Freezer fail or corporate oversight? Walmart shoppers and workers are starting to notice a pattern that's anything but cool.

What's happening?

In a Reddit post on the r/Walmart forum, a longtime Walmart employee shared that in-store freezers are regularly emptied and their contents dumped when labels expire or freshness guidelines lapse. 

"I've worked in multiple states and a handful of stores, and I haven't seen a store that doesn't have issues with their coolers. At this location every day one section or another is down. We're constantly stocking and pulling the merch," the original poster said. "How bad is it in yours?"

Other commenters who also work at Walmart replied to the post by sharing photos and anecdotes of entire freezer bins cleared en masse.

"My Local Walmart just had the entire freezer section down for over a week seems to happen a lot," one Reddit user said.

"Old store I was working at, it would go down every week. It was so annoying taking that stuff out, and throwing it away," another added.

Why is food waste important?

Food waste in grocery chains isn't just a waste of groceries; it's a climate and community failure.

Food tossed into landfills rots and releases methane, a harmful polluting gas driving global temperature rise. 

Corporate dumping of edible food not only contributes to environmental harm but also deepens social divides, especially when families in need struggle to access nutritious food. 

What's worse, wasted food inevitably raises prices — since retailers factor losses into their margins — and damages consumer trust in an era of rising food insecurity.

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Is Walmart doing anything about this?

Walmart's sustainability report highlights its commitment to reducing food waste by 50% by 2030 and emphasizes partnerships with food banks. However, proactive efforts may not always translate to every storefront.

"At one of my old stores it was like once a month we had to throw away the entire meat wall bc it was going down overnight and the manager wouldn't check," a commenter said.

What's being done about food waste more broadly?

Across the country, more businesses and communities are stepping up to tackle the issue of food waste head-on.

When possible, the first and best option is to donate safe, edible food to local shelters and food banks, an approach that a Kroger store in Arkansas took that quickly rerouted food to the Arkansas Foodbank after a power outage.

Similarly, a Trader Joe's in Baton Rouge made headlines for salvaging thousands of pounds of food after another outage, proving that with quick thinking and community partnerships, food waste isn't inevitable.

Composting is also gaining traction as a backup option, offering a way to keep spoiled food out of landfills and turn waste into a resource.

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