IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/popmgt/v32y2023i2p501-523.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Don't waste that free lettuce! Impact of BOGOF promotions on retail profit and food waste

Author

Listed:
  • Qi Wu
  • Dorothee Honhon

Abstract

Buy‐one‐get‐one‐free (BOGOF), a ubiquitous sales promotion scheme by which consumers get two items for the price of one, encourages consumers to buy and waste food. An alternative promotional scheme is one where consumers receive a coupon for a second item available for free at a later time. Our work is motivated by British supermarkets which, facing criticism from lawmakers for running BOGOF promotions on perishables, started a “BOGOF Later” campaign with the claim that it would reduce the amount of waste. Food waste is indeed a very pressing issue, which has not yet been explored in connection to sales promotions. We compare the impact of these promotion schemes on a retailer's profit as well as on the amount of product wasted at the retail and household levels. We consider two possible applications: unexpected high inventory of a fresh product with a short shelflife and excess leftover inventory for an item at the end of its season or product life. We propose a two‐period newsvendor model which captures the sales‐boosting effect of promotions, the postpromotion sales drop due to satiation, the coupon‐redemption behavior, and the increased consumer wastage rate from BOGOF promotions. We obtain analytical comparisons of order quantity, profit, and waste across the different promotion schemes and use numerical experiments to generate further insights. We find that, in general, BOGOF promotions are profitable ways to liquidate inventory. In many instances, the increase in waste at the consumers' homes is offset by the decrease in waste at the retail store. As a result, BOGOF promotions often constitute “win‐win propositions” by simultaneously increasing the retailer's profit and decreasing total waste. Overall, our results paint a more favorable picture of the BOGOF promotion scheme than commonly perceived and suggest that its environmental criticism emanates from a too narrow and too consumer‐centric view of the waste problem.

Suggested Citation

  • Qi Wu & Dorothee Honhon, 2023. "Don't waste that free lettuce! Impact of BOGOF promotions on retail profit and food waste," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(2), pages 501-523, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:popmgt:v:32:y:2023:i:2:p:501-523
    DOI: 10.1111/poms.13884
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/poms.13884
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/poms.13884?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steven Nahmias, 2011. "Perishable Inventory Systems," International Series in Operations Research and Management Science, Springer, edition 1, number 978-1-4419-7999-5, December.
    2. Baohong Sun, 2005. "Promotion Effect on Endogenous Consumption," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 430-443, July.
    3. Yuri Levin & Mikhail Nediak & Andrei Bazhanov, 2014. "Quantity Premiums and Discounts in Dynamic Pricing," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 62(4), pages 846-863, August.
    4. van Donselaar, K. & van Woensel, T. & Broekmeulen, R. & Fransoo, J., 2006. "Inventory control of perishables in supermarkets," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(2), pages 462-472, December.
    5. Yuxin Chen & Sridhar Moorthy & Z. John Zhang, 2005. "Research Note---Price Discrimination After the Purchase: Rebates as State-Dependent Discounts," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(7), pages 1131-1140, July.
    6. Jennifer J. Argo & Kelley J. Main, 2008. "Stigma by Association in Coupon Redemption: Looking Cheap because of Others," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(4), pages 559-572, July.
    7. Igal Hendel & Aviv Nevo, 2003. "The Post-Promotion Dip Puzzle: What do the Data Have to Say?," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 1(4), pages 409-424, December.
    8. Steven Nahmias, 1982. "Perishable Inventory Theory: A Review," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 30(4), pages 680-708, August.
    9. Haijema, René & Minner, Stefan, 2019. "Improved ordering of perishables: The value of stock-age information," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 316-324.
    10. Buzby, Jean C. & Farah-Wells, Hodan & Hyman, Jeffrey, 2014. "The Estimated Amount, Value, and Calories of Postharvest Food Losses at the Retail and Consumer Levels in the United States," Economic Information Bulletin 164262, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    11. Broekmeulen, Rob A.C.M. & van Donselaar, Karel H., 2019. "Quantifying the potential to improve on food waste, freshness and sales for perishables in supermarkets," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 265-273.
    12. Elena Belavina & Karan Girotra & Ashish Kabra, 2017. "Online Grocery Retail: Revenue Models and Environmental Impact," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(6), pages 1781-1799, June.
    13. Baris Ata & Deishin Lee & Mustafa H. Tongarlak, 2012. "Optimizing Organic Waste to Energy Operations," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 231-244, April.
    14. Halloran, Afton & Clement, Jesper & Kornum, Niels & Bucatariu, Camelia & Magid, Jakob, 2014. "Addressing food waste reduction in Denmark," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(P1), pages 294-301.
    15. Elena Belavina, 2021. "Grocery Store Density and Food Waste," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 1-18, 1-2.
    16. Arzum Akkaş, 2019. "Shelf Space Selection to Control Product Expiration," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 28(9), pages 2184-2201, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Hongchao & Yu, Yu & Qin, Yinggao, 2023. "The effects of constrained mobile coupons in the mobile channel," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    2. Young, Aiden & Sima, Herbert & Luo, Na & Wu, Sihong & Gong, Yu & Qian, Xiaoyan, 2024. "Ugly produce and food waste management: An analysis based on a social cognitive perspective," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    3. Arzum Akkas & Dorothee Honhon, 2023. "Determining maximum shipping age requirements for shelf life and food waste management," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(7), pages 2173-2188, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lena Riesenegger & Alexander Hübner, 2022. "Reducing Food Waste at Retail Stores—An Explorative Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-21, February.
    2. Timothy J. Richards & Stephen F. Hamilton, 2022. "Inventory management and loss in beer retailing," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(3), pages 461-485, July.
    3. Barto, Jorrit & Eruguz, Ayse Sena & Spliet, Remy & Wøhlk, Sanne, 2024. "Reduced food waste through inventory control despite throwing out food before expiration: Online vs. offline retail," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    4. Gorria, Carlos & Lezaun, Mikel & López, F. Javier, 2022. "Performance measures of nonstationary inventory models for perishable products under the EWA policy," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 303(3), pages 1137-1150.
    5. Jake Clarkson & Michael A. Voelkel & Anna‐Lena Sachs & Ulrich W. Thonemann, 2023. "The periodic review model with independent age‐dependent lifetimes," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(3), pages 813-828, March.
    6. Mervegül Kirci & Olov Isaksson & Ralf Seifert, 2022. "Managing Perishability in the Fruit and Vegetable Supply Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-24, April.
    7. Shouchang Chen & Yanzhi Li & Yi Yang & Weihua Zhou, 2021. "Managing Perishable Inventory Systems with Age‐differentiated Demand," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(10), pages 3784-3799, October.
    8. Arzum Akkas & Dorothee Honhon, 2023. "Determining maximum shipping age requirements for shelf life and food waste management," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 32(7), pages 2173-2188, July.
    9. Elena Belavina, 2021. "Grocery Store Density and Food Waste," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 1-18, 1-2.
    10. Gioia, Daniele Giovanni & Minner, Stefan, 2023. "On the value of multi-echelon inventory management strategies for perishable items with on-/off-line channels," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    11. V. Radhamani & B. Sivakumar & G. Arivarignan, 2022. "A Comparative Study on Replenishment Policies for Perishable Inventory System with Service Facility and Multiple Server Vacation," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 59(1), pages 229-265, March.
    12. Arzum Akkaş & Nachiketa Sahoo, 2020. "Reducing Product Expiration by Aligning Salesforce Incentives: A Data‐driven Approach," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 29(8), pages 1992-2009, August.
    13. Rozhkov, Maxim & Ivanov, Dmitry & Blackhurst, Jennifer & Nair, Anand, 2022. "Adapting supply chain operations in anticipation of and during the COVID-19 pandemic," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    14. Düsterhöft, Tobias & Hübner, Alexander & Schaal, Kai, 2020. "A practical approach to the shelf-space allocation and replenishment problem with heterogeneously sized shelves," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 282(1), pages 252-266.
    15. Luo, Na & Olsen, Tava & Liu, Yanping & Zhang, Abraham, 2022. "Reducing food loss and waste in supply chain operations," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    16. Raut, Rakesh D. & Gardas, Bhaskar B. & Narwane, Vaibhav S. & Narkhede, Balkrishna E., 2019. "Improvement in the food losses in fruits and vegetable supply chain - a perspective of cold third-party logistics approach," Operations Research Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 6(C).
    17. Beullens, Patrick & Ghiami, Yousef, 2022. "Waste reduction in the supply chain of a deteriorating food item – Impact of supply structure on retailer performance," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 300(3), pages 1017-1034.
    18. David Winkelmann & Charlotte Kohler, 2024. "Subscription-Based Inventory Planning for E-Grocery Retailing," Papers 2404.04097, arXiv.org.
    19. Castellano, Davide & Glock, Christoph H., 2024. "Economic production quantity for a decaying item with stochastic demand and positive lead time," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    20. N. Saranya & A. Shophia Lawrence, 2019. "A stochastic inventory system with replacement of perishable items," OPSEARCH, Springer;Operational Research Society of India, vol. 56(2), pages 563-582, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:popmgt:v:32:y:2023:i:2:p:501-523. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1937-5956 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.