A barista revealed that the double pastries you may sometimes see in the Starbucks case aren't exclusively for your belly; they're placed there primarily to increase sales, even if it might lead to more food waste at the end of the day.

What's happening?

According to a Reddit post, Starbucks employees are instructed to double up on unwrapped pastries in the front of the display case when corporate visits are expected. 

The attached photo showed multiple identical pastries stacked on top of each other.

"I just feel like it is extremely wasteful," said the original poster. "Starbucks loves to talk about not wasting plastic cups, but then does this."

Many commenters confirmed that this practice is standard, even outside of inspections, and that the extra pastries that sit out longer as a result are often thrown out afterward.

Why is food waste important?

Food waste is one of the leading contributors to methane pollution, a harmful heat-trapping gas that accelerates Earth's overheating. 

When edible food ends up in landfills instead of being donated, composted, or redistributed, it not only wastes valuable resources like water and labor but also contributes to a larger, global crisis: the disconnect between food abundance and hunger. 

With U.S. food waste estimated at around 30-40% of the supply, even seemingly small practices like this one matter.

Is Starbucks doing anything about this?

Starbucks has made public commitments to reducing food waste by 50% by 2030 and has launched programs like the Starbucks FoodShare donation initiative, which works with charitable organizations to redirect unsold food.

However, the policy around display-only pastries isn't addressed on the company's website, and employees claim it's often enforced inconsistently between locations.

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In a prior statement to The Cool Down, a Starbucks spokesperson said that the company does not issue any policies that create purposeful food waste and that its stores in the U.S. and Canada have combined to donate more than 67 million meals since 2016 to organizations such as Feeding America and Second Harvest Canada. 

"Starbucks uses Retail Public Health and Food Safety standards to determine what qualifies as 'approved to donate food,'" the spokesperson said. "These standards are in place to ensure we are safely donating nourishing, ready-to-eat meals. In instances where food is no longer safe per these regulations, it is our responsibility to remove it from the floor. That is not food waste — it is a public health commitment."

Commenters nonetheless felt the practice, even if done with full intentions of selling each item, does end up leading to waste if the items sit out too long to be donated. 

"My store puts two pastries in the case per pastry everyday, regardless of dm [district manager] visit or not, and I fully agree — it is incredibly wasteful. Sometimes we are able to get away with one pasty per pastry [type] but its very rare," said one commenter.

Another commenter shared an eco-friendly alternative: "I work at a license store, and we have resin copies of our sandwiches! They look exactly the same and so much less wasteful than making one of each sandwich everyday, I hated doing that when I worked corporate stores."

What's being done about food waste more broadly?

The good news is that solutions exist. Cities and states across the U.S. are enacting food waste bans and composting programs, as NPR reported, while companies like Panera and Pret A Manger say they donate unsold items daily, though both these companies have also experienced some flops. 

Individuals can help by supporting businesses with strong food recovery programs, reducing personal waste, and donating to local food banks.

Even small shifts in awareness can lead to bigger changes behind the counter and beyond.

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