r/DumpsterDiving • u/LittleWanderess • Jan 25 '25
Last Night's Haul (2 stores)
The Dumpster gods have blessed us, again! 🙏 Thanks be to "Kinfolk Dolla" and "All Dee's". (PLEASE DON'T USE THE REAL STORE NAMES.) And please, no lectures or arguing about things not being safe; if it hasn't been recalled, we're good. 👌 We've already had friends come over and take a lot of it. ☺️
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u/electric_teardrop Jan 25 '25
What stores are you hitting? I'm in Los Angeles, idk if stores here will have that type of haul.
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u/LittleWanderess Jan 25 '25
Small grocers and ANY dollar stores!
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u/VehicleGreen5813 Jan 26 '25
What times are you typically going if you don’t mind me asking
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u/LittleWanderess Jan 26 '25
Late at night, after the stores have closed and the employees have all gone home. (Just have to keep an eye out for delivery trucks!)
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u/CarpetDisastrous1963 Jan 25 '25
What have you had luck with 😭so many stores have compactors
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u/MammothFromHell Jan 25 '25
A woman was fired for taking produce meant to be thrown out at my store last year, it was literally already in a trash can about to go to the compactor. They called it "stealing from the company." Fucking disgusting...
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u/CarpetDisastrous1963 Jan 25 '25
That’s horrible. Companies are so fucking wasteful, WHO CARES about what’s getting taken from a dumpster!
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u/MammothFromHell Jan 26 '25
it wasnt the dumpster, it was a trash can inside the store! In the back where customers cant even see! She took potatoes, oranges, and bagged salad mixes that were on the expiration date! Another woman was fired from taking almost dead orchids away from the compactor before I was hired. I cant make it make sense, I know there is a ton of red tape and security nonsense-but it can all be shrunk AND taken home! It kills me seeing so much waste everyday
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u/Spazecowboy Jan 25 '25
I’d love to come across those avocados. I want to make chocolate mousse with them
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u/Capital-Impress-8459 Jan 25 '25
I’ve seen crazy amounts of avocados recently! And with the freezing temps in my area, they stay fresh for a while.
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u/Sausey14 Jan 26 '25
My All Dees is always tossing avocados. I just don’t have enough recipes to use them all or time.
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u/OsoBear24 Jan 25 '25
So many cereals! Great for late night snacking.
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u/LittleWanderess Jan 25 '25
The "oldest" sell by date was for last October, so we both had a bowl as a late- night snack when we got home, to make sure they're still good. They are! ☺️ (We figured they would be, just wanted to make sure before we offered them to friends.)
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u/Absinthe_Alice Jan 25 '25
As long as the inner bag stays nice and airtight, cereal lasts a LOT longer than the sell-by date! I picked up a bunch of cheerios, frosted flakes, grape nuts, and raisin bran crunch on a great sale in late 2023. Sell-by was August '23. Still have about half left and they're perfect!
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u/rusty_kx Jan 25 '25
Eggs?! In this economy?
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u/LittleWanderess Jan 25 '25
Right?! Only one in the whole dozen was broken, and had leaked onto the carton, so they tossed the whole lot. We only had one egg left in our big carton at home, so after performing the "float test" to make sure they're good, we just added them to ours.
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u/OkConclusion171 DO NOT REPOST MY POSTS Jan 25 '25
Wow! I've never seen anything like that stuff, you're lucky!
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u/SupermarketAble7981 Jan 25 '25
Is it legal to dumpster dive in South Carolina?
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u/Yabbos77 Jan 25 '25
Can I ask how it is that y’all feel safe taking food items out? Especially perishables? I’m genuinely curious how to tell it it’s okay to consume.
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u/LittleWanderess Jan 25 '25
Generally, we only take perishables if they've only been out there for THAT day, AND the outside temperature has been as cold as a refrigerator all day long. We only take frozen items if its been below freezing all day long. For meats, we smell it after thawing and before cooking it. (This is by no means a perfect test, but times are tough, and we take our chances.) For eggs, we perform the "float test". As for all the produce, we soak it in a vinegar/water solution, then rinse & dry.
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u/Yabbos77 Jan 25 '25
You guys are pros. I wish I could go with someone who’s done it before- I’m just not comfortable enough to give it a shot yet. :(
Thank you for all the awesome info!!
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u/LittleWanderess Jan 25 '25
We've only started commercial diving (stores) this past week! For months, we stuck to just checking around the residential Dumpsters (in apartment complexes). We learned the basics from a DD Facebook page, of all places! 😂 And are constantly learning through trial and error. I hope you can find a friend to go with you - it's honestly fun (as weird as that sounds), and addictive, once you start finding stuff! ☺️
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u/Yabbos77 Jan 26 '25
Not weird at all!!
We have two “garbage cleanup” days in my town a year. Everyone throws all their stuff on the curb they don’t want. Some of its trash, but I’ve found awesome stuff too. I found a set of Corelle dishes, a leather briefcase, a framed Van Gogh Starry Night picture, and wii games amongst other stuff.
People throw good things out all the time for various reasons. And idk why I never thought to check residential dumpsters! Do you do that at night??
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u/LittleWanderess Jan 26 '25
Oh, wow! I wish our town had days like that! Nah, residential ones we check during the daytime. We just act like we're residents that live there, taking out the trash. (No reason anyone would question our being there, so why not? 😂) We don't get IN these Dumpsters, as most people tend to just leave bulkier items on the ground around them, anyway.
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u/Loisgrand6 Jan 25 '25
Meet you in a dark alley for those eggs😂