Tag: helps

New app helps Saskatoon businesses reduce waste by offering deals


A global app that aims to help people save money on groceries while reducing food waste is catching on in Saskatoon.


The Prairie Doughnut Company and Poutine pride themselves in making each batch as it’s ordered, but while that results in a great product for customers, at the end of each day, they have leftovers.


“For example, if we make 50 at a time but we got an order for 24, what do we do with the 26? Since we never do premade donuts so we’re making fresh,” Owner Jigar Shah, told CTV News.


Now, thanks to the new app, those extras are being sold.


“They contacted me and I said that was a very nice concept because it wastes less food,” he says.


This is how the app does that: businesses post food baskets they have available, and for what price, then customers choose one and go pick it up.


“You’re getting great things that would’ve sold in the store two hours earlier for full, price, for at a reduced cost,” Sarah Soteroff with, Too Good to Go, said.


There are restaurants, bakeries, convenience stores and even a juice company currently on the Saskatoon list.


They all sell items for about a third of the regular cost, according to Soteroff.


Businesses post their surprise basket with a general category of food like bakery or pizza attached to it, so the customer has a rough idea of what’s inside.


“For grocery items, for example, you might get a smattering of maybe some potatoes and lettuce. Things that didn’t sell and are reaching their best before date but can’t be sold the next day,” she says.


The Prairie Donut is one of 40 businesses on the app in Saskatoon

Missouri S&T – News and Events – Missouri S&T manufacturing expertise helps small business weighing big investment

It’s no secret that digital printing technology is changing the manufacturing industry. But for manufacturers that want to incorporate 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, the steepness of the learning curve complicates the process of making an informed investment. For smaller manufacturers, the challenge is even more acute.

Addressing that challenge is at the heart of a recent engineering analysis conducted by experts at Missouri University of Science and Technology on behalf of Masterclock, a manufacturer of precise timing systems equipment based in St. Charles, Missouri. Masterclock has 25 employees.

Dr. Richard Billo, director of the Kummer Center for Advanced Manufacturing at Missouri S&T, led the analysis. Assuming current market conditions, it found that the cost of equipment required to 3D print the casements that house the display clocks Masterclock manufactures outweighs the potential savings.

“We knew that 3D printing is definitely changing the manufacturing game,” says John Clark, Masterclock president and CEO. “But as a small business without an enormous R&D budget, without being knowledgeable about the market, we weren’t in a position to make huge bets on the equipment.”

Thanks to insight gleaned from S&T’s analysis, he doesn’t have to.

“I got a world-class, real-time review of how what’s on the market lines up with what we’d like to do at Masterclock,” says Clark. “I no longer have that voice in the back of my head, wondering if I’m missing out on the right investment.”

Billo says the work his team did with Masterclock is an example of S&T’s commitment to collaborating with manufacturers across Missouri to help them be more innovative and competitive in the global marketplace. That commitment is about to get a lot more tangible.

In October, S&T will break ground for the Missouri Protoplex, an advanced manufacturing research and development facility