When it comes to wasteful practices, Walmart's impact can be startling, as one disappointed employee recently discovered and shared on Reddit's r/walmart.
What's happening?
"Management wants all of these plants thrown away by Monday," the post's title declared.
Users might've expected a few dozen plants on the chopping block, but the attached photograph told a different story.
In fact, it appeared that the Walmart employee was talking about the store's entire Garden Center. Row after row of seemingly healthy plants stood three units deep on every surface.
The original poster sought insight into what they saw as senseless waste at their workplace.
"My store's remodel is wrapping up and the grand [opening] is Monday. I was told that this entire patio (thousands of plants) needs to be gone by then," they began.
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"Most of them look fine, and they're still selling," the user continued. "This is next-level wasteful."
To the original poster's dismay, seasoned Walmart workers shared their own experiences with excessive, needless waste — and several suggested the retailer had a financial incentive to discard the plants.
"They're likely [per] pay scan, so the company won't actually incur a loss and bonuses won't be affected, so they don't care," a poster designated as a team lead replied, suggesting Walmart would lose money by selling the plants for less.
"Bonnie, and other [plant brands] are pay per scan. We threw out about half our stuff which was all pay per scan," another agreed.
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Definitely 👍 "Ah, yes, a Garden Center classic. My personal favorite is when we get a shipment of tropical plants while temperatures are in the teens, and they all die within a week," a third said, pointing to broader wastefulness in live plant stock management.
"OH MY GOD. But they're all healthy and look really good. This makes my heart hurt," a former Walmart employee lamented.
Why are Walmart's wasteful practices so important?
Walmart has long reigned as America's largest retailer, raking in a staggering $681 billion in fiscal year 2025.
It's the largest private employer in the United States, with a workforce of 1.2 million people in the U.S. alone. Walmart's size and ubiquity are such that its practices reverberate through the economy at a national level, an effect far more pronounced locally.
Food waste at Walmart is a frequently raised issue on Reddit, and while food is more of a necessity than decorative plants, avoiding it is far more complex. Donated food must be deemed safe for human consumption, and as such, some food waste can't be avoided.
In this case, the plants in question posed no such risk, and Walmart has been criticized by chagrined employees over plant-related waste in the past.
"The amount of waste that Walmart is guilty of is disgusting," a commenter on the thread said.
Is Walmart taking any action on waste and sustainability?
In February, Walmart published its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) report, which detailed its pledges to reduce waste.
Walmart's most recent ESG report affirmed a "goal to reduce global operational food loss and waste intensity 50% by 2030 (vs. 2016 baseline)."
The report indicated that Walmart "reduced global operational food loss and waste intensity by 12.1%" in 2024, noting that food waste increased compared to a 21.7% reduction in 2023.
Globally, the brand donated 855 million pounds of food in 2024, up from 767 million pounds in 2023 and 760 million pounds in 2022.
In 2024, Walmart partnered with Denali, a recycler, to reduce food waste more efficiently, and in the same year, the retailer significantly expanded its clean beauty offerings.
What's being done about retail waste more broadly?
Kroger and Trader Joe's have both arranged large, last-minute food bank donations in response to power outages at specific locations, demonstrating that it can be done on short notice.
Voting with your wallet to support sustainable retailers is one of the most effective ways individual consumers can influence corporations to do the right thing.
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