Some items are written off and cannot be sold, but many items are donated to Goodwill. Magazines and patterns are owned by their companies not Joann's and must be destroyed when told to do so. The only things that go into our dumpster are cardboard boxes and fabfric boards.

Yeah!!!!!!!

I never knew places did this! What a horrible, horrible waste. You know schools, assisted living facilities, churches and so many more would love to have those items donated to them and would put them to good use. Also didn't know dumpster diving would be considered stealing. Wow! What a sheltered life I live. LOL!!

Talk about wasting money!

I worked at JoAnns and it's against company policy orders come down from corperate!!!!!If it's in the dumpster behind the sstore its against the law to remove items from there dumpsters. They should be locked after hours!!!!! I wouldn't want to get caught removing there items. Its still there merchadise til garbage men take it!!!!

i know that hancock fabrics have those kind of sales..i recently purchased two packages of treadle sewing machine bobbins (hard to find) for 90% off costing me less than $5.00 total... i am a dumpster diver every chance i get..and i love antique and junk stores...my sister in law and i go "junking" pretty regularly and you would be amazed at the treasures we find as well as the repair, repurposing, and recycling that we do. seems to me that stores that behave so bizarrly as to throw away perfectly good items would at least get fair tax credit for donating...and discounting at 90% still makes them a few cents on the product..

Sad but true. I was once looking for the bubble wrap that they throw out and that's when I found out that secirity has a camera in the back of that mall. I had a 'greating' by the guy in the secrity truck. Basicly they say they are trying to protect themselves from any lawsuits by dumpster divers get hurt on their property. And when it comes to the patters, well they are told to destroy them --- dump water on the envelopes before closing the dumpster.

BTW, Peir I is still good hunting grounds

My daughter works at a warehouse for a big box store and works in the returns department. Returns that cannot be reshelved in the stores are packed up into large containers and then hauled to the warehouse where the employees sort through the items to put them in large dumpsters to go to the landfill or recycled - for instance wood items, chopped up and made into mulch and bagged and then sold through their stores. They throw away perfectly good electronics, appliances, building materials that their suppliers don't want returned to them. The employees used to be able to buy these items and take them home, but a few years ago were informed that they could no longer purchase these items and if they were caught removing any items, they would be charged with theft and immediately fired. Their dumpsters are within a fenced in area and there's no way dumpster divers could get to it. It makes me sick to hear the waste that's happening when these items could be donated to charities. What could possibly be wrong with holding a huge garage sale or auction with these items? One person's garbage is another person's treasure, after all.

I was in Ollies's last week as they were opening up some new boxes they had just received. One was from WalMart and was partial bolts of material-all being sold by Ollie's for $1.00/bolt. It included fleece, cotton, upholstery, knit and sheer fabrics. I didn't leave empty-handed! :)

one of the kids worked at Gloria Jeans Coffee shoppe. EVERY week the coffee bins had to be emptied, cleaned and restocked with fresh coffee/coffee beans. yep-tossed the weekold stuff. some of it more than $50.00 a lb.