System and method for reducing wastage of fresh produce in retail stores

A system for managing produce in a retail store having a sales area for sale of produce and a back-store area including at least one storage area for pre-sale storage of produce, the produce being supplied in containers having distinct container identifiers, the system comprising:

• (a) a sensor arrangement including at least one sensor configured to collect data sufficient to determine a container identifier, said sensor arrangement being deployed to read container identifiers for containers passing along a produce transfer path from the back-store area to the sales area;
• (b) a processing system including at least one processor, said processing system being in data communication with said sensor arrangement to receive said data;
• and
• (c) a user interface associated with said processing system,
• wherein said processing system is configured:
• (i) to maintain a database including a record for each container of produce received to the back-store area, each container record including a produce type and a freshness data,
• (ii) for each produce type, to determine at least one container identifier corresponding to at least one container of the given produce type in the back-store area having a shortest salability period as derived from said freshness data, said at least one container being designated a priority container, and
• (iii) responsive to a sales area replenish requirement for a given produce type, to generate an output via said user interface to provide information to facilitate manual selection of said priority container of the given produce type.

A system for managing produce in a retail store having a sales area for sale of produce and a back-store area including at least one storage area for pre-sale storage of produce, the produce being supplied in containers having distinct container identifiers, the system comprising:

• (a) a sensor arrangement including at least one sensor configured to collect data sufficient to determine a container identifier, said sensor arrangement being deployed to read container identifiers for containers passing along a produce transfer path from the back-store area to the sales area, said sensor arrangement being further configured to collect data sufficient to distinguish between containers passing from the back-store area to the sales area and containers passing from said sales area to said back-store area;
• (b) a processing system including at least one processor, said processing system being in data communication with said sensor arrangement to receive said data;
• and
• (c) a user interface associated with said processing system,
• wherein said processing system is configured:
• (i) to maintain a database including a record for each container of produce received to the back-store area, each container record including a produce type, and
• (ii) to be responsive to return of a container from said sales area to said back-store area to generate a sales area replenish requirement for the corresponding produce type unless return of said container was preceded within a given time period by transfer of a different container of the same produce type from said back-store area to said sales area.

A system for managing produce in a retail store having a sales area for sale of produce and a back-store area including at least one storage area for pre-sale storage of produce, the produce being supplied in containers having distinct container identifiers, the system comprising:

• (a) a sensor arrangement including at least one sensor configured to collect data sufficient to determine a container identifier, said sensor arrangement being deployed to read container identifiers for containers passing along a produce transfer path from the back-store area to the sales area, said sensor arrangement being further configured to collect data sufficient to distinguish between containers passing from the back-store area to the sales area and containers passing from said sales area to said back-store area;
• (b) a processing system including at least one processor, said processing system being in data communication with said sensor arrangement to receive said data;
• and
• (c) a user interface associated with said processing system,
• wherein said processing system is configured to process data from said sensor arrangement so as:
• (i) to obtain a container identifier for each container transferred from said back-store area to said sales area,
• (ii) to monitor for return of said container from said sales area to said back-store area,
• (iii) to determine a display time for said container from transfer to said sales area until return to said back-store area and, if said display time is less than a predefined minimum display time, generating an improper-refilling alert.

A system for managing produce in a retail store having a sales area for sale of produce and a back-store area including at least one storage area for pre-sale storage of produce, the produce being supplied in containers having distinct container identifiers, the system comprising:

• (a) a sensor arrangement including at least one sensor configured to collect data sufficient to determine a container identifier, said sensor arrangement being deployed to read container identifiers for containers passing along a produce transfer path from the back-store area to the sales area, said sensor arrangement being further configured to collect data sufficient to distinguish between containers passing from the back-store area to the sales area and containers passing from said sales area to said back-store area;
• (b) a processing system including at least one processor, said processing system being in data communication with said sensor arrangement to receive said data;
• and
• (c) a user interface associated with said processing system,
• wherein said processing system is configured to process data from said sensor arrangement so as:
• (i) to obtain a container identifier for each container transferred from said back-store area to said sales area,
• (ii) to monitor for return of said container from said sales area to said back-store area, and
• (iii) if said container has not been returned from said sales area to said back-store area within a defined maximum dwell-time period after transfer to said sales area, to generate an alert.