Boosting Sales and Customer Welfare from Premade Foods (Let the Freshest Chicken Fly off the Shelf First)

A grocer selling premade food must decide how long items stay on the shelf, whether to sell the freshest or the oldest first, whether to timestamp them, and how to price. In our base model, the best policy is counterintuitive: sell the freshest item first and do not timestamp, which can extend shelf life, increase sales, and reduce waste. Model extensions identify conditions that favor selling the oldest item first and show how customer heterogeneity can make timestamps valuable.

Management Science, vol. 72, no. 4, pp. 2937–2954