Upshop Targets Grocery’s $473 Billion Waste Problem

Upshop, a food-retailer-focused software-as-a-service platform, debuted a “unified” operating system for grocers.

Upshop 360 embeds artificial intelligence across the entirety of a store’s operational data to provide grocery retailers with an “AI-powered cockpit,” according to a Monday (Sept. 29) news release.

“Retailers don’t need more dashboards, they need direction,” Upshop CEO Mike Sanders said in the release. “Upshop 360 is AI applied to every corner of grocery operations. It gives leaders the ability to see, decide and act—faster than problems pile up.”

The cockpit can show what’s happening in every store and help grocers decide what to do next, such as optimize replenishment, issue markdowns before waste happens or direct associate tasks to unlock the most margin, according to the release/

“With fresh food departments now generating 20% to 45% margins compared to 1% to 7% in center store packaged goods, precision in perishable management is now more critical than ever before to ensure both profitability and sustained competitiveness,” the release said.

Among the issues the platform targets is food waste, which accounts for nearly 38% of supply, or $473 billion in lost value each year, according to the release.

“Even a 1% improvement in fresh efficiency can translate into millions in profitability for a 100-store chain,” the release said.

The rollout comes as grocery stores face cutbacks by consumers along with supply shortages amid ongoing tariff-related pressures.

“Consumers are facing empty shelves and rising prices, with many being directly informed by retailers that tariffs are to blame,” PYMNTS wrote last month after the release of the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Stock Out. The Impact of Tariffs on Consumer Product Prices and Availability.” “The findings paint a portrait of a deeper vulnerability within a consumer economy reliant on well-oiled global supply lines and affordable imports.”

The report found that 22% of consumers, and 31% of those who live paycheck to paycheck, were unable to buy food items because they were out of stock or no longer sold in the United States.

Meanwhile, there are trade-offs happening in grocery aisles. For example, Hamburger Helper has seen a jump in sales as consumers buy low-cost prepared mixes.

“For families trying to stretch a dollar, these boxed staples are a way to manage the rising price of beef and other proteins without eliminating them entirely from the dinner table,” PYMNTS wrote Sept. 23. “It is a small but telling marker of the kinds of substitutions households are making to preserve some semblance of normalcy in their diets while keeping costs under control.”

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