Wasteless displays two prices, one for the product with a closer expiration date and one for the product with a further out expiration date to incentives customers to reduce waste. Anyone who has taken a basic economics course knows two main factors dictate price: supply and demand. But price-setters know there are many other small and large influences. Israel-based company Wasteless is trying to bring one of those factors to the forefront for food - expiration date. The company’s machine learning technology can be integrated into point-of-sale, inventory systems and electronic price tags - used commonly in Europe - of grocery stores to offer two prices to consumers, a cheaper one for a product with a nearing expiration date and a more expensive one for the slightly fresher product. At this time, Wasteless is only pricing packaged perishable goods such as yogurt or ground beef. According to Oded Omer, founder and CEO of Wasteless, 87 percent of food waste from grocery stores is due to disposing of products that have gone past their expiration date. Educating consumers that most grocery store items are safe to eat near or beyond the expiration date and incentivizing them to buy near-to-expired products could drastically reduce the 88 million metric tons of food waste generated annually in Europe, Omer said. Food waste is the cause of 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Omer said the Wasteless technology helps cut waste while also increasing revenue for the store. "The retailers are basing their pricing on practices from the 1970s," Omer said. "They have some ballpark numbers. Four days before the full expiry date, reduced by 20 percent. Two days before the expiration date, reduced by 40 percent. Now, we don't do that." According to Omer, Wasteless uses artificial intelligence to continuously adjust prices throughout the day depending on sales and 42 other parameters including expiry date, current date and time,... |