I can't tell if the gas station selection is acquired taste or just filthy.
-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Dumpster Diving Stories?
- Thread starter Uncle0wnage
- Start date
- Status
I can't tell if the gas station selection is acquired taste or just filthy.
Marky Mark
Member
Second time you've deaded me today.
PS: With cheese, how long can it remain unrefrigerated for while still being safe to eat? I honestly don't know and so if it's out for any more than a couple of hours I'm always weary (although I'll probably still eat it because cheese).
They gave me a $25 gift card to Goodwill. I use that card to make purchases at the store for the purposes of reselling for profit. I am keeping track of what I buy and how much I make from it. My goal is to turn the $25 they gave me into $1,000.
For example, I used $2.xx of the card and sold that item for $240 earlier today. So from their $25, it has now turned into $240 off that one item. I can now take that money and "reinvest" towards other stuff to climb to the $1,000 goal. Once the $25 gift card has been used up, if I'm still not to $1k, I'll use what I have "banked" at Amy other thrift store or other type shop to work towards the goal.
It's actually not a hard thing to achieve, but what makes this interesting for me is that I'm actually tracking the chain from $25 and accounting for it all to see what leads me to the goal.
I know it can be done, I did almost $5k in December alone from my eBay reselling side job and did $20k from April when I started up real heavy last year through December. My goal for this year is at least $30k, but I'm really shooting for $40k.
reelbigtink
Member
A buddy of mine used to dive at Best Buy. They'd chunk "damaged" display TV's occasionally. This was like 10 years ago. They've since gotten wise and put these big locking domes on their dumpsters. RIP
weremichael
Member
Good for you OP http://www.foodnotbombs.net/new_site/ that is a great score to share with your friends.
You can't compete with the 14 year old getting years worth of old Playboy and Penthouse magazines though.
That truly is a fantastic score
.
You can't compete with the 14 year old getting years worth of old Playboy and Penthouse magazines though.
That truly is a fantastic score
for a fourteen year olds boy
I just meant that it was in the garbage and might have touched some dirty shit, not that I'd get sick from eating it. Just for my own personal knowledge, I wouldn't be able to eat it if I knew it was scrapping the bottom of a garbage bin.
Nice!
My girlfriend would fucking break up w me if I did that. The desk Im using now I found on the side of the road, perfectly fine, looks brand new glass desk. It just didnt have the screws tightened so I assume that they thought it was busted cuz it wobbled. Took me forever to drag it home safely.
Evecn then my girlfriend freaked out that I brought home 'garbage'. The days of bringing home perfectly good furniture is over :/
My girlfriend would fucking break up w me if I did that. The desk Im using now I found on the side of the road, perfectly fine, looks brand new glass desk. It just didnt have the screws tightened so I assume that they thought it was busted cuz it wobbled. Took me forever to drag it home safely.
Evecn then my girlfriend freaked out that I brought home 'garbage'. The days of bringing home perfectly good furniture is over :/
Uncle0wnage
Member
Well my gf loves cheese so she was fine with my late night escapade.
I've found some amazing stuff at goodwill outlet stores such as a coach jacket and purse for her, and a brand new food dehydrator.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
I remember that one time we had a dumpster diving thread and Sonki got banned.
you would be surprised how much coach stuff gets donated at thrift stores.
in my last 3 shifts I have seen a couple coach purses, a pair of shoes, and a pair of boots from 3 separate people.
the biggest purse drop off I have seen is from some lady that clearly was loaded who dropped off two large bags of purses.
inside was nothing but coach, fossile, Dooney & Bourke and various other name brand purses, a numer of which still had the original store price tags on them. There was at least 100 coach bags in there if you include the wallets and what not. it was well over 20k of purses that she dropped off and left with a smile without asking for even a tax receipt in return.
anyways more on topic, I haven't done any dumpster diving, but that is mostly because all of the decent ones are at the mall and the mall is poopy to get in and out of. One of my coworkers does though and often gets stuff from the gamestops and best buys.
storafötter
Member
I dont frequently dumpster dive but I know there is quite a few gaffers who do so. Winter is the best time as the cold keeps the good cool at least. The biggest problem is with containers that are locked but you can always find some type of treasure when you look.
There is always chances with animal products going bad but with veggies and dried goods it is usually safe and not a problem.
There is always chances with animal products going bad but with veggies and dried goods it is usually safe and not a problem.
Yeah she loves goodwill and thrift stores, for some reason things that look good just sitting on the corner are significantly worse to her. I've had to pass up some super nice dressers, tables and a 50 something inch tv that Im pretty sure worked.
Marky Mark
Member
Sounds like you need a new girlfriend. Or a slightly used one sitting on the corner. Either way, tell her to stick it.
I worked at a convenience store off the interstate over a decade ago. While taking out the trash, I saw a bag with old dildos and even an assortmentof tops for the dildos. I threw the bag in the garbage dump. I went in and told my manager about it and he flips out that I just discarded them. Next thing you know, he's dumpster diving, rummaging through all of the bags until he finds the dildos. He bleached them and cleaned them in our work sink. The next day, he sold them to another employee for $20.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
I'm reminded of Rob Greenfield, who is an activist that exposes food waste by dumpster diving at big box stores to find perfectly edible food.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaEw_28Meqw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZaEw_28Meqw
MarkMclovin
Member
There's some sort of hipster cafe, probably in London somewhere that literally gets out of date and dumpster food and then make money by selling that on.
Like, you can have a tasty cheese on toast and mug of coffee and they found it all a few days ago.
Like, you can have a tasty cheese on toast and mug of coffee and they found it all a few days ago.
openrob
Member
Hit the belly of the beast from Waitrose a few days before Christmas. (For non UK, Waitrose is upmarket).
Christmas dinner was about 50% free.
Heston Branded stuffing. Sausages, mince pies, chocolate, custard, Christmas pudding, coffee beans, Angus beef burgers. Like two black bags full.
Christmas dinner was about 50% free.
Heston Branded stuffing. Sausages, mince pies, chocolate, custard, Christmas pudding, coffee beans, Angus beef burgers. Like two black bags full.
openrob
Member
One third of ALL food in the UK is thrown out.
One third.
1/3
33%
Most of it still good.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24603008
One third.
1/3
33%
Most of it still good.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24603008
I personally have never done it but many years ago my cousins friends did. I went over to his house and he had an absurd amount of hostess products in his basement. The hostess outlet used to dump expired products in the trash and his friends went in there in grabbed a bunch of boxes of cupcakes, twinkies etc.
I'm so glad I don't contribute to that. I only buy enough stuff that spoils to last me the week and that's it. I've very rarely if at all thrown out food.
I used to dumpster dive frequently before I moved back in with my parents. Always found I had the best luck the night the store closed before a holiday, especially if it carried over to a weekend as well. So much perfectly edible food gets tossed away, the waste is really sad. Perectly fine fruits and vegetables once you pick the bad parts off, bags of breads and buns, all kinds of cheeses, granola bars, juice, yoghurt, etc. I fed it to friends and family all the time, and they enjoyed it while having no idea of the true origin.
openrob
Member
The thing is that supermarkets chuck out so much themselves. I used to live directly opposite the back of a Safeway.
We knew a guy that worked there, and occasionally instead of throwing stuff out, he would bring it over to us.
There was a point where I had about 10 of those plastic pallets in my room full of soft drinks. Thrown away because one can had burst over the rest and 'no one would buy them'
I had so many I washed them off and sold them in the park haha
Awesome! I'm an ebay seller too! (obviously lol)
To comment on the topic, I don't normally dumpster dive per say but I have gone curb picking MANY times. Once I was with my mother and someone obviously had cleaned out their "old stuff" I got a NES, SNES, Sega, original game boy and a ton of games for each, a ton of 80's & 90's toys too. My mother got a ton of 1950's dolls.
Oh, actually last summer I went to a free pile that was posted on the Craigslist, it was full of legos, skylanders, a oak high chair. The best part was a case of 1950's barbies and clothing. Sold the barbies for over $600 on eBay. My Checy Equinox was so packed full of stuff they were throwing out I could barely fit in when I got in and I had to leave stuff behind because there was simply no room in my vehicle!
One of the funny and most "dangerous" things I found was an old computer. They had taken it "apart" so I am sure they assumed no one could use it. I gave it to my brother who does computer repair for a living as I had no use for it. He put it back together and booted it up. Low and behold it had all his business records on it. Clients names, addresses, credit card numbers with expiration dates, CVC numbers etc etc..One file even had a whole bunch of SS numbers in it...we were shocked!! My brother wrote him an anonymous letter saying next time destroy your hard drive before throwing it out because I am sure your clients don't want me a stranger to have this info. You are very lucky I am honest and going to destroy the drive instead of use the information I just found.
disappeared
Banned
I worked at a hotel where the kitchen would throw out entire trays of food from when business would book conference rooms; whatever the people didn't eat got thrown out. Being maintenance I had access to the entire building so when the people left I'd go into the room before the cleaning staff garbage'd everything and take home my supper for the evening.
OfTheOverflow
Member
So today I've seen threads about shitting yourself, and dumpster diving. Just need a 'best underpass you've ever slept under' thread to get the transient trifecta.
Seriously though, I feel horrible every time I walk by a homeless person when I visit the city.
Seriously though, I feel horrible every time I walk by a homeless person when I visit the city.
I understand that there is a lot of food waste, but I always figured it was things past their 'best before' or 'sell by' date, and the store just overstocked. That youtube video has bottles of water, and other things with lots of time still on their 'best before' - why are things like that thrown out?
OfTheOverflow
Member
Damn nice job, that's some admirable salvation effort.
Store space? Old branding/packaging? We live in horribly 'pragmatic' times. People often paint Communism as a wasteful 'one size fits all' project with huge inefficiency, but Capitalism by it's very definition needs waste to judge what the market deems fit.
Lots of reasons. As you mentioned, largely because of expiration dates. Regardless of quality, product shelf life is adhered to for consumer safety. But there is also: Damaged products, recalled products, regulatory changes, change in packaging, change in formulas, lack of movement, etc....
Stuff like the OP posted is due to a store having a power outage and then not having backup refrigeration....which is terrible business sense. There is a huge issue with food waste at stores, but having worked on the corporate side of a large chain I can say that it is something that we try to reduce in every way (Including donating to food banks).
Lots of folks ignorant to the ways of dumpster diving in this thread. I've done it on and off for a few years, never gotten sick or eaten anything gross. The biggest problem is the time/gas it takes to go visit spots and come back empty handed.
Highlights of my career:
I live near a pretty big bakery that makes actual decent bread. They used to have 6 or 7 huge dumpsters that were always full of bread. I mean literally overflowing with every style, ciabatta, sourdough, stuff with seeds, you name it. Even ginormous loaves that were 2 or 3 feet in diameter. It was heaven. Unfortunately they ended up putting it behind a gate and I've been too lazy to check if its locked.
Einstein's bagels in Iowa would put all their bagels in one huge bag, talking hundreds of bagels.
Aldi grocery store in Iowa that kept a really neat and organized dumpster. You could regularly find individually packaged fruit like strawberries, chocolate cakes, occasionally cereal, one time found a stack of 20 camping chairs brand new with the tags still on.
Someone I knew would get all their mattresses from dumpster diving. Furniture stores will clear out blemished inventory at certain times of the year, and all those individually wrapped mattresses would get chucked in the dumpster.
Highlights of my career:
I live near a pretty big bakery that makes actual decent bread. They used to have 6 or 7 huge dumpsters that were always full of bread. I mean literally overflowing with every style, ciabatta, sourdough, stuff with seeds, you name it. Even ginormous loaves that were 2 or 3 feet in diameter. It was heaven. Unfortunately they ended up putting it behind a gate and I've been too lazy to check if its locked.
Einstein's bagels in Iowa would put all their bagels in one huge bag, talking hundreds of bagels.
Aldi grocery store in Iowa that kept a really neat and organized dumpster. You could regularly find individually packaged fruit like strawberries, chocolate cakes, occasionally cereal, one time found a stack of 20 camping chairs brand new with the tags still on.
Someone I knew would get all their mattresses from dumpster diving. Furniture stores will clear out blemished inventory at certain times of the year, and all those individually wrapped mattresses would get chucked in the dumpster.
I want to forget everything I've just read.
RIP in Peace, OP's colon. 200 lbs of cheese ain't pretty comin out.
dumpster dildo grey market. just bleached them in the back sink. you know how much a dildo goes for on the street?
Back in 2001, I went to haul the trash off to a dumpster nearby. As I tossed it in, I saw a ziploc bag full of change. Of course, I jumped in and got it. Over $20 worth of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. Spent the money to pay off my copy of Banjo-Tooie I had on layaway at Wal-Mart. I have no regrets.
Everything about this is disgusting. Walking next to a smelly dumpster full of cheese, actually taking said dumpster cheese, dumping it in a dirty kitchen, bragging about it online, actually planning to eat this cheese, being happy with this heart attack inviting amount of cheese anyway - jesus christ.
Dumpster diving food is (unless you're homeless or otherwise truly in need with no other options) absolutely shameful. I'm sorry but wow.
Nothing against people finding perfectly useful tables or chairs or something else at the side of the road of course. But food is a no-go.
Dumpster diving food is (unless you're homeless or otherwise truly in need with no other options) absolutely shameful. I'm sorry but wow.
Nothing against people finding perfectly useful tables or chairs or something else at the side of the road of course. But food is a no-go.
frankie_baby
Member
Why are so many people grossed out? Its sealed packets of cheese
Sealed food out of a retail dumpster, why not? Really elitist. Find a retail dumpster full of like, sealed beef jerky, and see who wouldn't jump in.
Amazing haul.
- Status