Police guarding dumpsters in Portland.

[Little Raven]

Huh.

About a dozen police officers guarded dumpsters filled with perishable food outside a Portland, Oregon, Fred Meyer as people attempted to take the items that were discarded when the store lost power.

The Oregonian/Oregon Live reported that on Tuesday employees at a Fred Meyer in the northeast part of the city threw out thousands of items that were deemed no longer safe for consumption.

The store was one of many that lost power following a weekend winter storm. As of Wednesday, more than 150,000 remained in the dark in the greater Portland area. In a statement, Fred Meyer said the food was thrown away "out of an abundance of caution."

The Oregon Health Authority also has requirements for licensed facilities during a power outage in order to prevent food borne illnesses.

I assume the store has to do this in order to avoid liability?

[LawBeefaroni]

Huh.

About a dozen police officers guarded dumpsters filled with perishable food outside a Portland, Oregon, Fred Meyer as people attempted to take the items that were discarded when the store lost power.

The Oregonian/Oregon Live reported that on Tuesday employees at a Fred Meyer in the northeast part of the city threw out thousands of items that were deemed no longer safe for consumption.

The store was one of many that lost power following a weekend winter storm. As of Wednesday, more than 150,000 remained in the dark in the greater Portland area. In a statement, Fred Meyer said the food was thrown away "out of an abundance of caution."

The Oregon Health Authority also has requirements for licensed facilities during a power outage in order to prevent food borne illnesses.

I assume the store has to do this in order to avoid liability?

Liability and presumably to protect people from poisoning themselves.

Maybe also a deterrent to creating a backdoor for shrinkage.

[Paingod]

From a random lawyer's website:

While many business owners are concerned that they can be held responsible if expired food or similar goods in their trash cause harm to a dumpster diver or if a dumpster diver is injured on their property, this is not usually the case. Unless the business has been negligent, they should not be responsible for a dumpster diver’s injuries or illness as a result of eating or using items that have been thrown away.

Nevertheless, business owners should seek legal representation if a dumpster diver becomes ill or sustains injury as a result of something in the business’ trash.

So this is basically cops stopping people from looting trash bins.

If the dumpsters are on private property, it can also be a trespassing issue.

[LawBeefaroni]

So this is basically cops stopping people from looting trash bins to feed themselves.

Ask Smoove if he approves of this method of food prep and distribution.

[Paingod]

So this is basically cops stopping people from looting trash bins to feed themselves.

Ask Smoove if he approves of this method of food prep and distribution.

I'm sure there are certain aspects of this that can be found to be somewhat unsafe. If I was given the choice between my kids going hungry and digging through food that expired today, I'd be digging. Sometimes staying alive isn't entirely sanitary.

I don't think this was life and death, though. I think this was people looking for some "free stuff, almost good as new" and police overreacting.

[Smoove_B]

So this is basically cops stopping people from looting trash bins to feed themselves.

Ask Smoove if he approves of this method of food prep and distribution.

As someone that has ordered food into dumpsters after an fire (including having a liquor store fill a 30 yard container) I can at least confirm it's not unusual practice. I am guessing with whatever is happening in that part of Portland they perhaps didn't want to create a potentially nutty situation if groups of people moved on the dumpsters to get the tossed food.

I've heard numerous times it's a liability issue but this strikes me more as a potential "mitigating chaos issue". I don't understand why they didn't have the containers filled and taken away immediately, but maybe it's all logistics.

It does make for a pretty dystopian set of images.

[Daehawk]

As a teen I dumpster dived and trash sifted at an illegal dump site. Got some nifty stuff. I always wanted to do the dumpster diving at local hardware and software stores like Gamestop and such but im a grown up now and I also dont know the laws about this stuff. Plus Id look silly and ruin my car lol. Still I see people online get games and consoles and shit they can repair from them.

[Jaymann]

As a teen I dumpster dived and trash sifted at an illegal dump site. Got some nifty stuff. I always wanted to do the dumpster diving at local hardware and software stores like Gamestop and such but im a grown up now and I also dont know the laws about this stuff. Plus Id look silly and ruin my car lol. Still I see people online get games and consoles and shit they can repair from them.

I think smashing a dumpster with your car is less than optimal.

[Paingod]

I also dont know the laws about this stuff.

Not advocating it, but it seems to be trespass at worst if the dumpster is on private property. It doesn't seem like it's theft if it was already set aside as trash.

[Blackhawk]

I was poor enough growing up that I did that from time to time, too. Never for food, though. But stores would throw things away that had minor cosmetic damage and were unsalable that were still better than anything we could afford to buy. And magazines with, uh... articles.

[Daehawk]

Does this story prove Portland is a dumpster fire?

[Kurth]

It does make for a pretty dystopian set of images.

Portland . . . Your dystopia is our normal.

[Holman]

As a teen I dumpster dived and trash sifted at an illegal dump site. Got some nifty stuff. I always wanted to do the dumpster diving at local hardware and software stores like Gamestop and such but im a grown up now and I also dont know the laws about this stuff. Plus Id look silly and ruin my car lol. Still I see people online get games and consoles and shit they can repair from them.

I think software stores like Gamestop operate like bookstores: unsold merchandise is sent back to the distributor, where it eventually finds its way to remainders sales (in the past) or Amazon/ebay vendors (today). They're not tossing copies of games into the dumpster.

Interestingly, bookstores did throw paperbacks away, but distributors required that the cover be torn off (and sent back) before disposing of the book. So if you didn't mind reading a paperback without a cover, there was always plenty to find in bookstore trash.

I believe magazines were the same except that (perhaps due to "decency" laws) adult mags had to be sent back rather than just thrown in the can.

[Daehawk]

You'd be surprised what Gamestop throws away....

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

[Holman]

You'd be surprised what Gamestop throws away....

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

These videos are almost certainly misleading.

They would be more convincing if we saw the maker actually approaching the dumpster/trash cans and removing the material. Instead, we just get tight closeups of bags on a floor and the claim that he recovered them. But I'm certain he didn't trashpick that stuff.

Retail game media is a low-profit model featuring expensive individual items, so inventory is very tightly controlled. Everything that goes into the trash is a significant loss. Any store manager who allowed all that stuff to go out the back door would be fired in a week.

Think of it this way: how could a store survive if it depended on selling *everything* on the shelves rather than having the option to send unsold merch back to the distributor? Nobody would stock anything that they weren't 99% certain would move. Instead, stores can take a risk on items and then return them when they don't sell, while the distributor can then discount them and try again at another level of the market. This system developed to allow publishers to take risks on books that might be good (but not best-sellers), and it has been extended to movies/games/etc.

Since most niche products don't become big hits, picky gamers like us should be glad the system worked this way before digital distribution became the norm. It kept small developers viable.

[Kraken]

Interestingly, bookstores did throw paperbacks away, but distributors required that the cover be torn off (and sent back) before disposing of the book. So if you didn't mind reading a paperback without a cover, there was always plenty to find in bookstore trash.

I believe magazines were the same except that (perhaps due to "decency" laws) adult mags had to be sent back rather than just thrown in the can.

The magazine rack was stocked and stripped by a jobber. IDK what they did with them after hauling the old ones away. There was a small selection of publisher-direct magazines that we stripped and sent the covers back to the publisher for credit; those were the higher-end magazines, and I always enjoyed getting them for free.

We got strip lists for mass-market paperbacks (the pocket-sized ones) once a month and indeed did throw away hundreds of books every month. I used to box up a selection of westerns, mysteries, adventure stories, sci-fi, and nonfiction and ship them to my dad, who was a voracious reader. When he finished them, he gave them to the local veterans home.

I brought the unwanted ones home to use as kindling in the fireplace. Not many made it to the dumpster.

[Jaymon]

the original story in Oregon Live has a lot more information


The store threw stuff out because it had no power, and the food was too far gone to donate to food banks. The employees didn't want people picking it out of the trash, for the same reason they wouldn't sell it. Then the employees felt threatened by the crowd, and called the police.

But after the police came, things escalated, because of course they did. After a while, the police left, and people took things from the trash anyways.


For my opinion, I can see where the store is coming from. They have to throw it away. They lost power, and its simply not possible to go and check every single thing in every fridge and freezer and try to figure out of its spoiled or not. it not like they can take the cap off everything and give it a sniff test. Once the power outage goes beyond the (policy determined) time , it all has to be thrown out. And they can't donate it. "hey here is some orange juice. it might be spoiled, we don't know for sure. good luck!"

Its the same thing I did with my fridge after the power outage.

[Jaymann]

the original story in Oregon Live has a lot more information


The store threw stuff out because it had no power, and the food was too far gone to donate to food banks. The employees didn't want people picking it out of the trash, for the same reason they wouldn't sell it. Then the employees felt threatened by the crowd, and called the police.

But after the police came, things escalated, because of course they did. After a while, the police left, and people took things from the trash anyways.


For my opinion, I can see where the store is coming from. They have to throw it away. They lost power, and its simply not possible to go and check every single thing in every fridge and freezer and try to figure out of its spoiled or not. it not like they can take the cap off everything and give it a sniff test. Once the power outage goes beyond the (policy determined) time , it all has to be thrown out. And they can't donate it. "hey here is some orange juice. it might be spoiled, we don't know for sure. good luck!"

Its the same thing I did with my fridge after the power outage.

Called the police to guard your garbage???