Alfred presents the app that eliminates commercial losses and lightens staff workloads

The Roman company Alfred has developed an app designed to eliminate commercial losses and lighten staff workloads through preventive, streamlined tracking of goods.

The figures on food waste

Monitoring surplus highlights how waste in supermarkets and local shops generates an average of 15 kg of devalued products per year for every square metre of sales area (monitoring data from the Waste Watcher International/Last Minute Market Observatory). This waste of resources, which in organised distribution and retail comes to an overall value of almost 4 billion euros, is closely linked to predominantly manual checks of expiry dates. These processes force staff to carry out exhausting visual checks, often concentrated at the end of a shift, making human error statistically inevitable and placing a strain on their peace of mind on the shop floor.

How the app works

Alfred is a digital solution conceived as a simple and fast application, usable directly on the shop floor on all mobile devices, from tablets to smartphones, which intervenes at the source of the flow, automating the recording of dates when goods enter the store, without any form of profiling of individual staff productivity.

When a product approaches its critical point, the tool sends a timely notification: in this way, the shop gains the time needed to plan ethical discounts for the community or activate solidarity donation networks, turning loss into a resource before it is too late.

A matter of reputation

The project's methodological value lies in its ability to safeguard the reputation and finances of the shop while directly improving the quality of work on the ground. By relieving staff of the anxiety of checking each item visually, Alfred optimises the internal logistics of the displays and prevents the risks associated with expired products on the shelves, a factor that undermines consumers' longstanding trust. The shop's efficiency is therefore not pursued by speeding up work rhythms, but through intelligent planning based on common sense.

The comment

“We believe that a working system has value only when it serves people and respects resources,” explains Cristina Gotti, marketing manager and co-founder of Alfred. “Taking care of a shop means, first and foremost, protecting those who work there and those who shop there every day. Those who manage shops and cooperatives in the local area are fully aware of this, and it is precisely from this shared sensitivity that a methodological change in distribution must begin—one capable of combining economic balance with the dignity of work and environmental protection”.

This article was translated from the original Italian version with the assistance of artificial intelligence. In case of discrepancies, please refer to the original Italian version.