Food is not the only thing wasted in this country. A couple of summers ago, the local Home Depot moved to a larger store a few miles away. So for the next several months the old Home Depot had a moving sale. Finally at the end, whatever they didn't sell and deemed "not worth taking to the new store" was tossed out. HD employees were tossing out full-on brand new loads of lumber, carpets, doors, hardware, insulation, etc. They were throwing them out in shipping containers so it gave the impression that they were loading them to move. But I watched how they were doing this so hap-hazardly so asked an employee their intentions and when he said they're being loaded to take to the dump, I asked if I can take some. Even though he gave the standard "sorry but it's a liability issue" story, he gave me the wink-wink and said, "But who's going to stop you once we leave?" So after they left, hubby and I came along with our truck and got free lumber and hardware. We completely filled our half-ton truck! A man stopped and asked what we were doing (I think he thought we were stealing). I told him the story and he climbed in and helped himself. Then word spread and people were in the shipping container like flies on horse manure.

Weeks later at the new Home Depot, I saw the employee who gave me the tip about coming back once they left and thanked him. He said that he intentionally scheduled for the dumpster pick-up to occur several days after being loaded figuring that the dumpster divers would be there in no time. He thought it wasteful by just throwing it all away and thanked me for getting the chain started.