Open All Hours - Momentary [super] markets

Amazon have recently opened up entirely self-service supermarkets, where shoppers scan into the store and then simply pick up items they are charged for when they leave. These stores are unmanned, allowing for a more efficient shopping experience and with cameras trained on all items for sale in the store, inventory levels and re-stocking requirements become automated processes, hopefully leading to fewer instances of items being "out of stock".

It seems an ideal system to make shopping a more enjoyable experience, but how else can the introduction of technology to the local store be exploited for everyone's benefit? One of the big challenges faced by all working in the food industry is that of waste. In 2018/19 alone Tesco, just one of the large UK supermarkets generated over 77,000 tonnes of surplus food [not sold to customers]. This figure is staggering and even more so if you expand out to the rest of the major [and minor] retailers across the UK - in the US this figure is much larger.

There are, of course schemes for dealing with this waste in a more environmentally friendly way, such as turning some of it into animal feed or fuel, but in order to deal with the actual problem, not just treat the symptoms it needs a different solution and one that technology can help realise.

Financial markets are systems built on value, but this value fluctuates with the performance of the entity it is attached to. It can go up based on actual financial performance or go down because of public perception or consumer confidence. There is also an entire industry dedicated to tracking, influencing and predicting these trends. So, if some of the brightest minds [and computer algorithms] can be brought together to maintain one of the most profitable sectors across the business world, what could they do for the supermarket waste problem?

Utilising the technology already in use by Amazon, the popularity of certain items, the quantity of expiring stock and the positioning of particular items in a store could all be combined with “market analysis” - but this time in "real time" to give dynamic pricing across all products in a store.

Imagine something more intelligent and dynamic than a simple "reduced" section in a supermarket or "bulk buy" discounts. Something that recognises when there’s 2000 cartons of oat milk but no cows milk to be found.

Such a system could track the exact [acceptable or most reasonable] price that should be charged for a given item at a given time with all the factors taken into consideration. With digital displays already in use in many markets across Europe the changing prices could update instantly and all based on the particular store and time of day factored in. The goal in all this being that the shop ensures sales of all produce due to expire before the "best before" date. Less [or even all] waste would mean a massive step towards sustainability, not least for the processes involved in the disposal of this surplus being drastically reduced.

And for the consumer? Well, while such a system could exploit the market to an even greater degree [think boxes of Guinness during the rugby world cup or 6 nations tournament, or toilet roll and hand sanitizer in the current climate becoming “surge” items] it is more likely that - should such a system be implemented across all supermarkets [perhaps as part of a green initiative] - competition will still control pricing; where there are those who might set their "surge" pricing so that popular items become prohibitively expensive, there are others who will look at this as an opportunity to win new business. These perhaps smaller, independent operations then have access to new clients, based on a mutually beneficial pricing system.

Dynamic pricing is already in use at the point before the goods get to the supermarket, with farmers being paid [fairly or not] for goods such as milk based on the current availability and market price. In a world where we are striving to have a fairer and greener society, recycling packaging from the weekly food shop, isn't it time we made the store owners accountable for their waste too?