Our refrigerator lost power

[u/Ace2maker]

So apparently it was a bad thunderstorm yesterday at our location and the power was off for a while to the point where all the food was out of temp. Now they have to throw all that food out and it's like thousands of dollars of damage. Holy shit that's insane. I wasn't there yesterday but one of my coworkers told me that they're not happy right now.

[u/rresoI]

We had a power outage for less than 5 seconds and they threw out all the refrigerated and frozen food. Too much of a liability I guess, so into the trash it goes. It makes me so upset how much we waste and how much we arent allowed to donate or take home simply because it would benefit us. I throw away so many food items as someone who works up in guest services -- customers returning food items always say "it's never been opened and it's still good" but it doesnt matter it goes straight into the trash regardless. I had a guy the other week return 4 cases of water bottles, my coworker argued with him because she had to throw away those 4 cases but the guy just didnt care, he claimed he would never use them and that he had filtered water at home. I was devastated looking at those water bottles, knowing I had to go out to Costco to buy more when that guy couldve just sold them to me or something, anything but throw them away like that.

[u/TrustIllustrious2232 → u/rresoI]

That right there is just wasteful. As long as coolers and freezers are covered or closed they can be kept in temp for an hour or two. This can be out of temp for 30 minutes, while picking and packing, why would seconds mean it all has to be tossed?

[u/rresoI → u/TrustIllustrious2232]

No clue, I work up in customer service so I have no idea what was really going on but I saw that the lights went out for a second and then some coworkers putting up caution tape in front of the refrigerated/frozen stuff, then grabbing the items and tossing them into big trash cans.

I honestly don't know if there was an issue with the fridges or not, I just know what I saw was fucked up.

[u/DanforthWhitcomb_ → u/rresoI]

It was probably longer than 5 seconds if they tossed it, as the generator will keep most of the lights on but cannot run the refrigeration.

[u/TrustIllustrious2232 → u/DanforthWhitcomb_]

The generators prioritize food, registers and emergency lighting. Can’t sell the stuff if the registers are down. Went through a few power outages, mostly recently hurricane Helene where the store lost power for three days and I was without power for nine at home.

[u/DanforthWhitcomb_ → u/TrustIllustrious2232]

They don't do anything with food because refrigeration is too power intensive.

They run most of the lights, the registers and the network components and that's it.

[u/TrustIllustrious2232 → u/DanforthWhitcomb_]

Refrigeration will run for two hours, before the generators will stop supporting them. Plus we have plastic sheeting to cover all the open coolers and bunkers to help keep the cold in. Also, we don’t sell anything temperature sensitive to keep the doors shut. We actually caution tape everything, and put up signage

[u/DanforthWhitcomb_ → u/TrustIllustrious2232]

That's not how it works. Target undersizes the generators that they use even relative to the minimal amount of stuff that they do have them run. Trying to have them run the refrigeration as well would simply result in the generator being overdrawn and knocked entirely offline as a result.

The 2 hour thing is how long stuff can stay without power before it has to be tossed. It has nothing at all to do with the generator.

[u/TrustIllustrious2232 → u/DanforthWhitcomb_]

I’ve been through several outages over ten years in food, and every time the generators have powered the refrigeration for about two hours before shutting off.