FON161 Sustainable Food Production Systems

Container-free Local Food Shopping:

The people are increasingly moving towards limiting waste as garbage reduction is in their hands. There is no excuse for producing excessive amount of garbage. With the increasing technological innovations, zero-waste strategy can be obtained by opening a grocery store with container-free local food shopping. The store can encourage the people to bring their own containers, jars or bags so that waste can be eliminated. This business shall encourage the people in buying only what they need unlike the supermarkets that run promotional campaigns and persuading people to buy more and avail discounts. This business is a step towards attaining a greener environment. The business shall provide a product list and reusable container list. This business can create profitability as there is less supply risk. There is no waste to send to the landfills for disposal that saves money for the business. There can be saving in storage space as no containers shall occupy the grocery store. The neighbourhoods shall be cleaner and healthier. The business shall save in recycling cost and it need not turn the old paper and plastic for reuse.

Container-free Local Food Shopping:

The people are increasingly moving towards limiting waste as garbage reduction is in their hands. There is no excuse for producing excessive amount of garbage. With the increasing technological innovations, zero-waste strategy can be obtained by opening a grocery store with container-free local food shopping. The store can encourage the people to bring their own containers, jars or bags so that waste can be eliminated. This business shall encourage the people in buying only what they need unlike the supermarkets that run promotional campaigns and persuading people to buy more and avail discounts. This business is a step towards attaining a greener environment. The business shall provide a product list and reusable container list. This business can create profitability as there is less supply risk. There is no waste to send to the landfills for disposal that saves money for the business. There can be saving in storage space as no containers shall occupy the grocery store. The neighborhoods shall be cleaner and healthier. The business shall save in recycling cost. This is because the business won’t need to do recycling for packaging items (Bhat, 2017).

 Another advantage that will result from this business is that the customers will not have to deal with large volumes of solid waste in their households. It has been a problem for many shoppers in different households since they buy most of the products packed in polythene bags and the moment they reach home with their products, it becomes very difficult for them to dispose of the waste. To make this idea work, the business will liaise with all its suppliers to ensure that they all meet the packaging requirement of the business. Suppliers will be required to use biodegradable material to package goods where possible. It will also be very important to make potential customers understand the need for that type of business and the reasons why they should buy from this food shopping outlet and not the conventional ones. The business organization will educate the local community the importance of conserving the environment. This will be done through seminars and advertisement. The advertisement will carry a message detailing the aims and objectives of the new business and reasons why its different from other types of food stores. The publicity should focus more on environmental conservation rather than promoting sales like other businesses do. The business will offer a wide variety of food products. Examples of food products that will be sold in the stores include; burgers, pizza and hot-dog.

The business will require a workforce of about 9 employees during the opening stages and this number can grow as the business grows and expands. The 9 employees will consist of cashiers, manager, supervisor and junior level staff. The business will also have a clear organizational structure that will define the flow of power and authority within the business organization. A substantial amount of money will be needed to start this business. The initial capital requirement will be for purchasing the supplies for the business and acquiring/ renting the premises on which business will be carried out. There will also be recurrent expenditures on items such as salaries and wages and miscellaneous costs. An average of $10,000 will be required to start this business. The most likely challenge in this type of business will be convincing customers to carry their own containers or bags since most of them may see it as inconvenient (Yam, 2009).

References

Bhat, R. (2017). Sustainability in the agrofood sector. Place of publication not identified: John Wiley.

Yam, K. L. (2009). The Wiley encyclopedia of packaging technology. Hoboken: Wiley.