The relationship between retail price promotions and household-level food waste: Busting the myth with behavioural data?

In the debate about food waste, pricing mechanisms used in marketing are criticized to trigger consumers to over-purchase and consequently waste food. Despite the ambiguity of the scientific results on the matter, the criticism persists, prompting many retailers to abolish 'buy one get one free' price promotions. However, evidence whether this initiative is justified are lacking. In this paper we aim to empirically explore the relation between retail price promotions and household level food waste. We collected actual food waste data, gathered discount shopping behaviour data through shopping receipts, as well as attitudinal data through a questionnaire from a sample of 118 households in Denmark. Our results provide evidence to counter the criticism and show that households with the largest actual proportion of food bought on discount waste less food, as well as those who are environmentally conscious, whereas larger households and those who lack skills in food practices waste more food.