When the water bottle can also be drunk

Last week we talked about packaging and how supermarkets adjust their logistics to the packaging to satisfy customer expectations. In one part of the class, we talked about water packaging, so I remembered one that was presented as an ideation example in a startup program I took two years ago. And that was an innovative edible, biodegradable and jelly-based package for water called Ooho.

Ooho edible water bottle | Object in Focus

If we take a deep look at Ooho’s idea, we can see that the package is coming from Skipping Rocks Lab, an innovative sustainable packaging company based in London. They are explorers in the use of natural elements extracted from plants and algae to create containers with low environmental impact. With this and all their products, they try to combat a real environmental problem, which is plastic pollution, substituting the arrival of 1 billion plastic bottles in the ocean every year and ending with the emission of 300 million kilograms of CO2. This type of packages not only can reduce the environmental impact of bottles but also can transform the whole logistic process for supermarkets and water suppliers as a new unit load support device.

Although it might be a possible alternative to plastic containers for some liquids (in my opinion, an awesome solution in terms of creativity and ideation), it looks like it hasn’t been accepted by customers and they face a supply chain logistics problem due to Ooho’s short lifespan. So as Bill Gross explains in the following video, this might be an example of one of the most important factors for startup/innovation failure which is bad timing but this doesn’t mean that in the near future we end up eating from jelly bags.

The single biggest reason why start-ups succeed | Bill Gross

Variability in PRODUCTS demand during coronavirus

Last class, we were talking about how do supermarkets predict the demand… Since this crisis started it has been very difficult to predict and satisfy the demand of some products for companies in spite of there are a lot of similarities between different countries.

We know different products that has highlighted from the rest such as toilet paper or alcoholic gel. But why have it happened? I have found a report that explain this. People make copulsive purchases because in time of crisis we change our habits. In this situation, we get stressed and we want to get control of the situation, we do what our neightbours do. This time, because of the crisis is related to health we buy hygienic products to feel we will cleaned as far as possible.

https://www.elmundo.es/economia/ahorro-y-consumo/2020/03/13/5e6ba72021efa07c248b4657.html

But, once we get all and enough basics and fear disappears because we assume the situation, we come to racional people. For example,
beer buying has skyrocketed almost 80% last days.

https://www.lavozdealmeria.com/noticia/4/sociedad/189519/adios-a-la-fiebre-del-papel-higienico-los-espanoles-ahora-quieren-cerveza

So, could they have predicted the demand with artificial intelligence? Could it predict the next high demanded product?

sold out!!!!

In every store, in every community, in every place….from all over the world store there is a key product that rather than seeing that its sales are falling day by day, experience the precise opposite.

Mercadona Perfumery aisle shelves (Valencia) and (Madrid)

They are the famous hand-cleaning gels, already known during the past illnesses: “Bird flu”, or “Ébola”, which are supposed to disinfect and kill the microorganisms they come into contact with. And they are among the first products to be sold out in supermarkets around the world. Currently, with the Coronavirus, the image of empty shelves is an evidence of the social alarm that has been triggered among citizens.

Despite the wide variety of gels offered by supermarkets, the out-of-stock sign is the new double-edged sword for the economy of certain companies.

Hand-cleaning gels (Mercadona)