Naked Supermarket

Problem : Shopping in supermarkets is a daily activity, that produces a lot of trash mainly plastic in terms of packaging and carry bags. This is the plastic that we target to reduce.

Solution: Dispensing based supermarket system. That lets customers borrow reusable containers for their shopping needs and use the dispenser (vending machine ) to dispense the contents into it. Take it home and return it for next shopping and repeat the process.

Positive impact : Reduction of trash , less pollution. Encourages reusability and circular economy. Provides opportunity for businesses to adapt new business model and scale for a better future.

Food and grocery has become a global market. Gone are the days food was sourced from local farms and sold by street vendors. During those days packaging for food was minimal. Now food industry is global and a lot of the food is pre-processed  like breakfast cereals , pancake mixes. Most of these foods are dry in texture yet are packaged in fancy boxes that often involve plastic or are cardboard based and need to be effectively recycled in-order to be considered circular. This results in packaging from farm to food industry, food industry to super markets, supermarkets - home and every step of the way there is packaging thats discarded. 

The convenience of boxed/packaged food available in the supermarket has resulted in a huge amount of trash that gets generated by residences. This trash is what we aim to eliminate with "Naked Supermarkets" that don't package food.

As of now, the solution is in the ideation phase. For now the only product on hand is a Vegetable  / Fruit bag thats can be used by customers of supermarkets to take home individual fruits/vegetables in a reusable refrigerator safe cotton bag that can be washed and reused. This product is only a small part of the big solution. The rest of the process / model changes is in the idea- design phase.

The shift in the supermarket model from a shelf-packaging based solution to a dispenser based solution is the key product that we hope to deliver. In order to achieve the goal, whole floor of a supermarket will have to be redesigned and we will help design the floor.  We also help redesign the transportation from industry to supermarket that eliminates packaging. A subscription model for customers of supermarkets that enables them to borrow reusable (glass / metal / tin) containers , reusable bags (cotton / jute) for their shopping needs , return them for washing and sanitizing will be the final step in the new model. We will support providing the products for promoting reusability in the customer facing platform. 

App based subscription will need to be used for customers , and we will help design-develop those.

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