Albert Heijn has started using artificial intelligence to combat food waste, reports NOS. The “dynamic discount” test is taking place at the Albert Heijn in Zandvoort with chicken and fish products for 2 months. Products have an electronic price tag that increases the discount as a product comes closer to the expiry date using an algorithm.
The algorithm automatically calculates the best discount, between 10 to 60 percent. The algorithm takes into account several factors such as the weather, the stock availability of the product and sales trend of the product.
The test has come as a recommendation by the anti-waste company Wasteless, originally an Israeli startup. If the test is effective, Albert Heijn will consider implementing this in multiple stores.
Ralph de Vries, responsible for the Dutch activities of Wasteless tells NOS, “The first results we now have from a supermarket chain in Italy are promising: there, with products with this form of pricing, we see a turnover increase of 25 percent and 89 percent less food wastage”.
Albert Heijn threw away 1 percent of unsold products in the past year due to expired products, amounting to 63 million kilos of food.
This is a promising step in the right direction for Albert Heijn! In the UK, particularly in chains such as Tesco, food that is close to expiring is discounted heavily to reduce food waste. Albert Heijn is doing this at another level with artificial intelligence! It’s perfect for everyone – the customer buys a great product at a cheap price, and supermarkets get money off a product that would be thrown out. But most importantly, less food is wasted! Hopefully, the study will be a success that others will follow.
Featured image source: Wikimedia/Donald Trung
Do you think it will work? Let us know in the comments, below!