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Trader Joe's Donates '100%' of Unsold Products Every Day, Gave Away 98 Million Pounds Last Year

The food donations are part of Trader Joe’s Neighborhood Shares Program

By Sabrina Weiss Published on September 10, 2025 11:56AM EDT1COMMENT

NEED TO KNOW

• Trader Joe's donates all unsold products at every location, every day
• The 579 stores open in 2024 donated 98 million pounds
• 2,000 organizations, like City Harvest, Table to Table and Spoonfuls, were involved in last year's initiative

Trader Joe’s is combatting hunger for everyone, not just its customers.

The grocery store chain donates “100% of products that go unsold but remain fit to be enjoyed” every day and from every store, according to the grocer’s website. The initiative is part of Trader Joe’s Neighborhood Shares Program.

In 2024, the then-579 stores nationwide — there are 592 stores as of Sept. 10, a Trader Joe’s representative told PEOPLE — donated 98 million pounds of leftover food. The tens of millions of pounds of products were given to more than 2,000 partners on a daily basis.

The network of local organizations, including programs like City Harvest, Feeding San Diego, Extra Food and Sharing Excess, is "ever-evolving."

The numbers for the initiative's 2025 donations have not been released yet but a source told PEOPLE that they will be posted on Jan. 1, 2026.

Fans have gotten a look at some of the retailer’s quirks, including why the employees ring bells and if workers are told to flirt with customers, in the Inside Trader Joe’s podcast.

Podcast hosts Tara Miller and Matt Sloan explained how the company decides where to open up new locations in a 2024 episode. They detailed how population density and parking space are two major factors.

Ultimately, it boils down to "access and ease of getting into and out of, and the flow of traffic patterns," said Sloan.

Unfortunately for fans, petitions don’t help Trader Joe’s decision.

“People get so excited about the prospect of one of our stores coming to their neighborhood that they start a social media campaign, or they start a letter-writing campaign,” said Miller. Sloan then broke the bad news: “While we love the energy and enthusiasm often expressed in any of those various social media campaigns…they really don't have much, if any, impact on what we end up deciding."