A Target Starbucks employee went viral on TikTok after showcasing how much food goes to waste at the end of each night.
Aidan Stockin (@aidanstockin), a Target Starbucks worker, uploaded the 13-second clip to TikTok. In it, he showed users three full cartloads of untouched food items, which he labeled “ALL TRASH.” The carts included individually packaged chocolate croissants, cake pops, slices of pound cake, and other pastries.
“POV: You’re closing at Starbucks,” he wrote in the text overlay.
@aidanstockin #greenscreen I WISH i was kidding…. #waste #american #disgusting #wasteful #americaproblem #closing #starbucks #closingshift #fastfood #fastfoodfail #fail #hugefail #bigfail #flop ♬ USA – The Star Spangled Banner – American National Anthem (Instrumental) – Glocal Orchestra
The creator reiterated his frustration in the accompanying video caption by writing, “I WISH I was kidding…”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Stockin via TikTok comment and Starbucks and Target via email for further information. As of Monday morning, Stockin’s video had over 979,800 views, with a number of commenters shocked at the amount of food waste.
“Like how does this even happen?” one user asked.
“Just wrap it in two bags and ask someone you know to ‘dumpster dive’ it,” a second person quipped.
Some Target Starbucks employees said that their stores usually save the excess food for employees—or they donate it.
“My Target would let me put the leftovers in the break room for employees,” one user remarked.
“Our Starbucks at my target, everything gets donated to the church here,” another person stated.
In the comments, Stockin said that he’s not “allowed” to do that. He said that workers “used” to be able to put leftovers in the breakroom, and that his Target Starbucks doesn’t donate the food elsewhere “because money.”
In recent months, a number of workers—like this one from Chick-fil-A, or this Dunkin’ employee—have taken to social media to showcase how much food goes to waste at the end of each shift. But this isn’t the first time Starbucks has come under fire for waste. In 2020, The New York Post criticized the chain for tossing “away a king’s beast of unsold food every night” despite its “no waste pledge.”
And, according to Feeding America, a whopping 119 billion pounds of food is wasted annually. Every single year, it found, 40% of all food on supermarket shelves ends up in the trash.
