What Grocery Stores Do With Bakery Bread At The End Of The Day

Grocery store bakery department shelves are usually stocked to the brim with a variety of breads, muffins, and treats. But some items have a shorter shelf-life than others, and you may be wondering, what happens to all the leftover french bread, sandwich buns, and brioche at the end of the day? Well, the good news is grocery stores often have clear methods to use leftover bread. Primarily, this includes donating, marking down with discounts, or even repurposing bread that's a bit past its prime. However, it is important to note that this can vary and depend on the grocery store or location.

According to one self identified employee on Reddit, at Sam's Club mark unsold inventory is marked down at the end of the day or the next morning. "Kroger has clearance bakery items early in the morning," one customer wrote on a Reddit thread about finding reduced food prices. At some grocery stores, bakery department employees inspect older bread items for signs of quality decline, then food donation vehicles stop by stores regularly (sometimes daily) to collect leftover bread deemed suitable for donating. For instance, at retailers like Costco, you probably won't find discounts on bakery items because the bulk Costco's leftover bakery items actually end up going to programs like Feeding America.

At the end of the day, grocery store bakery department bread is often less-than-fresh but perfectly fine to eat, but may have reduced quality attributes like staling or drying. Some grocery stores implement either discounts or donations of leftover bread, while one employee noted on Reddit that their store uses a program called Loop, which repurposes old food for compost or animal feed at local farms. Other retailers, such as Tesco, have been known to repurpose old bakery bread items like baguettes into other sellable eats, such as crostini or bread pudding. 

Grocery stores or different retailers may have varying policies and times they discount bread (you might find bakery departments in the evening versus the morning at some retailers, for instance). And according to one self-identified grocery store employee on social media, inevitably, some leftover bread gets thrown away. But certain grocery stores are committing to reducing food waste. For example, Whole Foods has committed to solutions to prevent food waste, including donating or repurposing bakery items. It may seem like a small thing, but discounts that encourage customers to buy leftover bread or donate it to good causes — instead of throwing it out — makes a difference.