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Food waste
By Pru Sowers
Banner Staff
PROVINCETOWN — As the Grand Union Family Market prepares to close its doors here on Dec. 1, employees have begun questioning the huge amount of food the store has been ordered to throw out.
Store managers wouldn’t comment publicly on how much, but two employees told the Banner that grocery cart after cart has been wheeled into a back room where the food containers were opened, contents thrown in a compactor and the containers saved in order for the store to receive at least partial credit from the manufacturer. Some of the food that has been destroyed was out of date; however, much of it is still good, according to one employee.
“The amount of food that has gone down the drain in the last few days would be enough to feed Provincetown,” said the employee, who asked not to be identified because interviews with the new store operator, Stop & Shop, are still ongoing. “They threw away a whole [grocery] carriage of baby formula that still had a good date. There are carriages and carriages of meat and juice. Grand Union told them to throw it all away.”
According to another employee, frozen and perishable food that had either expired or had an expiration date before Jan. 5 was ordered to be dumped. Food with an expiration date after that was going to be returned to the manufacturer or to C&S Wholesalers, the owner of Grand Union, possibly for sale in other stores served by that company.
In addition to frozen foods and baby formula, frozen juice, perishable meats like hot dogs and cold cuts and unused “clam shell” plastic containers have been discarded. While lamenting the loss of so much food in a time when area food banks are reporting dwindling supplies and an increase in people needing their services, one GU employee said that many manufacturers give partial or full credit for unsold items, particularly if they can still be sold. And with so many local shoppers unwilling to buy anything from the outgoing Grand Union unless it is on sale, returning the items may net the store more money than putting it on sale.
“They will get pretty much 100 percent of their money back,” said one employee about the credit offered by manufacturers. “If you would sell it at a discount, you lose money.”
Still, much of the frozen food that has been thrown out came sealed in plastic wrap inside a cardboard container and would be safe to donate to local human service groups even without its exterior wrapping, an employee said. A Grand Union spokesman, Bryan Granger, did not return repeated calls for comment. Chris Cheverie, a Grand Union district manager in the store last week, also would not comment.
Robert Keane, a spokesman for Stop & Shop, said that all the existing inventory would be removed from the store by Grand Union before Stop & Shop takes over.
“Because we’re doing renovation to the site, they may not want to have food around,” Keane said.
The grocery store will re-open under the Stop & Shop brand at 7 a.m. Dec. 12. While the building is closed, from Dec. 1 through Dec. 11, Stop & Shop will provide a free shuttle bus from the store parking lot to its store in Orleans three times a day.
In addition, the existing pharmacy in the building will remain open during the transition. And many if not all current store employees are expected to be hired by Stop & Shop. They have been told they will have training classes in Orleans during the transition.
psowers@provincetownbanner.com
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Outer Cape Worship Services
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Nov 27th, 2008