Recently, I've made a habit of stepping into Trader Joe's (ENEMY TERRITORY) instead of just their dumpster, which has proved to be informative. It's always good to scope out the stores that you are scavenging from so you can get an idea of sell-by dates and what's available. Plus, you can give back to the stores that "give" you so much for free!
Things I have learned about THE ENEMY after infiltrating:1) It's smaller than it looks on the outside. There's far less of everything than a bigger grocery store, which makes sense as to why my plunder is usually so varied or unreliable. Granted, I've been to a few other Trader Joe's recently and they seem bigger than the one closest to me.
2) I don't dumpster much meat (other than frozen stuff) from Trader Joe's ever - it's because they sell about 3 packages of meat and fish - their meat section is TIIIINY.
3) All the cashiers at Trader Joe's (minions of THE ENEMY) look way cooler and more interesting than anyone else I've really met in my area. Where have they been hiding? I need cool new friends now that I've uprooted from Baltimore! Maybe enemies can be friends too - if any Trader Joe's cashiers ever read this - let's be frenemies!
Speaking of cool new friends, I recently had the pleasure of dumpstering the other night with my climbing buddy's brother, Daniel. We had all just climbed our butts off and Daniel (being a reader of my blog) suggested we go get some groceries.
Upon arriving, there was a big, ominous van by the dumpster...I was initially skeptical...scared even. But, Daniel and I braved through and started looking around. There were two ladies putting bags from the carts into the back of the van. Had we just encountered other elusive non-city dumpster divers?
I made the usually great decision of using my social awkwardness to my advantage, and went over to say hello (generally, when you maybe shouldn't be someplace, the best thing is to pretend that you're oblivious to that fact and to act non-threatening).
After chatting for a bit, the ladies explained they were from a Seventh Day Adventist charity collecting donations for a homeless shelter. My previous tip-off had been wrong! The shopping carts I would sometimes find outside were in fact not for the taking. I felt horrible. Then, they asked what charity we were from...
"Uhm...we don't work for a charity. We're just poor college graduates trying to save grocery money to pay off loans."
The women got concerned about whether or not we were breaking the law (we weren't), and then more concerned about us going hungry - they even offered us a bag of ciabatta rolls (which we graciously took), but something about the encounter left me feeling kind of like a sham, like I was taking something that someone else deserves more.*
After finding out that the carts are off-limits, both Daniel and I respectfully went through the dumpster instead, and even spoke to an ENEMY manager. He said he didn't have a problem with dumpstering as long as we cleaned up. Apparently, dumpstering is rampant at the Silver Spring Trader Joe's - so rampant that the staff started writing the contents of the bags in sharpie so that divers didn't have to look so fervently or for as long. Super-cool!
I guess corporate enemies can secretly be friends after all...
Daniel made out with some cranberry juice, spaghetti, chicken tenders, onions, and about the same stuff as I did...
(He had the resourcefulness to already have a bag in the car. I did not, and it was cumbersome. Bags or crates plus a headlamp are must-haves for the night plunder!)2/28/11 Bounty:
- 1 pkg tahini-free hummus
- 1 pkg Cajun-style chicken fettucine alfredo (frozen)
- 2 roma tomatoes
- 7 on the vine cherry tomatoes
- 3 gala apples
- 1 bag of granny smiths
- 2 ciabatta rolls
- 1 pkg whole wheat pizza dough
- 1 dispenser of French Hand Soap (seriously my favorite-smelling liquid soap ever)
- 1 pkg whole wheat flour tortillas
- 1 pkg pre-cut carrots & celery
- 2 individually wrapped "thin" chocolates
I enjoyed the chocolate after washing all the food off at home - serious nomz! The carrots & celery have already been made into a big batch of Jeremy's Soup.
*Shameless plug: This is why volunteering for homeless shelters collecting food donations or (even better) advocating for Food Not Bombs is so important as a dumpster diver. There are so many people who are hungrier and more destitute than most of us, and so much food gets wasted every day. The injustice is ridiculous and heart breaking.
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