he was going to speak to his friend Eric Rupert about this and his NYC restaurant which wastes a lot of food since it is a fine dining seafood establishment and needed the best, freshest parts of the fish and seafood, throwing out the rest. Now that I think of it I read this in one of his books too.

People have made fun of me for 30 years since my markets have reduced prices for bruised or not-so-fresh fruits and vegetables and I buy my food there if I they have any available. I did it because I was a starving artist but I kept doing it and I waste only about 10% of my food but when I do I feel guilty as Hell.

which have been an outlet for grocery stores to give away what they deemed unsellable.

I know in many of the retail chains I have worked for, we had to damage/destroy expired foods to keep people from taking it out of our dumpsters - so the company wouldn't be liable - and all barcodes had to be defaced since "liberal" return policies often didn't include needing a receipt.

Giving away stuff is anathema in our capitalistic system.

my coworkers and I went to get stuff to paint and we saw the guys on the dock throwing Ralph Lauren leather belts and stuff into a dumpster. I had a fit and my manager stopped me from calling for the local news (there was a recession at the time). They did the same thing as what you witnessed, they put permanent markers on the products or partially cut them. I was told they couldn't donate them due to possible lawsuits from the manufacturers (discredits their name or something). Waste, waste, waste. Disgusting!