Assignment 8A – Solving The Problem

Problem

Grocery stores and companies packaging food (e.g produce, poultry, snacks, bread) in large quantities that consumers cannot control (e.g an entire loaf of bread, an bag of grapes). Then people go grocery shopping and purchase more food than they need because they cannot control the specific quantities available to them in grocery stores. Consumers all have different lifestyles, different preferences and varying amounts of food they eat before feeling full (someone could eat 3 sandwiches before they get full while some people only need 1/2 of a sandwich). Once they get home and eat about as much as they can, they throw away the remaining food, which contributes to the food waste and increases harmful greenhouse gases as it sits to rot in a landfill. As a result, the greenhouse gases further contributes to climate change.

Service/product

A grocery store that allows consumers control the exact portions of each food (e.g produce, spices, seafood, poultry, baked goods) they want and also sells pre-made/pre-prepped meals tailored to the exact number of portions needed so people do not buy more than they need for a meal. My store will have wide breadth, with not much depth and will have foods the typical Target does not have.

The store will be similar to the layout of the “buy as much or as little as you want” section that you see in Publix, Whole Foods, where you can scoop as much candy or granola as you want. Except the “buy as much as you need” concept will be applicable to a wider variety of items from the exact number of strawberries to how many chicken breasts to how many slices of bread. The goal is to customize each quantity of food to the person because some people may need more than others, some people may need a wider variety of food, but in small portions, but some customers may need smaller variety in larger quantities. In addition to the wide breadth, the store can offer cooking lessons, showing people how to use those “seemingly intimidating” foods in their recipes (e.g dragon fruit, Buddha’s hand citrus, cactus).

We help busy, adventurous or conscious people explore new foods and customize their grocery shopping experience, so they can utilize food as a language of expression and reduce their carbon footprint in a dying planet.

How to sell it (unit of transaction) – numbers vary, these are only examples

1.     Produce, meats, grains, etc. are sold by weight

·      gala apples are $0.99 a pound

·      white rice is $0.75 a pound

·      bread is sliced depending on how much you need: a loaf of rye is $3.50, half of a loaf is $1.75, quarter of a loaf is $0.88)

·      strawberries are measured by weight, price will vary per season (same with for most of the produce)

2.     Pre-prepped meals (packing all of the ingredients needed to make a dinner for 1 person, 2 people, etc. pre-portioned) AND pre-made meals ready to be picked up are sold as a single dollar amount.

·      Pre-prepped roasted garlic chicken with buttered seasonal vegetables and a spinach apple salad and a molten lava cakes for 2 people- $15.99

o   available for delivery

3.     Cooking lessons to introduce to people new ingredients

·      A charge of $5 per person, per 1.5 hour cooking lesson (with 2 lessons a month) or a yearly fee of $100 .

How it connects to the customer

Customers are in control of the amount of food they choose instead of choosing from the already defined, packaged selections in most grocery stores that they cannot finish and end up throwing away. They can get smaller portions of foods they have never tried before instead of committing to an entire container/package of the food. Customers can also bring their own containers to reduce use of bags or containers they will throw away.