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Woman Shares A Shopping Hack Of Cutting Broccoli Stems To Save Money But People Online Respond With Roasts
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Woman Shares A Shopping Hack Of Cutting Broccoli Stems To Save Money But People Online Respond With Roasts

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When we buy food, there are a lot of parts of it that we don’t eat and just get rid of. We usually don’t overthink it and accept that it is part of the food, like banana peels, apple cores or that one kind of cereal in the mixed flavors that we pick out and don’t eat. So it’s almost like you are throwing your money away.

But this woman is making waves on the internet as she showed that she doesn’t pay for the part of broccoli she doesn’t eat. Her video showing how she leaves broccoli stems at the store went viral and everyone had an opinion.

More info: TikTok

A TikTok video exploded with almost 6 million views and it started what people called Broccoligate 2022

Image credits: mimicarter81

The woman is Meia Carter, a mother and a wife living in Florida. She has 137k followers on TikTok and she creates videos showing her family, dogs and just mostly chatting with her followers. A few of her videos have gone viral in the past, but the most recent one has almost 6 million views.

In that short clip, Meia shows broccoli stems that she just cut off at the store and is seen tossing them back in the broccoli pile. Because the broccoli’s price is for the pound, Meia doesn’t think it’s sensible to pay for the weight she won’t use to prepare her food.

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In a follow-up video, the woman explains that if the stems are longer, she will just break them off, but usually she is carrying a knife. The woman carries the knife all the time in case she needs to use it in self-defense but it doubles as a stem-cutting knife as well.

Meia doesn’t only do that with broccoli. In an older video, she explains that she also breaks up the banana bunches as well and takes only 3 bananas that look the best, because why would you take more bananas than you can eat and then have to eat overripe ones?

The video showed a woman in a store holding broccoli stems in her hands and tossing them back in the broccoli pile

Image credits: mimicarter81

Image credits: mimicarter81

The broccoli video caused a lot of controversy not only in the TikTok comments, but was picked up by the media as well. In the comments, people were mostly laughing at Meia for making a mess at the store just to save a few cents.

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A lot of people were giving examples of other things nobody eats and should leave at the store, such as pistachio shells and bread crust. Others were disgusted that the woman would make a mess that other customers would have to deal with if they wanted to get broccoli as well and it made more mess for the staff too.

There were some people who found the advice actually useful because if the price is for the pound and not for one single head of broccoli, then adding up the price of the stems eventually makes a difference in your wallet.

The shopper said that she cut them off because she doesn’t want to pay for something that she won’t eat

Image credits: mimicarter81

Image credits: mimicarter81

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Image credits: mimicarter81

There was also a Walmart employee on TikTok who responded to what she called Broccoligate 2022 and explained that the workers don’t mind customers leaving parts of vegetables they don’t want. She showed that it’s not a big deal to distribute grapes sold by the pound into bags however you want or rip off leaves of cabbages.

But another example demonstrates that shops do care about it. A tweet shared by radio show 3AW Breakfast includes a note left next to broccoli in a store whose name was not mentioned. It reads: “ATT (attention) customers. You must not break the stems of the broccoli. This is classed as theft. All broccoli purchases will be checked at the registers. Thanks, Management.”

People argued that it’s not theft because you pay for all the weight you are buying, but others tried to explain why it is actually theft: “If you are paying less by breaking off the stem, there is no profit, therefore, you are stealing the profit from them even if you are not stealing an object and walking out with it. The theft is in the change you retain that you did NOT pay the store.”

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The broccoli the woman buys is priced by pound, so cutting off the stems means that she saves money and doesn’t just throw it out

Image credits: mimicarter81

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Image credits: mimicarter81

You can watch the viral video below

@mimicarter81Snip snip♬ original sound – The CARTERS est 2001(Meia)

Meia’s video started quite a discussion. We would like you to join in as well and comment if you agree that leaving behind stems of broccoli is a good way to save money. Or do you feel that it’s just not very nice to leave stems in the pile of broccoli for others to sort through? Maybe you also feel that it’s a crime? We are interested to hear what you have to say.

While it is a logical explanation, people in the comments didn’t believe it saved much money and mocked the woman

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Jurgita Dominauskaitė

Jurgita Dominauskaitė

Writer, BoredPanda staff

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Having started as a content creator that made articles for Bored Panda from scratch I climbed my way up to being and editor and then had team lead responsibilities added as well. So it was a pretty natural transition from writing articles and titles as well as preparing the visual part for the articles to making sure others are doing those same tasks as I did before well, answering their questions and guiding them when needed. Eventually I realized editing gives me the most enjoyment and I'm focusing only on that right now.

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Jurgita Dominauskaitė

Jurgita Dominauskaitė

Writer, BoredPanda staff

Having started as a content creator that made articles for Bored Panda from scratch I climbed my way up to being and editor and then had team lead responsibilities added as well. So it was a pretty natural transition from writing articles and titles as well as preparing the visual part for the articles to making sure others are doing those same tasks as I did before well, answering their questions and guiding them when needed. Eventually I realized editing gives me the most enjoyment and I'm focusing only on that right now.

Saulė Tolstych

Saulė Tolstych

Author, Community member

Read more »

Saulė is a photo editor at Bored Panda with bachelor's degree in Multimedia and Computer Design. The thing that relaxes her the best is going into YouTube rabbit hole. In her free time she loves painting, embroidering and taking walks in nature.

Read less »

Saulė Tolstych

Saulė Tolstych

Author, Community member

Saulė is a photo editor at Bored Panda with bachelor's degree in Multimedia and Computer Design. The thing that relaxes her the best is going into YouTube rabbit hole. In her free time she loves painting, embroidering and taking walks in nature.

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Nathaniel
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Boil them up and use them in soup or in stock, or mash them in your potatoes. Plenty of good stuff there, why waste it?

Caro Caro
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Those stems are really tasty. Peel, cut and boil with the rest. And yes, food waste pisses me off too.

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Dirk Daring
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Obviously, it's not really about "not throwing them out" or so "y'all can have it". She knows perfectly well nobody is going to buy cut off broccoli stems. She's just being extremely cheap, and super tacky.

The Scout
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I am completely unable to understand how that behaviour does not get her banned from the stores. But after all, I am not from the US, so the whole "customer is always right even or especially if he behaves like an a??hole" is a foreign concept to me...

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Nathaniel
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Boil them up and use them in soup or in stock, or mash them in your potatoes. Plenty of good stuff there, why waste it?

Caro Caro
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Those stems are really tasty. Peel, cut and boil with the rest. And yes, food waste pisses me off too.

Load More Replies...
Dirk Daring
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Obviously, it's not really about "not throwing them out" or so "y'all can have it". She knows perfectly well nobody is going to buy cut off broccoli stems. She's just being extremely cheap, and super tacky.

The Scout
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I am completely unable to understand how that behaviour does not get her banned from the stores. But after all, I am not from the US, so the whole "customer is always right even or especially if he behaves like an a??hole" is a foreign concept to me...

Load More Comments
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