A simple numerical experiment was designed to calculate the gross profit made by a supermarket selling one product type only. This product has a shelf life of four days, and five of them are delivered every morning to the supermarket before it opens. Customers come and buy five each day. Simulations are conducted under two scenarios: one in which the price is fixed until the day before expiration, and the other in which the price is discounted by 1% on the day after the product is placed on the shelf (two days before the expiration). In the first scenario, it is assumed that customers always purchase products that have just been placed on the shelf instead of those that were placed on the shelf on the previous day, because the former are fresher than the latter but both have the same price. In the second scenario, it is assumed that customers always purchase the products that were placed on the shelf on the previous day and are therefore discounted by 1%, instead of those that have just been placed on the shelf.
[December 2022] A set of simulations were conducted for a 4-day period (*1). The results of these were shown in posters (English and Japanese) presented during RX Japan's Food Tech Week. The gross profit for the supermarket at the end of the 4-day period was found to be greater in the second scenario than in the first scenario by a margin of 28%. The caveat is that this margin will shrink as the percentage increases of customers who do not buy the products placed on the shelf on the previous day in the second scenario.
[March 2023] A set of simulations were conducted for a 30-day period (*2) to calculate the numbers presented in the section of this website on Refladdin.
(*1) See [simpleSimulations_dollar.xlsx] in the Dropbox folder available at the following link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/8iixuct3ybwna7wmqb7sv/AFrerqIy5O7bWUbJ6lon-PI?rlkey=20x9eparkza0cx0szkoq3x2bh&st=mrjypxwv&dl=0
(*2) See [Formulas-10to30-days.xlsx] in the Dropbox folder available at the following link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/8iixuct3ybwna7wmqb7sv/AFrerqIy5O7bWUbJ6lon-PI?rlkey=20x9eparkza0cx0szkoq3x2bh&st=mrjypxwv&dl=0