Automated, online discount rack helps supermarkets cut food waste

BuyMeBy wants to automate the process of discounting expiring items, essentially upgrading the discount rack for the e-commerce age.

About half of all of the world’s food goes to waste, but we have seen plenty of companies doing their part to help curb this global issue. In France, a law has even been passed which prevents supermarkets from throwing food away. We recently wrote about a nutritious powder that is made entirely from expiring fruit. Now, BuyMeBy wants to automate and digitize the process of discounting expiring items, and upgrade the discount rack for the e-commerce age.

Often, consumers buy foods with later expiration dates to prevent having to throw it away, leaving perfectly good products on the supermarket shelf. BuyMeBy enables supermarkets and grocery stores to offer expiring products at reduced prices to online shoppers as well as those instore. The startup will track expiration dates using inventory-management software, and gradually lower the prices of perishable products. But since many of the applications used by supermarkets don’t currently track expiration dates, the startup is having to look elsewhere, such as data about food life and food deliveries. A company called ECount, which offers date tracking within its analytics software, could also provide the solution. Customers will be able to browse nearby deals using a smartphone app, or search stores’ e-commerce sites for discounted items to reserve or have delivered.

BuyMeBy is currently working with a natural foods store in Greenwich Village to perfect the logistics of the operation before it begins a pilot program in New York. What other traditional models of food-saving strategies can do with a digital upgrade?