{"id":15246,"date":"2016-11-16T21:11:23","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T02:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/buffetgo-an-online-ordering-platform-to-reduce-buffet-restaurant-food-waste\/"},"modified":"2016-11-16T21:11:23","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T02:11:23","slug":"buffetgo-an-online-ordering-platform-to-reduce-buffet-restaurant-food-waste","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/buffetgo-an-online-ordering-platform-to-reduce-buffet-restaurant-food-waste\/","title":{"rendered":"BuffetGo: An online ordering platform to reduce buffet restaurant food waste."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Picture this:<\/strong> Today, like any average day, a typical American restaurant produces roughly <em>411<\/em> <em>pounds<\/em> of waste<sup>1<\/sup>. Some is attributable to \u201cfood loss,\u201d including shrink during preparation, defects, or molding. But a significant amount of loss is pure \u201cfood waste,\u201d perfectly edible food that goes uneaten due to overproduction or consumer plate waste.<\/p>\n<p>All told, grocery and restaurant food waste in America totals a staggering <em>43 billion pounds<\/em> annually, representing roughly $80 billion in good food that goes to the trash. A 2010 USDA report reveals that this total makes food waste the largest single contributor to solid municipal waste after recycling.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_15237\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15237\" style=\"width: 556px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/food-waste-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-15237\" src=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/food-waste-1-300x160.jpg\" alt=\"Photo sourced from: http:\/\/www.slowfood.com\/food-waste-forum\/\" width=\"556\" height=\"296\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/food-waste-1-300x160.jpg 300w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/food-waste-1-1024x547.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/food-waste-1-600x321.jpg 600w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/food-waste-1.jpg 1491w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 556px) 100vw, 556px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15237\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo sourced from: http:\/\/www.slowfood.com\/food-waste-forum\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Food production and distribution numbers can be downright frustrating:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In 2010, 31% of the available U.S. food supply went uneaten<\/li>\n<li>To produce that supply, 300 million barrels of oil and approximately 25% of the total agricultural usage for fresh water went to food<em> that was never eaten<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Alongside this cycle of wasteful production, 13% of American households experience \u201cfood insecurity,\u201d a lack of adequate access to affordable nutrition.<sup>2<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Troubling, certainly.<\/p>\n<p>But now,<\/p>\n<p><strong>Picture this: <\/strong>Today, a steadily growing number of restaurants in Chicago, New York, and other cities <em>are<\/em> reducing their food waste by selling discounted leftovers to consumers through an online marketplace, BuffetGo. BuffetGo, founded in 2014 in Finland, launched its U.S. operations this year.<sup>3 <\/sup>Its model creates value for four groups:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><strong>Restaurants \u2013 <\/strong>Restaurants sell quality food that would otherwise go to the trash at the end of shifts. Any revenue from this food presents an increase in profits.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><strong>Consumers \u2013 <\/strong>Value-driven food consumers purchase meals at up to a 90% discount. Meals that typically price at $20 are sold for ~$5 through BuffetGo.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><strong>Food Equality Groups \u2013 <\/strong>BuffetGo donates 20% of each purchase to the United Nations\u2019 World Food Programme<sup>4<\/sup><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 60px\"><strong>The Global Environment \u2013 <\/strong>Every purchase throught BuffetGo represents up to a full plate of food that gets consumed rather than sent to a landfill.<\/p>\n<p>BuffetGo operates as a two-way online marketplace that connects restaurants with surplus food to consumers who wish to purchase those meals. BuffetGo partners exclusively with buffet restaurants, which are legally required to dispose of any prepared foods that are not eaten by the end of a shift.<\/p>\n<p>On BuffetGo\u2019s website, a customer searches for available \u201cmeals\u201d from nearby restaurants through zip code or map search.<sup>5<\/sup> Each restaurant has a limited supply of meals available each day for pick-up at a specified time (typically a 30-minute window at the end of a shift, after the restaurant has finished serving regular customers).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_15236\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15236\" style=\"width: 207px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/buffetgo.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-15236\" src=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/buffetgo-169x300.png\" alt=\"性视界ing for a BuffetGo restaurant using the web interface.\" width=\"207\" height=\"368\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/buffetgo-169x300.png 169w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/buffetgo-338x600.png 338w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/buffetgo.png 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 207px) 100vw, 207px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15236\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">性视界ing for a BuffetGo restaurant using the web interface.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Customers pay anywhere from $2 to $6 online through BuffetGo for a meal, and must present proof of their order on a SmartPhone when they arrive at the restaurant. At the restaurant, customers fill up a container with food as they would at any traditional buffet, but these meals must be taken to-go.<sup>3<\/sup><\/p>\n<p>BuffetGo\u2019s model is promising as more and more individual consumers and retailers look to reduce waste. Even staying concentrated on buffet restaurants alone still provides a huge opportunity for growth with a proposition that benefits all parties involved. Individual restaurants could also initiate their own efforts to reduce waste by donating\/selling goods, but the time and capital required to develop programs and find consumers discourages that activity. BuffetGo\u2019s service can allow restaurants and consumers nationwide to reduce waste through their internet platform.<\/p>\n<p>BuffetGo has tremendous opportunity to aggregate and utilize data to further enhance their service. Customers are already required to use a smartphone to present proof of order, so I\u2019d like to see a dedicated phone App soon. I\u2019d especially like to see some marketing on the impact of BuffetGo purchases on the environment and food equality. BuffetGo is already responsible for the leftover meal transactions, so I could see them developing trackers in-App for individual users to see how many pounds of food waste they have saved, or how many dollars\/meals they have provided to families in need through their purchases. Further, aggregating those types of statistics for restaurants or for whole cities could be very powerful.<\/p>\n<p>Other ways BuffetGo could enhance their product would include an ability for customers to save favorite restaurants, to more easily track nearby BuffetGo partners using GPS, and to provide and access quick restaurant ratings. Features from leading food or logistics apps such as Caviar, Yelp, and Uber can apply to this service to make the overall experience one that customers want to repeat.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, this space is unique and looks promising for BuffetGo. It will be important for BuffetGo to continue to provide benefits to both restaurants and customers to keep their presence necessary, and for BuffetGo to stay ahead of any competition that may enter by expanding to gain partnerships in more cities.<\/p>\n<p>(784 Words)<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>References<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>&#8220;Restaurants.&#8221; End Food Waste Now. http:\/\/www.endfoodwastenow.org\/index.php\/issues\/issues-restaurants. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.<\/li>\n<li>Wells, Hodan F., Jean C. Buzby, and Jeffrey Hyman. &#8220;The Estimated Amount, Value, and Calories of Postharvest &#8230;&#8221; USDA. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.<\/li>\n<li>Garfield, Leanna. &#8220;The &#8216;Seamless for Food Waste&#8217; Lets You Eat at Buffets for as Little as $2.&#8221; Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 05 Oct. 2016. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.Chicago Tribune<\/li>\n<li>Elahi, Amina. &#8220;BuffetGo Lets You Grab Restaurant Food Cheap at Closing Time.&#8221; Chicagotribune.com. 27 Sept. 2016. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;BuffetGO &#8211; Up to 85% Closing Time Discount on Local Food!&#8221; BuffetGO. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How an online company is enabling restaurants worldwide to easily sell leftover prepared foods and reduce overall food waste.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2296,"featured_media":15247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[60,2095,2157,111,14],"class_list":["post-15246","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data","category-data-aggregation","category-food-waste","category-internet","category-sustainability"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/digitization-challenge-2016\/","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>BuffetGo: An online ordering platform to reduce buffet restaurant food waste. - Technology and Operations Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/buffetgo-an-online-ordering-platform-to-reduce-buffet-restaurant-food-waste\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BuffetGo: An online ordering platform to reduce buffet restaurant food waste. - 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