Hard to keep up with the jargon in food retail?
There are a lot of strange words flying around when working with tech, retail and food waste. For me, this is a new field. I’ve been working with sustainability and retail for many years, but in the fashion industry. I started taking notes on the words I had to google, or explain to others, since I started working at Whywaste. I thought I’d share it with you, so here are some deciphered mumbo jumbo for you! 🤓
Food Waste
Food waste is food that is produced for the purpose of becoming food, but which for various reasons is not eaten.
Food tech
Companies and initiatives that develop advanced tech to transform and modernise agriculture and food industry to enhance its sustainability and efficiency.
ESLs
Short for electronic shelf labels, or also known as digital price tags. Typically, ESLs are attached to the front edge of retail shelving.
Dynamic pricing
In a nutshell dynamic pricing is a pricing strategy in which businesses set flexible prices for products or services based on the current market situation and demands. This means that the price for the same individual product can shift from time to time based on the current situation, for example, the price of a product could go up if there is low stock in store, or the price could drop if there is a high supply.
Food safety compliance
The rules that all food related businesses must follow. These can be local and specific for different countries or regions. It’s basically rules to follow to make sure all food is handled in a safe way.
The SDGs
Short for Sustainable Development Goals, also known as the Global Goals. They were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. Goal 12:3 is most relevant in regard to food waste with the objective to globally cut the food waste in half until 2030.
POS
It means point of sale and it’s the time and place where a retail transaction is completed. It can be both offline and online, but it’s basically the register where the purchase is recorded.
Dark stores
A store with no customers, the goods are only available through online shopping. In many cases they look just like a normal self-service store but are closed to the public. Read more about dark stores in the blog post.
Omnichannel
An omnichannel strategy means that companies meet their consumers where they are, with the right message at the right time. The experience should be the same for customers regardless of the platform or method they choose to use. This strategy was a thing before the pandemic but the need for social distancing around the world, pushed it forward. Many retailers had to adapt to survive and started offering things like home and curbside deliveries, click and collect and other multi platform solutions.
FIFO
Short for First In, First Out, and it’s a food safety method used in most food services. It means that the oldest products in your assortments are the ones that should be sold first. In a grocery store, a good example is that you stack new products from the back.
The food retail industry is changing super fast thanks to technology and this list might look totally different in a year or two. We are excited to find out what the future holds!
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