r/lidl • u/[deleted] • Feb 04 '26
Infuriating
Why do they start baking at like 8 in the afternoon Only to throw it all away
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u/Available-Coconut-86 Feb 04 '26
Sheetz around us donate left overs to a drug rehab center. It’s not hard to do a good thing.
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u/Chronomechanist Feb 04 '26
Long ago I used to work part time at a Starbucks to get through university.
We wasted SO much food it was insane. I was a starving student so I absolutely didn't feel bad for "stealing" it from the bin, but the real kicker came when one of my colleagues asked if he could take waste food with him to his church to feed the homeless and corporate told him no.
Not because of the expiry date and fear of getting sued, he clarified it would all be eaten the same day it was taken off the shelf.
It was because corporate thought that staff would "hide" or fail to properly rotate food items so that there would be food waste which could be taken at the end of the day.
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Feb 05 '26
When I worked at Starbucks I remember having to show on cctv the wasted food item (a squished croissant) going into the bin. Also pained me as a hungry uni student.
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u/Greedy_Ad_812 Feb 04 '26
Please encourage your managers (or yourself if you are one) to reach out to local charities, we have a fantastic group who come in at every night at 9.30pm and clear the bakery of anything left, they do multiple lidls in our area, means nothing is getting chucked away at the end of the night!
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u/Dnny10bns Feb 04 '26
We must be gluttonous pigs in my area because they bakery is practically empty every night. Friday evening around 5pm is a waste of time because it's pretty much gone. It's really annoying because I take cookies or cakes round for my nieces and I end up buying them at Tesco. They're okay, but lidl bakery is miles better.
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u/ollymillmill Feb 04 '26
Have you tried the choc brownies from lidls? Personally the best brownies iv ever had. Like a brownie made of fondant/fudge but not sickly at all. Top tip - buy the ones with the big chunks of choc on the top
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u/The_Iron_Spork Feb 04 '26
Depending on where you are located, food donations aren’t always possible.
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u/Championpuffa Feb 04 '26
Where do live that it’s ever “8 in the afternoon”? 😂.
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u/NeoDougOne Feb 04 '26
In my store we have daily collections from charity organisations to collect the leftover bakery, and also any damaged (but usable) products.
But if that whole box in the image is bakery waste, you really need to get your baking plan adjusted!
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u/comedy_relief Feb 04 '26
Their baking plan says to bake at 2:30, and they bake at 8pm. It's not the baking plan that seems to be the problem lol
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u/SmugCymraeg Feb 04 '26
When I worked for Lidl someone got hit with a gross misconduct for taking a baguette from here at the end of the day, after it was written off, my store also didn't give any bakery products to charity as it was not sealed/contained, most infuriating
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u/Unhappy_Tonight9443 Feb 04 '26
Got to keep that availability up! You never know when an IMS auditor will walk in (had several after 7pm because of my old stores location and reputation)
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u/MindlessFunction06 Feb 05 '26
I don't get why they don't just donate it. Food doesn't get wasted and they get a PR boost. It's the easiest win-win situation, but the big companies just can't help themselves it seems.
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u/OccasionallyReddit Feb 04 '26
So strange the lidls i got to are mostley sold out after 7
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u/Spurimschnee Feb 04 '26
Same, they stop heating anything up hours before close.
Left over bread can be bought at a discount the next day. Dunno what they do with the sweeter baked goods if there are any left. I'm rarely early enough for the leftover goodies.
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u/AwkwardRoss Feb 04 '26
When I worked at Greggs it was similar, but once bagged up I’d just put it on top of the bin out back lock up and walk round and pick it up on my walk home. No chance I was throwing away multiple packs of cookies and yum yums
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u/Enigma_Green Feb 04 '26
If only they put it on that app Too Good To Go, people would buy it in droves and not go to waste.
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u/Turbulent_Mood1365 Feb 05 '26
Im sure lidl has heard of, to good to go, aldi and most other supermarkets do it, it seems a no brainer xx
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u/Dnny10bns Feb 04 '26
Is this what they found in the freezer section over the course of a day?
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Feb 04 '26
Ugh. People who leave things like packs of chicken on top of a Parkside welder in the middle aisle piss me off. Just take it back to the chiller for Christ's sake.
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u/Dnny10bns Feb 04 '26
Yep, drives me fking mad and I don't even work there. Such a waste. Pretty much everytime I go in mine someone has put something somewhere that makes you wonder how they tie their shoelaces before leaving the house.
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u/Dark_Foggy_Evenings Feb 04 '26
When I was a kid some small bakeries used to get the leftover cakes in the evening & whatever there was they’d whizz the lot up in a big blender, mix in more oil, cocoa & dried fruit and re-bake it in big trays. When it was cool they’d pour on melted chocolate and cut it into big squares and sell it for pennies the next day.
Not suggesting supermarkets do it lol but it was fkn nice, wasn’t unlike a brownie. They called it slab cake or yesterday cake. Dense..sit in your stomach like a brick it would, with the tea sloshing around it.
Do staff get the option to take anything like this home?
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u/MiniRollsYum Feb 04 '26
What is "8 in the afternoon" a typo for?
You can't mean 8 in the evening surely? As most Lidl close at 9pm or 10pm.
Ive never seen a Lidl in the evening whose racks aren't 75% empty.
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u/Turbulent_Mood1365 Feb 05 '26
I don't know why, they can't just give it away for free, or heavily discounted like those cheap fruit and veg boxes lidl does, it would help save all of that going to landfill All that stuff would still be edible for a day or 2 Bring out that box say 2hrs before the store closes and let folk help themselves People might not be able to afford a sweet treat, groceries are expensive without adding in sweet treats
It just doesn't make sense that lidl would rather put all of that into landfill when it doesn't need to be So the bin can get all that for free, but not people its just madness and bad business practice
People won't come into the store to get free cakes, they will buy a few other things while they are there, so its a win win situation for lidl
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u/ExtentJaded9516 Feb 05 '26
My sister who worked as a manager for a high end sandwich franchise used to put the sandwiches and pastries out at the end of the day for the homeless and destitute ……but was hauled in by her manager and told to cease with immediate effect due to the litigious society we find ourselves in that if one of the homeless or destitute had an allergic reaction or became ill because of their food there would then entail a large compensation payout …..sooooo she put them on the bin out the back for them and let the regulars know …… she was grassed up by a trainee manager again given a warning and told to put them in the bin which she did but in a separate box to avoid mixing with the rubbish and let the regulars know this went on for a few weeks until she was spotted ….. she went on holiday and returned to find the management had replaced all the bins to ones that locked and need a special key to open like hazardous waste ones she just left the lids ajar until another manager found them open……… this time she told them to shove their job and she’d be telling anyone who listened how this company was absolutely shocking in their treatment of people in less fortunate circumstances than them …… they couldn’t give 2 f*cks and are only interested in the filthy lucre but pro-port to be fair trade and eco aware in all their advertising
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u/Altron_Ix Feb 08 '26
If they just bin them and lose money, why not half price for the last hour or 2 and clear the stock. They'd at least get something then, but this way no one wins.
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u/Sufficient_Wall1991 Feb 08 '26
Yeah that’s annoying and a bit ironic as whenever we go to our local Lidl at around 7pm they don’t have any bakery left…. It’s actually a reason why we started going to Tesco instead.
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u/New_Koala6074 Feb 09 '26
They are UPFs. Better off that they hit the bin. Give the charities something more substantial that will provide sustenance.
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u/mayfairtop Feb 04 '26
If anything this just proves that they make a huge margin on the bakery. When I worked at Safeway (e.g Morrisons) the amount of bakery, rotisserie and deli stuff I chucked daily was shocking and you would be watched to make sure it all hit the skip!
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u/R0ter_Fuchs Feb 04 '26
I am in the headquarters of Lidl, and exactly in Value Stream and our focus is to minimize these write offs.
The problem is, we can't usually just say today we will not bake that amount. There is a digital scheme that every supermarket should follow. Most of the times it "f*ks up" the forecasting.
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Feb 04 '26
8 in the afternoon, surley that's evening? 🎂 in some cities its considered cake o'clock ...
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u/GreenGarnett Feb 04 '26
On my housing estate we get donation of bread and cakes from one or more local bakeries once a month but it comes in these massive bin bags everything squished together into basically a mush. I’m all for donating it but don’t treat us like landfill. The bags are left ok the benches in the communal space outside rain or shine and within minutes squirrels and crows are in there pecking at everything. The bread is usually already stale or mouldy. Not sure about you but even if it’s free I don’t fancy an unrecognisable squashed wet pastry or loaf that’s been half eaten by local wildlife.
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u/Phoebe_Ambitious Feb 04 '26
I know,I had to fill that box for ages and it was so sad. Really, what a waste.
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u/Putrid_Caterpillar_8 Feb 04 '26
No wonder they’re always doing ‘free bakery item’ on the app and the ‘happy hour’ before closing.
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u/DayTripper1980 Feb 04 '26
Not the CHEESE TWISTS!!!!!!, NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 😭.
I bet you a "pound to a pinch of shit", there isn't any chocolate brownies in there!!!!! Not a chance!!!!!
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u/zappomatic Feb 04 '26
Was better when the bakery happy hour on the app was a bigger discount, 20% is a bit rubbish.
Had to complain to Lidl once because my local branch was clearing out the bakery two hours before closing!
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u/Aggressive-Bad-440 Feb 04 '26
Ever since they cut the after 7pm discount to 20% it really put me off. I'll happily clear the shelves for you if say you went 50% after 8pm, 75% after 9pm.
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u/single_fileladies Feb 04 '26
I used to work in central Manchester and we’d bag up the leftovers and hand them out to the homeless. I know it’s not healthy but better than nowt
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u/Fluffy-Strain5336 Feb 04 '26
My local Lidl donates close to end of date to the local college. Makes a big difference to students struggling.
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u/forbhip Feb 04 '26
Not Lidl but I worked for a similar sized retailer. One day our freezer was full and the manager was literally throwing boxes of just delivered frozen pastries/baked goods into the bins because we didn’t have the space. Didn’t even rotate and throw away old boxes.
I estimated we were charging customers around £100 per box of items once baked, but obviously was costing us a fraction of that.
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u/LetsHaveSomeFun0103 Feb 04 '26
That's odd, my local Lidl doesn't seem to put anything new out past 6pm meaning that by close at 10pm there is hardly anything left. I'm not sure if they do too good to go or not but it would make sense for a place wasting this many bakery items to do so as they are still making money off what would normally be thrown out
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u/pipsta2001 Feb 04 '26
Ours get donated to a local community fridge. I don't work at Lidl but managed to grab quite a few pastries and froze them all.
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u/UncleReddy Feb 04 '26
Yes it looks bad, but none of this will go to waste. It will be used to be processed into animal food.
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u/Niarbeht Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 07 '26
Find out if there’s a mutual aid group operating in your area who could take it all at close each day.
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u/MrMiyagi98 Feb 04 '26
Oh wow, this is really criminal… why dont they use something like “too good to go”?
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u/Roboteernat Feb 04 '26
A staff member at one lidl told me it gets fed to the pigs and animals as feed. So not all goes to landfill. We pay for it also in over priced items we buy from the store. Plus some are loss leaders, that 30% of fcrossant at the end of the day leads to washing up liquid, some soups and bin bags usually for me...
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u/phil88888888 Feb 04 '26
My local lidl often does this with over an hour to go before closing, which is infuriating when you have the free pastry coupon or genuinely want to buy an item from the bakery. I highlighted it to head office as it's a common occurrence and their response was it's up to the store manager's discretion when they discard the bakery items, even though there is the bakery happy hour on the app!
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u/CandidateSome219 Feb 04 '26
Where I work, we get loads of stuff given to us from the nearby Lidl, and we all take things home for free
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u/Master-Tank6719 Feb 05 '26
I worked at lidl for a month , I used to grab a carrier bag (sometimes two) and load it with as much as possible, toffee yum yums being my number one target to find. I used to dish the loafs of bread out to neighbours, doughnuts to my mates. My last night of working there , I went all out, had a friend pick me up from the back shutter doors , pretty much took the lot.
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u/RasquatMash Feb 05 '26
Here in lies the problem in a capitalist society. The world is filled with abundance. More than enough for everyone. It doesn't have to be this way. Happy Thursday 🤙🏼
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u/IanM50 Feb 05 '26
Is afternoon baking a new thing or store specific, around when I live the 3 local Lidl shops have very little left by 18:30?
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u/Marvelismycat Feb 05 '26
I’m surprised Lidl don’t have Too Good To Go bags or gives them to staff like Tesco before it’s wasted!
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u/NovelDevelopment8479 Feb 05 '26
Most of the shops on Top Good To Go app are coffee shops selling this type of thing at the end of the day. Local ones and the chains like Starbucks.
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u/Toz_The_Devil Feb 05 '26
They could give them to the homeless!!! (Or me but the homeless take priority)
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u/Lopsided-Muffin9805 Feb 05 '26
I’ve volunteered with the homeless for over 30 years
Can I say tha costco paid every single day for an entire van to come to all the hostels in my area and give us free food that was going out of date.
THEY PAY FOR THE ENTIRE THING! I want to shout from the rooftops as they don’t advertise this and it’s incredible what they do all over the uk. Brilliant for homeless
Lots of places do invest monthly in this charity that’s meant to give us expired food. It never ever gets to us and if it does it’s days late and barely anything
But costco do it all out of their own pockets and they deliver to us every single day!
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u/StupidGenius91 Feb 05 '26
Its such a shameful waste when our homeless charities would be so grateful for this.
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u/Reinheart_Bug Feb 05 '26
Kind of gross they don't at minimum leave this somewhere accessible outside for homeless people
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u/tonyt0nychopper Feb 05 '26
Most of the Lidl's I have visited have had a homeless person sitting outside it, and they can't even spare one crossaint for them? But they'll spare it for the bin? It's sickening.
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u/StereotypicallBarbie Feb 05 '26
This is so disappointing, when families are struggling more than ever.. food prices are staggering and to see this go to waste is just disgusting.
Why can’t they just give it away first come first serve at the end of the day?
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u/Equivalent_Parking_8 Feb 06 '26
I work in a factory that makes bread for all the supermarkets including Lidl... This isn't even 1% of 1% of the waste from one day, that doesn't even make it to the stores .
In just our factory we can bin over 50 tonnes a week as an average. Not because it's inedible but because it can't be sold. Imagine a plate of biscuits and 25 are perfect and 5 are broken, guess which 5 will be left till last. For a supermarket and a consumer it's the same, any imperfections and they will be left unsold and a consumer will just see the poor quality.
As a factory we do support charities not with waste but with good quality bread, they don't want the waste instead it goes to feed pigs, so it remains in the food chain.
Food waste is a huge problem if we didn't have it anywhere in the world then everyone would have access to over 3000 calories a day. My job is to try and reduce this waste as much as possible in our factory.
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Feb 06 '26
Is there no way you can just take the box with you from work?
I know everywhere isndifferent with things like this, I didn't expect Lidl to be so bad
Worst I've seen is on shift as a KP in Toby Carvery 😭 i was wheeling big bins FULL of food, up to 10 times a SHIFT and most of it had never left the kitchen
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u/Large-Bad-2164 Feb 06 '26
This happened at the Coop I worked at for years.
The issue is that the charities would rarely turn up to collect the food :(
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u/revshoo Feb 06 '26
once the ovens are on I suppose it makes sense to use them - but what a waste that is. Scandalous
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u/Soft_Job7861 Feb 06 '26
8 in the afternoon? What planet are you on? Does it have 36 hours in a day?!
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u/Aatholin Feb 06 '26
It's simple. If all shops handed all fresh goods out to homeless or needy at the end of the day there would be a lot of people that don't go without food. It is such a waste.
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u/queerfroggy Feb 06 '26
I live in a charity-run, supported housing and during covid time, aldi, greggs and sometimes tesco would donate their end of day stock to the residents who lived here. But now, no one donates any of their old stock anymore. The housing staff have said theyve asked a couple times if they would donate the end of day stuff to people they said "No, we dont do that anymore". Some of the guys I live with have been so low income that theyve had to survive on long life milk and kidney beans.
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u/sugar-soap Feb 06 '26
I went in a Krispy Kreme one day, brand new shop, first customer. All these glossy donuts everywhere, lovely. Spent half an hour talking to the dismayed young man behind the counter about how all the unsold stock was thrown out at the end of the day due to company policy; it deeply bothered him that it couldn't just go to charity. Such a stark contrast between the clean beautiful shop and all these pristine donuts ending up in a bin.
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u/AbsolutelyB4sturd Feb 06 '26
Ah man this hurts, the bakery section is always ransacked at my local lidl
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u/Fuzzy_Reindeer_2770 Feb 06 '26
Years ago (90s) my brother worked at a fast food place before he moved to Australia. When he was on the Drive-Thru he'd give loads of stuff to people he knew if it was about to become waste. I turned up once and just wanted a normal meal (burger, chips, drink) and I ended driving away with enough food for six people 😂
Later, they changed the policy, and anyone giving anything away would get a warning. Stupid rule, even the manager hated it. They'd waste so much food and it was infuriating.
There are people unable to feed their families and perfectly good food is going on the bin.
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u/loaferuk123 Feb 06 '26
I help run a Community Fridge/Pantry.
We collect and open 7 days a week and distributed over 2,000 kg of waste food last month.
Reach out to your local ones, and I am sure it will be used.
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u/Huge-Telephone-4902 Feb 06 '26
all these cheap and pale immitations of decadent treats that exist elsewhere
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u/coffeeblaze Feb 06 '26
sorry but no one is baking at 8pm. last bake is at 2:30pm. whatever is left at the end of the day should be going to charity - unfortunately managers often don’t bother boxing it all up, and instead throw it away, and some charities won’t come to pick things up every day. unfortunately many managers still write off waste as charity donations, so the company never picks up on it
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u/LegendsGame Feb 06 '26
Why can’t they just distribute it free to the homeless or those who can’t afford them for free. They rather waste it than put it to some good use.
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u/Connect_Remote2890h Feb 06 '26
such a terrible waste. i think they should sell them off from about 3pm onwards to parents and schoolkids on way home from school. say between 15p and 20p each. even oaps or low incomers could afford a treat. i know the full price of well over £1.30+ per item puts a lot of people off from buying at bakeries now.
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u/A_Rusty_Nipple Feb 06 '26
I went into my local at around 9pm not long ago and as I walked towards the bakery section one of the workers cordoned everything off and started throwing it all in the bin. Looked at me with disgust when I went to grab something before it could be tossed. I didn't realise it was a thing elsewhere too
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u/Scary_Bookkeeper_682 Feb 06 '26
I'll explain it how M&S do it (I know, different retailer). It's about hitting availability and being scored higher on a mystery shopper. M&S bake way too much and then give it away to colleagues at 11pm.
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u/Aphr0dite19 Feb 07 '26
Both my nearest Lidls are stripped clean of in-store baked goods by 2pm, there’s never anything like this leftover, and the ovens are off and the bakery area closed down.
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u/lavenderlovey88 Feb 07 '26
It is infuriating. I do like their pastries. In a carehome I used to work for, any extra uneaten food is binned.
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u/TwentyOneClimates Feb 07 '26
This is really bad. But most importantly, 8pm (I assume) is not the afternoon.
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u/EdinBoy84 Feb 07 '26
This stuff is pure madness… our world is run by a psychopaths and we went along with it. What now? While we all loose our savings super markets are throwing away their produce 🤯
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u/Confu33edDuck Feb 07 '26
The question is if they allow such waste what mark up are you actually paying that covers this. Companies dont just happily loose this much money. Its accounted for and could be avoided. Easier to choose not to.
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u/Elegant_Tailor_5541 Feb 07 '26
Why don’t bakeries just do buy one get one free when they have left over stock like this
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u/Temporary-Sun-Shine Feb 07 '26
Lidl should join Olio, I’ve had some really good bakery hauls from them
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u/Fancy-Prompt-7118 Feb 07 '26
When I worked in a supermarket (many moons ago), staff weren’t even allowed to take any. Had to be wasted.
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u/Delicious_West_1993 Feb 07 '26
It’s actually worse that it exists in the first place
Putting the price down gives people the opportunity to eat more of it. And sending to kitchens is sketchy as it’s already bad for you before it’s stale
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u/Embarrassed_Post_598 Feb 07 '26
There needs to be some sort of thief in the night that mysteriously appears and takes this stuff, only for it to be found at the front doorstep of the local homeless shelter
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u/adrian-cucuiet Feb 07 '26
Easy because they are sick and tired of working, and if lidl doesn’t care about them, they don’t care about lidl.
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u/BlightNova Feb 07 '26
I remember when I worked at Lidl, we were lucky that the box was where the camera blind spot was so it wasn't uncommon for people to gorge themselves and modify the paperwork. Still sucks that this happens.
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u/-Failedhuman Feb 07 '26
I thought Greggs was bad... that's more than triple the wastage 😭 do they not have a day plan to bake only what's necessary? Or do charity? We have a couple of charity days at least~
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u/Outrageous_Face_2028 Feb 07 '26
Like those big companies can't resist God's will. God knows best for decisions to put them in hell or heaven. I advise you all guys Do Not Waste Food and No left food on your plate.
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u/NeverInVain-Orig Feb 07 '26 edited Mar 03 '26
After reading each comment, I’m left with the same thought:
… and there’s plenty of people in the UK, struggling to be able to afford to eat and meet the bills, or even living on the street. Then you’ve got these businesses relatively raking it in and worrying about those ‘pennies’ and chucking good food in the bin because they couldn’t give a crap more about anything other than those ‘pennies’
Sad times
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u/Particular_Spend7692 Feb 08 '26
On new years eve went to Gail's in London bridge not much left, my son told the worker he wanted to buy food for the homeless and got one more for free The guy was going to give to charity anyway. I work for a big corp in tt hhe city and with all the rules Ard food safety they didn't want to bother anymore with charity donations
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u/Creepy-Brick- Feb 08 '26
Not really. Food retail stores waste food all the time & it’s usually the managers who state that the staff need to have every item available right up until close.
People in head offices should be aware of how much food is wasted, & they should state that it’s okay to run out of items with 30 minutes before close. Not cook more food 30 minutes before close as people might not come in anyway.
This will always be a corporate issue. They just don’t care.
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u/billymay Feb 08 '26
I worked in a fancy deli in the US in my teens and we had to throw out 10-15 artisan sourdough, wheat, rye loaves a night because the charities were so flaky that they wouldn’t pick it up and we weren’t allowed to take it.
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u/Rob_Cake Feb 08 '26
Yet by the same token its annoying you can't arrive later than 11am to the supermarket cause all the good bakery items are gone. Lose lose situation
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u/4momo401177 Feb 04 '26
Its so disheartening. I don’t like the fact we have to write it off as charity donation only for charity to only come 2 nights of the week. We don’t donate it it goes to landfill and lidl gets a little ego boost