Walgreens Defends Dumping Merchandise

Walgreens is facing criticism for dumping the inventory of a closed Wyoming store in a landfill last week instead of donating it to charity.

However, the drugstore chain said the store in Jackson “closed suddenly in April 2014 after a landslide made it unsafe for it to remain in operation, and products inside were left on shelves for a year.”

Walgreens, based in the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Ill., recently decided to permanently move out of the location.

“This certainly was not a typical situation for us,” Walgreens spokesman Phil Caruso told the Chicago Tribune on Monday. “As sad as it is to throw away merchandise, we decided we couldn’t donate any items out of an abundance of caution, as we could not be certain about the quality and safety of merchandise that has remained in the store for so long.”

He said Walgreens regularly donates products to charities.

“Over the last five years, we have donated more than 25 million pounds of merchandise to Feeding America,” Caruso said.

An ABC news affiliate said Friday that the products dumped included paper towels, toilet paper, canned foods, toys, health-care items and cleaning supplies. In an interview with the station, Jackson Mayor Sara Flitner said that “perfectly usable” products went to a landfill.

This article appeared in print in the June 9th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.