> I've never noticed this problem at a grocery outlet

I live down the street from a New York City grocery store. Once a week all their boxes and stale groceries wander out onto the sidewalk from where, at convenient times like 5pm or Midnight a garbage truck blocks traffic while making robot-sex sounds. Apparently, private garbage pick-up was axed when Fairways last went bankrupt.

Don't grocery stores just have dumpsters? What problem is this solving that a dumpster doesn't?

It's illegal to dump trash in someone else's dumpster without permission, for one.

It's called a dumpster, and it sits behind the building so customers don't see it.

Perhaps outside of the city, but at least in a place like NYC, there isn't room for a dumpster to be sitting around continuously. And the residents wouldn't like it either.

Right, but I'm also guessing that they have an arrangement with the local waste disposal company to have it emptied more often.