As a kid my mother would sometimes cut the crusts off white bread for fancy tea sandwiches. They also had to be cut into triangles. But otherwise we ate them.
I don’t buy mass market cotton bread. Those crusts are gross. But on a baguette, the ends are the best part.
On homemade sweet bread (banana, pumpkin, etc.) the bottom and side crusts get a little bitter, so those aren’t my favorites, but I certainly don’t waste them.
Back in the day, I used to regularly go to lunch with a colleague to a place that had amazing sourdough bread. I loved the gooey inside and she liked the crusty outside. It was the foundation of our friendship.
H is fond of bread heels. I will eat them because I hate wasting. I prefer them toasted. They make excellent cinnamon toast or grilled cheese.
I grew up not eating due to my grandma. She saved the heels in the freezer all year so she could make THE. BEST. stuffing at Thanksgiving. We generally don’t eat that much bread, but may have to resurrect this tradition!
Crusty artisan bread loaves, baguettes, the heels are reserved for me! It’s not unusual for them to come home “defective” on both ends. Few years ago, when we were in Paris, my brother and I fought everyday to go buy baguettes down the street. I remember looking down the window and saw him breaking the end, stuffed it in his mouth.
I hope to walk those streets again one of these days. Sigh.
My mom used to buy two fresh baguettes every day so she could hoard one for herself ; ).
I don’t like ends. I barely tolerate crusts. Give me the doughy middle any day.
So pretty much, if you are talking about regular grocery store bread, the skimpy little slices at the end are worthless, but if you are talking about good bread - sliced by the person eating it - the end slices are delicious. Especially back when I baked my own standard loaves and the ends had the buttery flavor from the bread pans on one side and the fresh ingredients on the other. We would fight for the “heels”.
My husband eats them (or they get saved for meatloaf, meatballs, bread crumbs), I don’t. He’s a white meat eater on a chicken, I like the dark meat. We’re a good combo. 
I just turn them upside down on a sandwich.
When my kids were little, a babysitter taught me that trick. A lot of kids don’t like the ends because of the tougher texture–or just because they are not the same as the rest of the slices. If you turn the end slice toward the inside of the sandwich, kids don’t notice. My parents never allowed us to waste the ends, but we didn’t like them, either.
We always eat the heels of bread. My folks never said much about eating the heels. They were immigrants from Eastern Europe and thought store-breads (what they called commercial breads from a grocery store were awful). As a result, I grew up eating bread from a Lithuaian bakery (it was a dark, dense rye bread). I never appreciated it as a child because all my friends had sandwiches made out of Wonder Bread and that’s what I wanted to eat as well.
Yep, I eat them. I don’t like to waste food and I think the difference in store bread end slices and interior slices is minimal. Homemade bread- I love it all
If you really liked the end piece, you would eat it first. I believe we leave the end piece on to keep the rest of the loaf relatively fresh. So you keep eating the next piece until the only thing left are 2 end pieces. By this time the end pieces are fairly dry, unless your grocery store loaf has enough preservatives in it to keep them eatable. I will sometimes eat the end pieces, but usually they go to the birds.
@Nhatrang Your pizza story reminded me of a partner in a law firm where I used to work. He called pizza crust “the handle” - he picked it up by the handle but then discarded it after eating the good part!
I’ve got a beef with bread crusts. When I was a kid, I was told that the reason my hair is so straight was because I didn’t eat the crusts, so I determinedly ate all those disgusting crusts for months. My first experience with fake news!
I’ve always called the crust “pizza bones.” I don’t eat bones.
I wholeheartedly am in favor of store bought, presliced bread. Prefer whole wheat to the gummy white stuff, however. Keep ours frozen as we two don’t eat it fast enough to prevent spoiling. It can be nuked or toasted. I do not like crusts either. I do not like some of those crusty breads considered fancy- ciabatta for one, baguettes only if light and crusty, not at all dense. Not a fan of sourdough- dislike the taste and texture. Used to make bread in a bread maker but we three never ate it fast enough- nicest the first day only.
Aside- spellchecker just worked for the first time in months! It didn’t like presliced- oh, well.
Never heard of that straight hair bit- thank goodness or I would have been stuck with them.
My husband saves me the ends because they are the best part, and he’s so good to me.
We only have fancy smancy bread.