4A forming an opportunity belief
1. I believe that their is any issue that affects single people, especially college students. Grocery stores sell products in portions that are too large for one person to eat.
2. The unmet need is the food that is unnecessarily wasted by single individuals because smaller portions of food are not sold in the grocery store. My solution would be to offer single portions of common food items that spoil quickly. The problem affects single individuals, especially college students. This is not a recent problem, it has been a problem for a while. The problem is currently being resolved by a couple small solutions, such as keeping leftovers for future meals.
1st interview:
3. Sierra Coffman
4.
2. The unmet need is the food that is unnecessarily wasted by single individuals because smaller portions of food are not sold in the grocery store. My solution would be to offer single portions of common food items that spoil quickly. The problem affects single individuals, especially college students. This is not a recent problem, it has been a problem for a while. The problem is currently being resolved by a couple small solutions, such as keeping leftovers for future meals.
1st interview:
3. Sierra Coffman
4.
- Do you feel that this is a need for you? "Definitely"
- When does this affect you? "Most of the time"
- How long has this been a problem for you? When did you become aware of this problem? "Since starting college, 3.5 years"
- Do you think this is a good solution? "for sure"
- Do you think this plan has any issues that may affect its success? "possibly cost, depending on production"
- How are you currently handling the problem? "meal prep"
2nd interview:
3. Bryce James
4.
3. Bryce James
4.
- Do you feel that this is a need for you? "Definitely"
- When does this affect you? "almost all the time"
- How long has this been a problem for you? When did you become aware of this problem? "Sophomore year, when I moved into my first apartment, I started cooking for myself and became frustrated by the amount of food I was wasting at the end of the week"
- Do you think this is a good solution? "This would be a great solution"
- Do you think this plan has any issues that may affect its success? "None that I can think of"
- How are you currently handling the problem? "wasting food"
3rd interview:
3. Lauren Loveless
4.
3. Lauren Loveless
4.
- Do you feel that this is a need for you? "A big one"
- When does this affect you? "all the time"
- How long has this been a problem for you? When did you become aware of this problem? "Coming to college, 2 years"
- Do you think this is a good solution? "Yes! I would definitely buy and use food in single serving sizes"
- Do you think this plan has any issues that may affect its success? "nope! I think the idea is great and I would definitely purchase it!"
- How are you currently handling the problem? "eating all of it which is obviously a problem"
5. I think it surprised me how many people were definitely interested. It's obviously a problem that affects more than just me. This struggle affects many, and other solutions are often just patches over the problem, rather than solving it. I learned that they've tried other solutions that just don't work in the long run, because you get tired of leftovers, or you don't have time to do meal prep, or you can't share with your roommates, because its hard to split the money.
6. interviews above
7. I was honestly very surprised by the positive responses to my idea. My original idea is still relatively the same. I think it's super important for entrepreneurs to take customer opinions into account when developing an idea. It's important to try to get a large variety of consumer opinions, but it's important to listen to them, while cautiously editing ideas.
Nancy,
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting you brought up this opportunity, as the issue has been bothering me ever since I came to the US. In Europe the portions are much smaller, also in the stores. I suspect the grocery stores understand that the consumption is smaller, due to smaller families and a lot of single people households. I would also argue that the people in Finland at least eat less.
One issue that your first interviewee brought up is production cost. I bet you have noticed that the bigger sizes of any item brings the price down. Mass production, or more specifically the cost efficiency of it, reduces the cost of an item, so smaller portions would most likely increase the price. Thus, it would be necessary for you to research the price elasticity of food or groceries, so find out whether the opportunity exists and if your opportunity could survive in the market.
Hi Nancy!
ReplyDeleteAs a college student who only food shops for himself, I can definitely understand the struggle of over-buying or more simply just not having the option to buy smaller portions. There have been several times over the course of the year that I will either have to throw something out because it expires or just simply offer it to a roommate. As stated by one of your interviewers, the cost of production could most definitely be a major factor. However, if the pros of creating smaller portions outweigh the con's, food distributors could be missing out on a huge market. Unless you are training to be an Olympic weight lifter, smaller portions would financially aid many people only purchasing food for themselves.
Hey Nancy,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great idea, and is something I had never thought about. I have three roommates, but even we never end up finishing all of the perishable foods that we buy. The amount of food (and thus money) that we throw out each month is terrible. Especially for college students, it is so easy to simply stop by a fast food restaurant or other such options on the way home, even while there is food just sitting in the kitchen. These smaller portions would certainly make sense for a lot of college kids, and would end up saving them money and would reduce food waste drastically. Great job!