Shop by meal,
not by package.
Canada throws away $35 billion of food a year, and we are going to end that.
A recipe needs half a bunch of celery; the store sells a bunch, and bought it before anyone asked.
The family throws out what the recipe did not use. The store throws out what the town did not buy. Of every $100 of food that enters a Canadian grocery store, $23 goes in the bin.
$23of every $100
What we sell
A counter in the store that sells the right size, so the family stops scraping spinach into the bin and the grocer stops dumping peppers.
A counter in the store. The customer picks the week's meals in the app, we portion each one from the store's own shelves to the recipe, and they pick it up at the counter with the rest of the shop. A $60 dinner costs $54 on average: the same food, sold in the right size, and the receipt says so.
As packages$60
To the recipe$54
Why it works
Both sides of the checkout waste less, and both keep some of what that saves.
Customer
- Wastes less$756 of food no longer thrown out
- Saves money$352, after our fees
- Saves time
Grocer
- Wastes less$226 of food no longer thrown out
- Sells more$92 of sales it did not have
- Buys to the order
- Sells the prep$101 a year of labour, at 3× wage
Business model
Of the $156k that is new, we take $54k, and $17k more from brands.
The household pays a 10% service fee and the labour to portion. The store pays a monthly fee and 5% of what goes through the app. Brands pay 2.9% of sales for placement.
- Food not thrown out+$192k
- More sales+$18k
- Labour−$13k
- Margin on food no longer sold−$41k
- Remaining$156k
$69kCustomer ahead
$33kStore ahead
$71kMotherloaf, with $17k from brands
Market
Every grocery store in Canada and the US, independents first.
Canada · 15,708 stores
$133B a year
20% independents
$223M a year to us, all 3,142 independents signed
United States · 45,575 stores
$1T a year
38% independents
$2.8B a year to us, all 17,319 independents signed
15 stores to $1M ARR · 141 stores to $10M
Pilot
Three months free at Ferraro's, then we charge.
Ferraro's has two stores, Rossland and Trail, BC, family-owned since 1943. We put our own people at the counter and charge nothing for three months.
At three months we report four numbers: store waste before and after, seconds a serving at the counter, households who tried the app, and households still using it. The plan needs 40% tried and 50% still using at month 6.
Then we pitch Castlegar, Nelson, and the independents within an hour of Rossland with the report, and after them the 6,900 members of the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers.