Lawson trials discount sale of expired sell-by-date food to tackle waste

Lawson Inc. and Cookpad Inc. on Tuesday began trialing a scheme to reduce food loss at the convenience store chain by selling products that have passed their sell-by-date at reduced prices via the cookpadmart app. 

During the trial select products which, while yet to have passed their expiration date, have passed the convenience store chain’s own sell-by-date will be removed from the store and sold via Cookpad’s food e-commerce app, cookpadmart. Customers will be able to collect their items from a Mart Station delivery box installed at the participating store.

It is the first time Lawson has conducted a trial in which products which have passed their sell-by-date are sold at reduced prices - normally such products would be removed from the shelves.   

Ten dessert products will be used during the trial. After a product has passed a midnight sell-by-date convenience store staff will register the product name, quantity, and discount amount with the cookpadmart app and place it in refrigerated storage.

As soon as a customer order is received through the app, the product will be transferred to the Mart Station for the customer to collect at their convenience. Orders will be accepted until 11a.m. on the date of the product’s expiration.

The trial is being conducted at a Natural Lawson convenience store in Tokyo’s Minato ward and is scheduled to run until January 31, 2023.

The trial is one of a variety of measures Lawson is implementing in an effort to reduce food loss, or uneaten food, at its stores. The discount sale of food items still within their sell-by-date has been conducted at the discretion of each store since the company was established, with around 90 percent of the company’s stores currently implementing the practice, according to Lawson. 

Installation of Mart Station delivery boxes at Lawson convenience stores began in June 2020, allowing users of Cookpad's cookpadmart app to collect their food orders from the convenience store chain. Stations are currently installed at 112 Lawson convenience stores across Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures of Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba.

Around 5.22 million tons of food goes to waste annually in Japan, equivalent to around 1.2 times the amount of global food aid (around 4.2 million tons in 2020) for people suffering from hunger, according to the Consumer Affairs Agency. 

2.75 million tons of Japan’s wasted food comes from business operations while 2.47 million tons is generated by households.  

The agency has set a goal to halve the amount of food loss by 2030 compared to 2000. 

“I think it is very important to have consumers think about the food loss issue as their own personal issue. We would like to do a thorough job of disseminating information on how waste can be reduced,” Taro Kono, consumer affairs minister, said during an online address ahead of October 30 as food-loss awareness day in Japan.

Listed below are the items that will be targeted during the trial (with an approximation of their readings in italics for reference only).  Prices in the columns include tax - standard price (left), trial-period discount price (right).

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