‘Thousands of dollars worth of merchandise’: Walmart shopper says people are ‘abandoning’ their shopping carts full of items

This Walmart shopper called out other customers for abandoning food. Commenters say there may be more to the story than she thinks.

In the United States, about 30% to 40% of what goes into the food supply (including in retail and consumer settings) goes to waste, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. This happens for a variety of reasons across the supply chain, including:

• Processing issues
• Exposure to pests and bacteria
• Equipment malfunction (like faulty fridges)
• Over-ordering
• Chucking blemished and imperfect items
• Letting food at home spoil

That's equivalent to about 133 billion pounds of food worth $161 billion.

This Walmart shopper pointed out that people need to be more careful about how they value food, starting in the grocery store.

Walmart customers called out

In a TikTok with more than 11,000 views, Walmart shopper Shirley shared her frustration with fellow store-goers.

"Every American that has ever [not] put a perishable item back should be ashamed of themselves, regardless if you could afford it or not," Shirley said.

She showed two shopping carts full to the brim with perishables like steak, frozen pizzas, yogurt, and strawberries.

"If y'all spend a day starving, you would not do this when you come into this Walmart," Shirley said.

"There's a hunger problem in this country. Are you kidding me? Thousands of dollars worth of merchandise gone bad. Food. And it's all going in the trash," she said.

And Shirley is right. About one in seven households in the United States experiences food insecurity. That's about 47.4 million people.

"And you think Walmarts rich to write this off, but at the end of the day, we shouldn't be this wasteful with food in this country," she added.

And it seems people agree. A 2019 study on grocery store etiquette found that the worst thing shoppers think others can do is leave perishable foods, like milk, cheese, and frozen dinners, randomly strewn about the store. In fact, it was deemed the "most inappropriate" shopping behavior, with more than 97% of people agreeing.

"Besides being frustrating for the market employees who have to put them back, that kind of lazy behavior could leave some foods to spoil unknowingly," the study stated.

What's the protocol?

While the Daily Dot was not able to find official protocol on a major grocer's website about how they handle putting back perishable items, EatingWell confirmed what's pretty common sense.

The general rule, according to the USDA, is that food shouldn't be left out for more than two hours.

But once a perishable item, be it a rotisserie chicken or some yogurt, is left out, there's no knowing how long it's been outside of the fridge. And no company wants to be held liable for someone having a potentially harmful reaction to improperly refrigerated food, so they'll err on the safe side and chuck it.

Costco specifically has carts at checkout for people to leave the items they don't want anymore, including perishables. While this doesn't mean that the perishable food is saved, it at least isn't in random places throughout the grocery store.

One grocery store worker said that at their location, perishable foods accounted for hundreds of thousands of dollars in write-offs.

Commenters react

"I worked for Walmart and had to do this! It’s not about giving it away! When you take stuff out of fridge or freezer and leave it on a shelf it’s a safety hazard! It must be tossed out..it’s people," a top comment read.

"Is that 'go backs' or a ditched cart for xyz reasons..I was a cashier..it happens alot. its more annoying when its go backs left in shelves in wrong areas, worse when people leave perishables because they dont want to walk back for xyz reasons instead of just handing it to cashier they will send it back to proper place fast. in my guess why this may happen other then laziness, could be emergency or children playing with goods, health issues etc.," a person said.

"And how often do we see this, there could have been emergency. not to mention stores throw out more than this amount themselves everyday," another wrote.

@sqwrly7 #WastefulAmericans #foodwaste #childrenhungry ♬ original sound - Templeshirley7

The Daily Dot reached out to Shirley for comment via TikTok direct message and comment and to Walmart via email.

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