A Japanese online shopping site offering soon-to-expire food items at discounted prices is attracting many customers as people in the country struggle with price hikes.
In 2015 the operator of shopping site “Kuradashi” started to buy up products that were to be discarded as they were close to their expiration date or their packages were damaged. The firm sells such items at discounted prices.
It offers about 2,000 items including perishable foods such as meat, vegetables and fruits, and alcoholic drinks. Some of them are sold at half price or a 90-percent discount.
Sales of frozen or cold-storage ”osechi” New Year holiday delicacies are increasing in the run-up to the year-end. Sales for this year are up about 2.4 times year on year as of Monday.
Sales of wine have also been increasing. The operator says sales in October, when prices were raised for a large number of products, increased 1.9-fold from the previous month.
The firm says it contributed to the reduction of food loss by a total of 12,000 tons from February 2015 through September this year.
An official at the firm says it wants to cut food loss while making customers enjoy their shopping.
Meanwhile, a brick-and-mortar shop in Tokyo’s Adachi Ward is selling about 300 such items. The shop bought up food that was still edible but due to be discarded, as well as items close to their expiry date.
The store says October sales were up 30 percent from September.
Items at the shop have price tags of different colors indicating the number of days before expiration or that their best-before dates have already passed.
The shop’s manager says it is good that many people are beginning to think that food that is still edible should not be wasted.