Delicious flavors and attractive prices are no longer the only things customers expect when they visit your grocery store — they’re also on the lookout for the most sustainable options.
In fact, 89% of consumers say they’ve adjusted their shopping habits to be more environmentally friendly, and 80% are even willing to pay more for sustainable options.
Want to take advantage of this growing trend? We’re here to help.
In this blog, we’ll share everything you need to know about sustainability in the grocery industry, including three key benefits of being more sustainable and six practical strategies for small grocery stores, butcher shops, seafood markets, and grocerants.
The Benefits of a More Sustainable Grocery Strategy
Sustainability in the grocery industry is more than just a popular trend — it’s profit-friendly, too.
Aside from reducing your business’ environmental impact, here are the three main benefits of embracing more sustainable practices:
- Appeal to more customers: Switching to greener methods and offering more eco-friendly options can help you appeal to a small but passionate group of customers. If you can win them over with your sustainable grocery model, you’ll see higher retention and spending.
- Reduce operating expenses: Conventional grocery industry practices often lead to excessive inventory spending and waste, which hurts the environment and your bottom line. In contrast, smarter inventory forecasting and stocking methods can help you be more sustainable and reduce spoilage.
- Justify higher prices: Positioning your store as a sustainability leader in the grocery industry sets you apart from the competition and gives you the opportunity to charge premium prices. You’re offering customers something they can’t get elsewhere, and you can set prices accordingly.
Whether you’re hoping to help the planet, attract more customers, or reduce food waste in your grocery store, sustainable practices are the way forward.
How To Be More Sustainable in the Grocery Industry: 6 Strategies
Ready to become your neighborhood’s most sustainable grocery store? Let’s dive into six specific ways to accomplish this goal.
1. Source Products Locally
Searching for a way to be more sustainable? You don’t have to look far!
Instead of relying on nationwide wholesalers to stock your market, build partnerships with local food producers in your community.
This approach reduces the financial and environmental cost of transporting inventory — plus it lets you offer the freshest, most delicious meat, seafood, and produce.
Here are a few tips for sourcing local inventory:
- Find suppliers that align with your customers’ values: Consider purchasing produce from local farms that adhere to strict organic standards and meat from farms committed to the ethical treatment of animals.
- Start with a few products: Experiment with stocking a few local products at first to gauge your customers’ interest. If your point of sale (POS) system’s sales reports reveal high demand, work with your supplier to expand your offerings (and negotiate better terms).
- Announce your local partnerships: Use in-store signage and marketing channels like social media to educate your customers on the benefits of eating locally and highlight your connection to local food producers.
Trusting local farms and fishers can help you be more sustainable and stand out from big-box supermarkets.
2. Adopt a Nose-to-Tail Butchery Approach
Hoping to minimize waste in your butcher shop or grocery store meat department? Consider adopting a nose-to-tail approach to butchery.
In this model, you’ll sell cuts from the whole animal — not just the popular ones like ribeye and sirloin. Here are a few examples of meat products you should sell instead of throwing away:
- Organ meats are popular among health-conscious grocery shoppers for their rich nutrient profile.
- Internationally popular cuts like beef tongue and oxtail are staples in Hispanic and Caribbean cooking, helping you appeal to new markets.
- Overlooked cuts like butcher’s tenders and sirloin caps can help you attract steak aficionados.
- Bones and bone marrow are excellent starting points for delicious soups and stews.
Keep in mind that your customers may be unfamiliar with some of these products. Consider sharing recipes to help them turn these overlooked cuts into delicious meals.
Related Read: How To Create a Meat Shop Inventory System
3. Eliminate Plastic and Single-Use Containers
Food waste isn’t the only concern when it comes to sustainability in the grocery industry — you should also evaluate your contribution to plastic waste.
Many grocery products are overpackaged in large plastic clamshells or unnecessary plastic wrap, but these aren’t your only options. Let’s look at three ways to reduce your reliance on unsustainable packaging:
- Adopt a bring your own (BYO) container policy: Encourage customers to reuse glass and plastic containers when purchasing bulk goods like rice or granola by weight. Simply weigh their BYO container, tare the scale, and calculate the weight-based price for an easy, accurate checkout.
- Opt for non-plastic packaging: When evaluating vendors, opt for ones that use minimal and eco-friendly packaging for produce instead of plastic. In your meat and deli departments, use butcher’s paper instead of plastic wrap.
- Invest in compostable and biodegradable packaging: If you offer premade or made-to-order meals in your store’s quick-serve restaurant, opt for compostable or biodegradable clamshells, cups, and cutlery.
While some sustainability strategies are behind the scenes, this switch to eco-friendly packaging is highly visible to customers — making it an excellent option if you’re hoping to appeal to the earth-conscious crowd.
4. Educate Customers on Eating Seasonally
Stocking local, in-season produce is almost always more affordable and more sustainable than sourcing strawberries in winter or squash in spring — but it requires your customers’ buy-in.
That’s why customer education is key to encouraging more sustainable shopping habits. Here are a few of our top tips:
- Create eye-catching signage to highlight locally-farmed, in-season produce.
- Share recipes featuring seasonal products, like fruit-forward desserts in the summer and hearty pumpkin soups in the fall.
- Leverage social media to alert customers to which products are in season and highlight your partnership with local farms.
As a bonus, these educational efforts can help you connect with new customers and make more sales, serving as a powerful marketing strategy.
Related Read: Stocking Seasonal Products in Your Grocery Store: 5 Tips
5. Revamp Your Inventory Management Approach
Wilted greens, curdled dairy, and spoiled steaks are detrimental to the environment and your grocery store’s profit margins — which is why improving your inventory management approach is a sustainable must.
Let’s look at a few tips for smarter stocking and less waste:
- Ditch the manual counts: Still tracking your store’s inventory levels by hand? Save time, prevent mistakes, and avoid spoilage by relying on grocery inventory management software to monitor stock levels in real time.
- Forecast product demand: Digging into your POS system’s sales data helps you understand your customers’ shopping habits and product preferences, so you can make informed decisions when ordering fresh meats or preparing grab-and-go meals and sides.
- Adopt a first in, first out (FIFO) approach: FIFO is a foundational strategy for reducing spoilage. Train employees to place your newest arrivals at the back of your shelves to encourage customers to purchase near-expiry products first.
- Use promotions: Want to increase inventory turnover before spoilage strikes? Use strategic promotions to move your near-expiry items quickly.
Once you’ve implemented these inventory management tips, track your waste-related shrinkage over time, note any decreases, and share your success story with customers to let them know that your grocery store takes sustainability seriously.
6. Work With Food Recovery Programs
Looking for a way to reduce food waste and help your community? Consider partnering with local food recovery and rescue programs.
These organizations work with grocery stores like yours to deliver food to hungry families in your neighborhood.
The structure is simple: When you have more inventory than you expect to sell, a representative from your local food recovery chapter will handle transporting it to a nearby food bank or pantry.
Pro tip: Highlight your connection to these charitable organizations through in-store signage or social media posts! You can take your partnership even further by planning food drives around the holidays or back-to-school season.
Boost Sustainability and Sales in Your Grocery Store With Markt POS
Prioritizing sustainability has big benefits for your bottom line and the planet — but reducing waste, adopting a BYO container policy, and tracking inventory accurately requires the right tools.
Markt POS is an all-in-one POS solution specifically designed to help small grocery stores and specialty markets tackle their biggest challenges, from perishable inventory management to marketing.
See Markt POS’ sustainability features in action by scheduling your live demo, or use our Build and Price tool to generate a custom quote for your market.
by Luke
