinda WAY too much chicken, I’ll be here for a couple more days, any chance you can help me spread the waste out between now and Friday?
I got to take home a trashbag with 36 pieces. And just made almost exactly what we’d need for the next couple days. It was down to breading/cooking a few pieces at a time but we made it work.
If you don’t trust someone to appropriately handle waste, you don’t trust them enough to be a manager.
Giving them to the pantry instead of keeping them for himself is immaterial to their rules.
This is prime executive laziness. In this case, that should warrant an investigation by upper management. If the regional director fired an otherwise productive manager for what really would amount to ‘not getting a receipt for tax purposes,’ one has to question whether they’ve been promoted beyond their capabilities. Rules are for people who aren’t trusted to apply critical thinking to their job, i.e. relatively new minimum wage workers. Managers are supposed to be people with enough education, experience, and established trust to make decisions on behalf of the company. If they aren’t trusted, they shouldn’t have been made a manager.
If you don’t trust someone to appropriately handle waste
They trusted him for 10 years, presumably until someone turned him in.
This is prime executive laziness. … not getting a receipt for tax purposes,
What if they were against giving the food away? what if their worry is that someone would hide the stuff till it expires to give more away. It’s not a very neighborly line of thinking, but it’s also not unreasonable.
. Managers are supposed to be people with enough education, experience, and established trust to make decisions on behalf of the company.
No way, in corporate land, the managers are there to enforce the rules. They’re there to order the food, make sure the staff comes in, make sure the food gets thrown away if that’s policy. Most managers don’t get the discretion to break protocol when they feel like it.
If they aren’t trusted, they shouldn’t have been made a manager.
The general corporate answer is that the misappropriation of waste is theft. They’ll try to propose that Joe might hide boxes of cookies to take them, causing disproportionate waste. Giving them to the pantry instead of keeping them for himself is immaterial to their rules.
Realistically, some companies move near-out-of-date products to the sale rack and then offer them up to pantries after they pass their best-by date. They should easily be able to look at waste and sales here and make a judgment call. I’m betting someone local had a beef with Joe, didn’t get their preferred day off, and turned him in.
Handled correctly, corporate would have donated a shit ton to the food pantry, taken a tax break, improved the community and told Joe to cut it out if they really cared.
Didn’t Eskimos throw sociopaths off cliffs?
Why doesn’t the conversation end there?
As far as I’m aware of, no.
and because capitalism
When I was in retail, we were required to destroy anything we threw away.
If we had a warranty issue on a product, the manufacturer would usually just ship us a new one because it was cheaper than a repair, and we’d have to provide proof of destruction. My favorite was for kayaks. We had to mail back a portion of the body at least 1 square foot in area that included the serial number stamp.
Yeah, that’s just how waste works.
Big Box retail, we used to have to ship most everything non-salable back to depot. The trucks would unload 10 pallets and load one back up every couple weeks. The depo would trash the stuff with proof and get the credits from the manufacturer.
I worked in fast food too, some of the managers would allow some waste to be taken, but it would have been their asses if the DM’s caught wind. Slippery slope from accidentally cooking too much chicken to making enough to feed your family dinner. Had one manager once who traded food with Little Caesers and we all had pizza that night, it was awesome.
We had this substitute manager once, she was from a busy store. They always sent the chicken guy home at 7 to save cash and had the back line cook throw down another tray if things got low. Before they sent the chicken guy home, she had him put down two trays. That’s 8 chickens worth of parts. On a busy night, we might maybe sell a half a tray between 7 and close.
hey, Rumba, can you tray up the chicken and finish cleaning if I send C home? Yeah sure. (C was always clean AF) I go back there and there were 2 fryers full. Ohhh SHIT.
End of the night we sold maybe half a tray. She came back all worried. Hey, we have kinda WAY too much chicken, I’ll be here for a couple more days, any chance you can help me spread the waste out between now and Friday?
I got to take home a trashbag with 36 pieces. And just made almost exactly what we’d need for the next couple days. It was down to breading/cooking a few pieces at a time but we made it work.
If you don’t trust someone to appropriately handle waste, you don’t trust them enough to be a manager.
This is prime executive laziness. In this case, that should warrant an investigation by upper management. If the regional director fired an otherwise productive manager for what really would amount to ‘not getting a receipt for tax purposes,’ one has to question whether they’ve been promoted beyond their capabilities. Rules are for people who aren’t trusted to apply critical thinking to their job, i.e. relatively new minimum wage workers. Managers are supposed to be people with enough education, experience, and established trust to make decisions on behalf of the company. If they aren’t trusted, they shouldn’t have been made a manager.
They trusted him for 10 years, presumably until someone turned him in.
What if they were against giving the food away? what if their worry is that someone would hide the stuff till it expires to give more away. It’s not a very neighborly line of thinking, but it’s also not unreasonable.
No way, in corporate land, the managers are there to enforce the rules. They’re there to order the food, make sure the staff comes in, make sure the food gets thrown away if that’s policy. Most managers don’t get the discretion to break protocol when they feel like it.
*Well they apparently solved that problem
edit* added a line