Starbucks Japan is taking a page from the operating manuals of many of that country’s supermarkets and convenience stores, discounting perishable food items still unsold near closing time. It looks like a win-win-win deal for the company, the customers and the environment…
A typical Starbuck’s Bakery Case…
Sora News 24, a website ‘Bringing you yesterday’s news from Japan and Asia today’, is a fun place to visit just for the heck of it. But it’s also an instructive window on the cultures of the ‘Mysterious East’, which often have a different take on issues than we in the West do.
Witness these sample headlines from the current Sora News 24 Top Ten list:
Japanese survey picks ‘slightly plump’ as the cutest body type for women
Pokémon kimono outfits will have you wanting to wear ‘em all
Starbucks starts selling sushi in America, calls it a ‘burrito’ and ‘sandwich’ for some reason
A common-sense policy
Starbuck’s is apparently huge in Japan. I guess that’s why it shows up so frequently in Sora News 24’s columns. Most recently, the premium coffee vendor caught a reporter’s eye when it announced it would start discounting surplus perishable goods that remain unsold near closing time. That policy is already common among Japan’s supermarkets and convenience stores.
The idea is to entice customers to buy fresh baked goods and other menu items rather than throwing them out at the end of the shift because they won’t be fresh enough to sell the next day. That not only puts some extra cash in the till, but keeps the food out of the landfill.
Win-win-win
It’s a triple-threat ‘win’ situation, not the least reason for which is that it helps fight food waste. Current estimates reveal restaurants are responsible for more than one-quarter (26 percent) of the world’s total food waste.
So, as of this past Monday, Starbuck’s 1,600 Japanese locations are discounting by 20 percent the prices of baked goods, sandwiches and desserts in its point-of-sale food cases, starting three hours before closing time, on days when they have an abundance of leftovers.
Will the strategy work? The supermarkets and convenience stores say, “Yes!” Consumers are apparently getting involved in the game, coming in later in greater numbers to take advantage of whatever discounts may be available on a given day.
Starbucks already supporting recycling
Starbucks Japan was supporting recycling/repurposing of waste items before the discount scheme was launched. According to the company, 15 percent of its food waste is comprised of used coffee grounds. A major portion of that is now repurposed into agricultural fertilizer and animal feed. It may seem a small gesture, but when you consider how much coffee Starbuck’s brews each year…
My take
Why has the discount policy not been exported to North America and Europe? It’s truly an all-round winner, and it would cost next to nothing to institute. And why aren’t other Western restos – not to mention supermarkets and convenience stores – adopting the practice? And if they are, why aren’t they advertising the fact more aggressively? Making the market aware of the ‘good corporate citizen’ angle can only benefit the companies involved, image-wise, and increase the number of late-day bargain hunters who come in.
The answer appears to be corporate inertia. Discounting unsold perishable menu items won’t add $ billions to the bottom line, so the policy is not deemed to be worth the effort to implement it.
~ Maggie J.