Costco’s bulk-food business model allows Stefanie Scott access to hundreds of pounds of fruit that is often “completely fine”
A woman is going viral on TikTok after sharing how she receives free bins of unsold fruit from Costco — and uses it to feed the animals on her farm.
Stefanie Scott, from Enumclaw, Washington, says that she stumbled upon Costco’s unsold food program “by chance” about three years ago.
“My dad knew someone who worked at our local Costco, and they already had a farmer picking up the unsold produce. When he stopped, we got lucky and were able to take over those pickups,” shares Scott.
Now, she and her husband pick up around eight bins or pallets of unsold fruit every two weeks. Each pallet is about three feet tall and four feet wide.
“The Costco employees load the pallets onto our trailer with a forklift, and we take them home to unload,” says Scott, 35. She adds that they return the empty pallets to Costco afterward.
At Scott’s family farm, the fruit is a much-needed resource for their 18 cows, who consume one full bin of fruit per day in just about 30 minutes. “We sometimes give fruit to our chickens — they love grapes — or our pigs, but mostly to the cows because they eat the most,” she adds.
The condition of the unsold fruit varies. “Some items are visibly moldy, some look like they have been dropped, and some look completely fine,” she notes.
She attributes her access to such large quantities of high-quality fruit to Costco’s bulk-sale model. “Because of how Costco sells in bulk and everything has to be a specific weight, if a bundle of bananas has one damaged one, they have to toss the whole bundle. Unlike a grocery store that could remove the bad one and sell the rest,” she explains. This results in a lot of bananas for her farm.
“Similarly, if a package of strawberries has one moldy one, it becomes a food safety issue, and they have to toss out the whole container. So it’s common for us to get one moldy strawberry in a bunch that looks completely fine.”
While she calls the fruit “unsold” in her TikTok videos, Scott clarifies that most of it likely hasn’t even hit the shelves. “Really, it’s fruit they would otherwise have thrown away because it doesn’t meet food safety standards for people.”
Scott notes that other unsold Costco items, like bread and processed foods, are donated to food banks and shelters. A member of the Costco press team highlighted the company’s sustainability commitment, which focuses on reducing food waste through various measures — whether by creating new products, donating to the needy, or feeding animals.
