Is it a basic economic principle that you pay people to take excess inventory off your hands? I’ve never had a grocery store pay me to take a loaf of bread.
People buy day old bread every day!!!
It happens. When you add up the costs of disposal or even destruction of excess goods, along with carrying costs, and warehousing costs, and taxes it can make sense to pay someone to take it. The economic principle is “sunk costs are irrelevant for decision making”.