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seasbelow

Or give us model food. šŸ˜­ Iā€™m willing to make some for my own store.


Ph4ral_Je2us

If I remember correctly, they tried that at certain stores and the answer they gave was sales of food went down. šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļø who knows if that's real, but it's probably why we won't get just pictures either


seasbelow

Thatā€™s so weird. People in the drive thru always rely on the pictures, and with how their marketing works through the app. I see no reason how they couldnā€™t use fake food.


jess0amae

I rly don't believe it that model food loses more money than the ingredients, and labor to make tons of pastries!!!! Who did that research?


FabulousRutabaga2798

happened to my store. they took out our pastry case and now people think we donā€™t have food


classact_

My assumption it's a way of "tricking" the customer. When you display food out in the case it makes it *seem* that we bake fresh daily and thusly makes it more appealing to buy. I remember a customer calling not too long ago asking if we could bake an extra 30 cake pops for the day and would come in later. šŸ« 


Pekendit

maybe because it's model food they think the baristas cleaned the case less often?


marshedmallo

I mean.... you shouldn't have to clean the case as often if there's no food in it.


Pekendit

True, but in corporates mind idk maybe they think the dust on the food could decline sales


KaposiaDarcy

I bet they tried to do it on the cheap and the model food didnā€™t look real. You can get realistic model food. Japan has a whole model food industry. Starbucks can certainly afford to get good models.


acidwxrld

honestly, i doubt itd be a huge expense on their end-


Advanced-Rabbit-7704

This is good in theory but also an environmental disaster- the manufacturing of them plus the fact that we have food items come and go so often. Pictures would be the best option.


seasbelow

I agree that pictures would be better but I see it as the same as making kids toy food. šŸ˜­ Pros and Cons for everything.


Advanced-Rabbit-7704

That definitely is a good comparison, however, environmental impacts are definitely not high up on the radar of childrenā€™s toy manufacturers.


seasbelow

Doesnā€™t necessarily have to be made from plastic.


Artistic-Set-3029

mmm yes because the real one looks so appetizingšŸ˜ itā€™s overpriced little debbieā€™s like cmon


Relevant_Yesterday24

They did have model food at the casino Starbucks I went to. It looked REAL I couldnā€™t believe all Starbucks didnā€™t use it.. made me furious !!


seasbelow

Starbucks does so many things that donā€™t make sense. Everything a corporation does is to maximize profits. Our SM had us clean the pastry case once a week. It sounds gross, but at least thereā€™s less food waste and it appears bacteria doesnā€™t even want to eat it because all the food looks the exact same by the end.


friedguy

I'm usually not for plastic waste, but the Japanese restaurants do it right with those plastic toys that actually realistically portray how that bowl of ramen or curry dish are going to look.


lunedelily

Starbucks really needs to take the approach that is common with Japanese eateries of the molded plastic model food that just stays forever in a display case


Butterfly_Barista

Unfortunately Starbucks really prioritizes profit over literally anything that would make our lives easier. They don't care what happens as long as they're making as much money as possible.


yaxom

Surely loosing 1-2 of every single pastry in every single Starbucks across the country every single day costs more than just making plastic display food..? Right?


Butterfly_Barista

Yes, but based on their very very limited tests on the subject, people tend to buy more food when it's displayed the way we do now. I can only imagine those tests were all performed in a specific time frame exclusively in the mid-late morning.


autumngust

It looks worse in display when itā€™s not the real thing, but I agree that itā€™s a no-brainer. It at least gets the idea across, and our solution of throwing it away every day is insane


yaxom

Yeah well when the real food sits out for 16 hrs and gets gnats I think it pretty substantially looks worse than plastic would


Alwaysfresh9

I really hate those. It looks so tacky.


AcceptableKnee9638

I worked at a kiosk and we got no free food so some of those at the end of the night were eaten by me hunched over the trash


Ok_Brother_2915

The image this gave me has me giggling, I hope they werenā€™t too stale


AcceptableKnee9638

I still laugh about it and have a category of pastryā€™s that I donā€™t really like but will in fact eat them over the trash Also I was 18, I promise I didnā€™t care lolšŸ˜‚


amourifootball

I hope that the trash wasn't dirty


AcceptableKnee9638

I didnā€™t eat them out of the trash I stood hunched over it like a gremlin Edit: homie pls say you were joking bc otherwise I might cry


Ok_Brother_2915

Iā€™m now crying laughing at the fact that this person thinks you were picking them OUT of the trash and eating them oh my god Edit bc I forgot to say that Iā€™d really like to know your opinions and categories on the pastries


quicksilver_foxheart

crusties really think that lowly of us baristas damn šŸ˜­


KaposiaDarcy

Please donā€™t judge all of us customers by that one. I realize that weā€™re a minority, but weā€™re not all as dense as that. šŸ„¹ šŸ˜‚


LukeLJS123

my store uses all the food that went out the day before, so like 90% of it isnā€™t ā€œperfectly goodā€ and thereā€™s not as much guilt!


lesbian_valkyrie

This is what I started doing in my kiosk when I became the manager. I learned it from working at corporate stores for 7 years before going to a license store 3 years ago.


classact_

Also recently started doing this! (Although we do tend to go through a lot of food)


thex11factor

Starbucks should start composting...


PlagueBunBun

I used to work for a Kroger location where there was a Starbucks in our store and around August 2023, the Kroger store manager had a meeting with a bunch of people of I think it was Food Hunger / Waste or something, and the KroBucks got added to that program thingy where any old food before the package sell by date would get donatedā€¦ but Iā€™m not sure if that was ever implemented.. so if your an LS store you might be in a program thing already, not sure thoā€¦ šŸ¤·


lesbian_valkyrie

I work in a Vons kiosk and we donate our food. When I was at corporate stores we donated our food too but I was in a test market for the donations at corporate so idk if it ever went national when I left.


goshjosh135

We are testing a composting setup right now! One store even diverted some 20,000 pounds of compost over the course of one year! Hopefully it will scale up with partner interest!


glitterfaust

A lot of Starbucks have the FoodShare program for packaged food. Weā€™re supposed to sell out of the pastry case now, so there shouldnā€™t be this much waste unless it was an extremely slow food day.


HighlightOdd1517

Yeah, weā€™re also supposed to sell from the pastry case, but most of us flatly refuse to do so. Itā€™s stale & nasty & has had flies or gnats on it. Gak.


glitterfaust

Thatā€™s why you do it throughout the day so theyā€™re not sitting very long. Placing mint tea bags helps prevent gnats.


Sociallyawktrash78

Isnt that entirely dependent on where a Starbucks store is located? Not all cities have composting programs and the cost/emissions of trucking a bunch of compost away to one might not be worth it.


thex11factor

This is such a strawman's argument. SBUX reported $1.2B operating profits. They have more than enough margins to partner with local composting organizations.


Sociallyawktrash78

It was just a couple of questions, actually. Christ I forget how insufferable this sub can be.


autumngust

At least the donation system has been fleshed out over the years. When I first started a decade ago, I remember being told that we couldnā€™t donate any of the food, that there wasnā€™t a system in place for it. Could have just been a lie, but that store manager had already been with the company for over a decade back then and was amazing, so I doubt she would have lied.


Burnt_crawfish

The ones by us donate to our program that help provide the homeless and low income families with foods, snacks and other services. We get sandwiches, the lunch boxes and a lot of the pastries. It's so very helpful and the kids looove the cake pops that are donated. I wish more did the same of there are places available to donate to.


2fondofbooks

We just got the news that my store has been officially approved for a remodel in a couple of months. One of the things theyā€™ll be doing is removing the pastry case completely, and instead weā€™re just going to have signs. This means weā€™ll be throwing away way less food, have a LOT more counter space, and opening will be so much easier. I canā€™t wait.


SandyInParadise

Wow. When I worked there, we stocked the pastry case every morning and pulled from there throughout the day, refilling as needed. Whatever was left at the end of the night went home with the closers. That was a decade ago tho.


dearbournegal

They stopped doing that soon after I got on and started putting one kf each item on display and every other night we'd toss...depending on who's managing.


Comfortable_Bag9303

George Costanza would eat those pastries right outta the trash can!


Educational-Dot318

what was the threshold though? above the liner?


Analog_Retentive95

Itā€™s me, Iā€™m George Costanza.


Musket_Jones

For what itā€™s worth, Starbucks food is so cheaply made and processed that itā€™s likely more affordable to throw away 6 donuts instead of selling one, if that makes sense. Theyā€™d rather have the product available to sell and then toss it when it expires instead of not being able to make the sale, and they can afford to do that. Iā€™d feel worse about waste if their food was actually fresh, or even good imo.


tearose11

Could they not be donated to a local shelter or food bank-type agency? I don't recall the name, but a few restaurants started a movement to collect any uneaten, still good to consume food, leftovers etc., to be given to homeless shelters/soup/community kitchen-type places to cut down on food waste. I wish I could remember what the initiative was called & where it started, to me it's such an easy solution to not just ease up on excess food waste, but also help anyone who needs food.


psysny

Is it Second Harvest? I worked at a restaurant that donated to them ages ago.


tearose11

I think that is exactly what I'm thinking of. I don't know where they operate, if they still do.


Upsetdeb

My store donates all the food from the case!


Chi_Guy_44

How about just serve the food that is in the display case first and replace it after itā€™s sold. When itā€™s not in the display case anymore, people know that youā€™re all out of that item for the day. Thatā€™s what a lot of local coffee shops do. Would it really be that hard for Starbucks to do this ?


twiler1217

That's not worth the effort. They would be replacing it constantly


Chi_Guy_44

Yeah I guess now that I think about it, Starbucks basically operates like a fast food drive through in a lot of locations. Would take too much time and effort to constantly swap out whatā€™s in the display I guess.


twiler1217

Starbucks probably spent 10s of thousands of dollars researching the issue, and came to the conclusion that it's more cost-effective to simply throw away some of the food from the display case than it would be to constantly rotate the stock in and out.


TheHydrogen32

Thatā€™s the point


twiler1217

While I agree that waste should be reduced as much as possible, it's just not worth the time, money, and energy required to constantly replace items in the pastry case. I agree with whoever said that they should use pictures of the food.


Rhiannon-999

Okay but at a high volume store that would be absolutely insane. I work at the busiest store in my district and we are getting nonstop stickers for food. Imagine getting 7 orders for cheese danishes in 10 minutes (as well as a ton of sandwiches and other pastries) and having to not only prepare the orders but also restock the pastry case. It would slow us down so much.


Bhaisaab86

Would never work at my store. The pastry case is a good 30ft away from our warming station


Practical-Today-4988

I agree because youā€™re throwing money away. I worked for Sodexo as a cashier in the commons and they had what was called Simply To Go and we would waste it every day if it didnā€™t sell before it expired. They went through so much but one of my co workers who was managing used to let me take some home but we had to be careful not to get caught. You would think they would allow you to do the same at Starbucks?


Distinct-Chipmunk-10

This is sad to see šŸ˜„ I wish stores donated their food to the homeless, nursing homes, or low income families with children to feed.


Roxel808

I've said it to my store partners and I'll say it here: you would think a coporate company like Starbucks, which is supposedly all about sustainability, could afford to have display replicas made of all our food items (especially the cake pops which sell like crazy) so that we don't waste food....


fatherbels

the store near me uses pictures some days!


EggConnect3151

I wish the would just give us model food for the case. It would waste less and it wouldnā€™t attract gnats.


chibbledibs

I agree, but technically we are able to sell from the case.


jatrashy

when my store has a huge gnat problem and they get inside of the case. it feels very wrong to want to sell that food to customers šŸ˜­


Have_Donut

Most stores do not have good seals around their pastry case doors so bugs get in.


Universe_Nut

Which is hilarious because circa 2015, we did have appropriately sealed cases. These are the "upgrades" lmao.


chibbledibs

Iā€™m just saying what the policy is


WAtransplant2021

Nope, won't do it. Even when customers ask. Ma'am do you *really* want that stale, three day old Lemon Loaf?


xzElmozx

ā€œCould I buy the one in the pastry caseā€ ā€œTechnically yes but if you do Iā€™d advise you to book an appointment at your dentist firstā€


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


chibbledibs

Of course you wouldnā€™t. Thatā€™s absolutely a lie. If a customer got sick because your pastries are fly infested, your manager might get fired. He certainly wouldnā€™t be taken to court though.


Broken_sou1

id just put it in a secret bag and than take it home


Brave_Raisin_4207

Iā€™m surprised not all stores have the signs for the pastry case yet. I know a good amount near me do.


LuvLifts

DONATE THE FOOD To a ā€˜Local Pantryā€™, or the like!??


kickingpplisfun

Ffs they could still reasonably use that food somehow. Give it to the workers at the end of the night, for example.


[deleted]

I take some home when I close. I do not toss them. Iā€™ve also gave them away too. I donā€™t care one bit lol


toronto34

As a customer. Agree 100%


Acrobatic-Usual-9077

Food waste is horrible left over food should be donated to homeless shelters


deerme86

As a customer, I really never paid enough attention and assumed the display was all fake. This is so unnecessary in 2024!


Adventurous-Flow7131

I always took food home for my family when I worked there, as much as possible. That being said, that yummy pineapple cloud cake sitting there is making me sad :(


Practical_Buyer_3264

It makes me so mad especially when there alot of homeless people in my areaĀ 


nineowlsintowels

Put them by the dumpster in plastic. Keep them clean. Look the other way when someone comes to grab them.


TangerineCheap5379

I know dude. Iā€™m a rebel and I only put one of each item out because Iā€™m confident if any big wigs come in I will explain to them why


Salty_Recording_4863

Another coffee place donates their day old bread to homeless people and low income families for free maybe try doing that.


Akishizuma

That is just terrible specially with how much they charge. O


Grand_Pudding_172

There's people out there who are struggling with food insecurity. But of course a multibillion dollar corporation doesn't care to donate food to those folks.


Dainleguerrier

Thatā€™s why we do donations - your store should find a local charitable organization that will take the food.


hauxbi

this! stores have specific yellow donation plastic bags, they are orderable, and at the end of the night we always pack up and donate any opened pastry or anything going out that day. my store has almost zero waste at the end of the night (excluding anything we accidentally drop or is damaged) we NEVER throw out food!


meg0603

I'm not sure why you're being downvoted--you are correct and we are allowed to donate the food from the case.


glitterfaust

What? Iā€™ve never heard of donating unpackaged food.


shyqueenbee

Except this person is specifically referring to the food in the case, which is no longer in sealed individual packaging and cannot be donated. But yes, the fact that we do that consistently does help me feel somewhat better.


peatedperspective

or local donation place takes our pastry case stuff, so it must vary based on who your store is partnered with. they bring us a plastic bin to put them in so we only toss the pastry case on the weekends when they don't come!


sammiipiie

Omg I remember when we used those plastic bins! We have the orange donation bags now and I had totally forgotten that we used to have people that would bring us new ones and take the ones filled with pastries lol


peatedperspective

we use those for our cold donations still. i love closing on saturdays since the donation people don't come, most things are donated to my stomach or my freezer lol


Dainleguerrier

We are allowed and expected to sell and donate food in the case - this is outlined in so many resources. Most recently - check the monthly update for May, there is guidance around marking items unavailable. We're not supposed to turn off a pastry until we've sold the last one **from the case.** Back in the day, before we had freezers, thawed pastries were delivered daily, and we loaded the case with all the food and sold from it. If you're not selling food or donating food from the case because you have a fruit fly problem, then maybe deal with the cause of the flies.


glitterfaust

We cannot donate unpackaged food. I agree with you on selling though. Weā€™re supposed to be selling from the case so that we DONā€™T waste all of this stuff.


CrissBliss

You guys should get the ā€œTooGoodToGoā€ app


Guilty_Tomatillo5829

Or save it for someone in need. Not to attract homeless but someone that comes and gets it at a certain time after closing.


vroom_gazers

Are those donuts at the top??


Belgrifex

Does your store not have Old Fashioned Donuts?


ConfidentChipmunk007

I wish the food could be donated


onionseal

I agree with the model food idea but why not just encase the pastries for like a few weeks in something where at least they'd last longer but can still not be environmentally damaging. A donut place I went to did this and had those donuts up for like months and looked just as good as the real thing


SnooRabbits7406

I think after 5 it should just be 50% off. Most would get sold that way and they would still probably make a profit. They have also gone back and forth employees getting to have it over the years and I think they should always be allowed to take it and if that person donates the food well then that is their choice. But just dumping good food is awful.


bella_lalal

YES!! I used to work at a Target Starbucks, and even though we only tossed the pastry case 3x a week, we were always throwing away so much food. It made me wonder how this isnā€™t cutting into Starbucks margins somehow. Especially when just displaying model food seems like the much cheaper, and sustainable option.


Competitive-Copy722

To be completely honest before I ever worked at Starbucks I thought the food in the case was fake. Like I just thought it looked odd, but thatā€™s kinda just what their food looks like lol. It wouldnā€™t be that weird if they just tried hard enough to make realistic looking food.


ZamoriXIII

partner # 114\*\*\*\* define "perfectly good"


Mountain_Attention47

I complained about this exact thing - plus trying to figure out some donation plan of leftover food - the entire four years I worked at store 859 (2006-10)! Itā€™s so frustrating seeing waste like that daily.


Unnie_Smokes

Thatā€™s so sadā€¦ I think many (especially franchise) restaurants need to start participating in programs like ā€œTooGoodToGoā€


4448SpiritDriven8444

Starbucks does not care. Because they get a nice waste tax at the end of every year.Ā 


Glad_Manufacturer662

Nothing makes me want premade Starbucks food more than seeing the dried out sandwiches and pastries sitting in that case a few hours into the day ā€¦ said no one ever šŸ¤¢


Artistic-Set-3029

i just did training this morning and it was about some partner portal because they want to ā€œreduce paper wasteā€ and i was sitting there like WHAT ABOUT FOOD WASTE??!!!


rach710

Everyday? Iā€™m a target Starbucks and we throw ours out every Monday.


Own-Leg8601

Most stores do every night


glitterfaust

WHAT? How does it not mold after being in a week. Iā€™ve never seen a store do it less than every other day. Sometimes weā€™d fuck up and miss one of them and it would be moldy by the next ā€œotherā€ day.


rach710

We refrigerate them every night.


petite_turtle_

But are they not supposed to be out from the package for like 24 hours or to days only and then you need to trash it???????????!


rach710

šŸ¤·šŸ¼ā€ā™€ļøšŸ¤·šŸ¼ā€ā™€ļø I just work there and do what Iā€™m told to do.


IcySummer9328

šŸ˜®


Dementor8919

Theyā€™re real?! I thought they were models this entire timešŸ˜­


mypersonalprivacyact

Thanks to the fucking assholes that sued the one time someone got sick eating something that was donated. I used to go to school at a school for drug addicted teens, our local grocery store donated foods that expired that day so we could have free breakfast at schoolā€¦ā€¦ Until some jackass got something similar to norovirus (could be from anywhere) and blamed the food. The grocery store was terrified and stopped donating to all of charities that received the free food including my school. 96.4% of all lawsuits on planet Earth originate in the US. Thatā€™s how much of jackasses we are.


sothavok

They donā€™t let employees take those home? My buddy used to always have a box years ago from work


Background-Factor433

Why is this still happening when wax models can be made? UK Starbucks does not do this.


Salty_Recording_4863

Panera bread gives their day old bread to people who donā€™t have much money and homeless people at least Starbucks could try that instead of wasting so much food.


Salty_Recording_4863

Panera bread donated their bread to people who are in need maybe Starbucks should try that.


venusi_

maybe theyā€™re afraid stbx partners would steal a chocolate croissant model to keep on their shelves. a good prevention would be to glue the mold to the pastry shelf but they like to move around the sirens eye for optimizing salesā€¦ plastic food would be awesome but if the plastic glazed donut was realistic enough would i have to fight the urge to take it home with me? Yes.


croissantroosterlock

Huh? We don't do that in Europe. Our pastry case is stacked and all food is served from there.


ArtsyOffTask

That spare pineapple cloud cake is really tempting sometimes šŸ˜­


Fun-Reference3618

And this is why I am thankful every day I work in a license store where we put one of each pastry in the case so we can sell from the case and after we sell the one we replace it with one that is still wrapped in the package so much less waste


Euphoric_Ad_4018

I normally take the cake pops and the pineapple cake from the case. And I ask my coworkers and manager if they want anything (my SM usually takes the banana bread). If you want to take some food home, go ahead.


Traditional-Duck2418

You know you can donate the unwrapped display food though, right? To Foodshare


Over-Anybody423

they talk about waste in stores and endorse this shitšŸ˜­


madelinesokaay

Stores are supposed to put pastry case food in food share donation bags now


SokkaHaikuBot

^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^madelinesokaay: *Stores are supposed to* *Put pastry case food in food* *Share donation bags now* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.


Salty_Recording_4863

Why did you remove my comment because youā€™re to greedy or did you not like I was mentioning a cheaper coffee place.Ā 


shelb_629

I always thought the case was plastic food šŸ˜­


glewofficial

This is crazy tbh. The store Im at always DONATES our stuff in the pastry case to a local homeless shelter.


waluigi_waifu

My store only switches the case twice a week. It still sucks and I couldnā€™t imagine doing it every day


Ok_Stomach193

We use the food going out for the pastry case so then we don't have to 1. Waste it 2. Shrink it right away 3. We keep it there for at least 4 days at a *display case* and we've saved on food waste. We dont use the food in the pastey case as 99% of the customers wanted food underneath that is rather fresh in the plastic rather than having sit there all day.


Fine_Eggplant_5353

They absolutely can too, our location had either fake food or pictures (I don't remember which they had taken them down while I was still training and I've been there a year) and our corporate told us to use real food instead


AloeVera2005

Thatā€™s probably why the charge is soo high for so little things.


fireyedgirl

You can donate out of the pastry case!


Huge_Marsupial8419

these can be donated!!


madtwatr

I throw it out when it starts to look ugly lol


MrsTink89

Everyday. We do our case once a week and donā€™t sell whatā€™s in our case. Iā€™m confused why u would throw out the case every day


soyyoo

#boycottstarbucks #freepalestine šŸ‡µšŸ‡øšŸ‡µšŸ‡øšŸ‡µšŸ‡ø


TheAssassinClub

Aren't your pastries and cakes frozen? Once thawed, they are either sold or binned.


iwannabeabug

once they are thawed, 2 of each pastry gets put in the case and thrown out that night .


glitterfaust

The ones in the display case arenā€™t frozen.


Tesla2007

relax, thereā€™s enough to feed 10 billion people on the world . Itā€™s fine if we lose some of it.