Dumpster Diving

[Ulfwald]

Picked up office furniture, chairs, tables, computers, printers, 4 boxes of cat 5 cable, etc....... But never food. Heck, one time I scored a cash box full of rolled quarters, about $300.00 worth.

 

[Fritzo]

My brother-out-law does this, and he makes a nice little side business out of it. Video stores throw away DVD's all the time, electronics stores throw away floor models, dept stores throw away shoes and clothes- sells all this stuff and makes $$$$.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

I've got a sister-in-law that's been doing it for years, shes got three grocery stores that call her when they're going to throw stuff out. She's a single mom with three kids and a minimum wage job. Between food stamps and dumpster diving, I bet she hasn't paid for groceries in many years.

 

[Shadowknight]

I knew some people in Colorado who would cruise the rich neighborhoods for furniture. Apparently, a lot of people in those neighborhoods would buy new furniture sets and put the old sets out to be taken to the dump. Nothing wrong or ratty about them, they were just wasteful instead of giving it away or selling it. My friends said they would just knock on their doors and get permission to take the furniture. I wish I knew of neighborhoods like this, I could use a new desk and chair.

 

[eakers]

I had a friend who was dirt poor who worked at a food counter at a grocery store. She would cry when she threw the food in the garbage because she was so hungry and if they took anything they would be fired immediately.

 

[Chunkee]

Originally posted by: eakers
I had a friend who was dirt poor who worked at a food counter at a grocery store. She would cry when she threw the food in the garbage because she was so hungry and if they took anything they would be fired immediately.

I have heard of this type of mentality....bastards...

jC

 

[Zedtom]

I used to have a regular circuit of stores I would drive past. Now most of them have large sealed trash compactors instead of dumpsters.

I still have reams of copier paper, post-it notes, pens, pencils and other office supplies.

 

[acemcmac]

I used to dumpster dive all of the time and have made a lot of money on it over the years turing my finds on eBay...

I'm not joking.

 

[alien42]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...hreadid=1537023&enterthread=y&arctab=y

 

[SaturnX]

Only time I've dumpster dived was when a bunch of us were preparing a Junk Yard Wars type event for Frosh Week. But I definitely wouldn't be picking out food from a dumpster.

--Mark

 

[ValkyrieofHouston]

Yikes! At this point in my life, I would be so hesitant to mess with food out of a dumpster. Even if it was sealed in a bag.. Like food poisoning, or who knows what. But if I ever get to that point and become that desperate who knows I might just do some dumpster diving...
I'm not real big on grabbing used furniture either from dumpsters... but that is just me. However, I am not downing you for doing it. I have in the past taken food from a fast food place directly from the shelf at closing time, before they chose to chuck it out in the trash because it was perfectly good food. The fast food places and stores cannot keep food like that and have to dispose of it. Can't tell you how many times I brought fresh fried chicken home, corn on the cob and cole slaw. I had boxes and boxes of the stuff.

 

[TitanDiddly]

All you people who go 'ick' at dumpster diving for food need to grow the hell up.

 

[judasmachine]

Originally posted by: Shadowknight
While talking to an employee at one of my local grocery stores, she told me how the store threw out perectly good food everyday from the deli. We're not talking 12-day/3 week old food, but stuff that was literally thrown out one day after being on the floor. She told me when the stuff got thrown out too There were plenty of bagels, muffins, and desert foods, but I stayed away from anything that wasn't sealed, even if it was on top of the garbage with no "contamination". No, no bugs were around. I picked up several sealed bags of fried chicken, two sealed roast chickens, about half a dozen sandwiches, and an uncooked pizza. Not a bad haul.

Anyone else dumpster dive for food, furniture, or anything else?

DD an introduction.

 

[DaShen]

They talked about it on the news a few weeks back. Seems like a good idea to not waste the food, and to save money, but not socially acceptable. I don;t see why the groceries don't collabaorate with charities to donate the food being thrown out. Most of the time the food is probably still good.

 

[mundane]

I've done it for PC parts before - last year, at my wife's graduation, a bunch of people from the dorms/apartments were tossing, among other things, old Dells. Opened the box, took ram, HD, Video card, etc.

 

[Yreka]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
My brother-out-law does this, and he makes a nice little side business out of it. Video stores throw away DVD's all the time, electronics stores throw away floor models, dept stores throw away shoes and clothes- sells all this stuff and makes $$$$.

My buddy worked in a papa murphy's pizza that was right next door to a video store. They both shared the same dumpster. He would check everytime he took out the trash and find random movies, and the pre-release screeners.

He was a pretty popular guy for awhile. Free pizza and new movies to watch.

 

[ai42]

My mother goes to the senior center and a local grocery store donnates their bakery items that they would normally toss to the senior center. They get so much bread etc that they have to throw half of it away almost everyday.

 

[Feneant2]

Grocery stores here don't throw out the food, they just mark it down. I find it disgusting on their part. They mark down expired food and sell it to the poor folks who can't afford better (or old folks who don't care), but why not just give it to the needy.

 

[Saint Nick]

If you want to get sick, then do it.

I've never done it personally.

 

[jtvang125]

Material stuff in good condition, sure. For food? That's disgusting. If I was going through bad times I have supportive brothers and sisters that I can count on.

 

[compuwiz1]

They used to throw away movies behind a Blockbuster, where I once lived. Although I never dumpster dived, my son and his friends scored quite a few. Those were tapes though. I wonder if they throw away DVD's too, once they have been used alot.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: TitanDiddly
All you people who go 'ick' at dumpster diving for food need to grow the hell up.

What is there to be grown up about?

I wasn't flaming the dude, just saying that I woud take just about anything useful out of a dumpster, but not food. Even if I saw them throw it in there.. It's just a personal thing. Doesen't feel right.

 

[conehead433]

I picked up a Monet at the dumpster one day. Was lucky enough to get a frame for it as well. A ruined Sylvester and Tweedy picture in a nice frame became the frame for the Monet. Monet now hanging on my wall = priceless.

 

[Barrak]

Back in school we would hit the local Donut shop. Day old donuts warmed up for 10 seconds in the microwave FTW!

 

[DaShen]

Originally posted by: conehead433
I picked up a Monet at the dumpster one day. Was lucky enough to get a frame for it as well. A ruined Sylvester and Tweedy picture in a nice frame became the frame for the Monet. Monet now hanging on my wall = priceless.

One person's trash is another person's ...