This is Planet Money from NPR.

In the grocery world, there are certain store items that are always tricky to sell before

it's too late.

Ah, probably the red meat.

And that's like because there's expiration dates on red meat.

You know what, it starts turning colors and there's a date and the color.

Yeah, the meat color.

You know, when the meat starts to turn a little grey, mm-hmm.

And there's not much you can do with that.

Like, if people don't buy it.

This is Corey Thompson.

He started working as a box boy when he was in high school.

Then 16 years later, he bought the store, called it Corey's Valley Market.

It's in Cili Lake, Montana.

For Corey, trying to fight the meat color clock is one of the most painful parts of being

a store owner.

Sometimes if we catch it soon enough, we can mark it down a little bit, try to sell it, but

yeah, some of it just goes in the garbage.

Yep, it sucks.

This is what's called shrink in the grocery world.

It's the amount of food that comes in the door that doesn't get sold.

It's just thrown in the trash or people steal it.

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