Reducing Food Waste in future Retail. Trends and Implications for Operations Strategy

Master's Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Business economics - Operations Research, grade: 1,0, The University of Liverpool (Operations and Supply Chain Management), language: English, abstract: Food waste remains a major economic, environmental, and social challenge for different food supply chain actors. Grocery retailers play a central role in food waste mitigation due to their unique position next to producers and consumers. Root causes of retail food waste are manifold and complex but can be related to systemic operational mismatches between demand prediction and supply forecasting. Existing solutions and mitigation strategies mainly focus on today's 'brick-and-mortar' retail operation designs. Socio-economic environment and consumer habits constantly evolve with food retailers adapting operations strategies. This literature-based research explores the impact of future retail trends on retail-related food waste and provides risks and opportunities to inform retail operations strategy. Findings suggest that omnichannel business models, personalisation, experience shopping and instore technology offer opportunities for food waste mitigation across waste-hierarchy destinations. Retail operation strategies should address increasing household responsibility and avoid food waste, shifting towards later consumption stages in food supply chains. Contributions are not empirically validated through primary data, but results may form the basis for further studies in future retail operations and/or retail food waste.