Reduced food waste through inventory control despite throwing out food before expiration: Online vs. offline retail

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Online retailers throw out food that has not yet expired. This gives rise to the question whether online retailers generate more food waste than offline retailers, who typically throw out food only after it has expired. We focus on the food waste at the retailer which inherently ensues from the logistical set-up. We provide a theoretical discussion of the potential increase in food waste as a result of the inventory control policy and throwing out food that has not yet expired, as is the case for online retailers. Note that the online retailer has some advantages over offline retailers as well. Online retailers benefit from full control of order picking, which is instead often done by the consumer in offline retail. Moreover, the online retailer often benefits from the pooling effect, as offline retailers might use multiple stores to satisfy the same demand volume as an online retailer from a single warehouse. Our numerical experiments with a base-stock policy suggests that online retail actually yields less food waste for many products, despite throwing out food before expiration.