Shoppers prefer stores that reduce food wastage, says Checkpoint report

More than half of UK consumers are more likely to shop at the store that is actively reducing its food waste, says a new report, suggesting that poor management of food waste and in-store reductions can impact profit and loss figures.

According to a new report released by Checkpoint Systems on Tuesday (8), about 58 percent of UK shoppers prefer stores that are actively reducing its food waste while a quarter (25.5 percent) saying they are “much more likely”.

Although consumers know they have a responsibility to reduce household waste, they are increasingly looking to retailers to take the lead. Eight in 10 (82.7 percent) believe that supermarkets could be doing more to reduce food waste, including better management of use-by-dates (47.7 percent); working with suppliers to reduce food waste across the supply chain (43.7 percent); and marking down (reducing) products earlier (41.1 percent), says the report.

The report also revealed that a third of UK consumers are visiting supermarkets specifically to look for reduced items, with more shoppers this year actively looking for marked-down items. While just one in 10 shoppers say they never look for reduced items in store. Of the remaining 91 percent, two-fifths are actively looking for bargains, seeking out reduced items more this year compared to 2020, says the report.

These findings paint a stark picture of how poor management of food waste and in-store reductions can impact profit and loss figures, and why it is critical to find a way to efficiently manage sell-by dates on perishable goods.

Mike French, business unit director, Checkpoint Systems UK, commented, “Consumers hold themselves, as much as retailers, responsible for reducing food waste, but it is clear that they want retailers to do more. Supermarkets have done fantastic work with charities to ensure more is redistributed, but they need to better manage their stock to ensure they can sell items rather than have to throw them away.

“It is clear that shoppers are more than willing to purchase marked-down produce. As long as retailers have effective solutions in place to identify when items are nearing their end-of-life they can quickly rotate the stock, reduce the price if necessary and ensure it doesn’t get discarded at the end of the day.”