please help: teary-eyed stickers on lunch boxes encourage customers to reduce food waste

Familymart series of stickers hopes to reduce food waste

A series of tearful-eyed stickers on meals cry for help to encourage customers to buy them and help reduce food waste. Named the Tearful Eye Sticker by the convenience store FamilyMart, the design shows a cartoon character with teary eyes and a short message that says, ‘Please help.’ The purpose of the teary-eyed stickers is to draw the customers’ attention to them and make them realize not to waste food by buying them instead of the new stocks. These illustrations are not alone because sitting next to them are the discounted prices of the products.

By combining these two, the project hopes that customers become more aware that food is food, at the end of the day, and that it’s such a waste to throw it out just because they want to choose the recently stocked ones of the same kind. The teary-eyed stickers, which hope to combat food waste, were first introduced in March 2025 for the discounted items in FamilyMart, typically attached onto meal items like rice balls, sandwiches, and lunch boxes. During the national rollout, the company made small design changes by making the ‘Please Help’ text larger as well as the crying characters so they could be seen more clearly and instantly.

all images courtesy of FamilyMart

Tearful Eye Sticker design free for public use

In October 2024, FamilyMart ran a test in several stores using the teary-eyed stickers to see if they could reduce food waste. The company says that its results showed a 5 percent increase in purchase rate compared to the old sticker that only showed the discount amount, meaning more customers were buying meals close to expiration. Based on this, FamilyMart estimated that if the sticker were used in all stores, it could reduce food waste by around 3,000 tons per year. The company adds that the customer feedback also supported the refreshed sticker design because some said the playful label made them want to buy the food because it looked like it needed help. 

Based on this feedback, FamilyMart launched the project in all stores nationwide in March 2025, and in April 2025, it tested the stickers at ten stores in Tokyo. The results again showed that the sticker increased sales of discounted food and that customers said it was easier to buy food with the new sticker than with one showing only a price cut. The company added another twist to the campaign: when customers buy discounted food, a small character now appears on the cash register screen to thank them. The project expanded again in October 2025, when FamilyMart made the Tearful Eye Sticker design free for public use so that any business or store that sells expiring meals can use the teary-eyed stickers on their own and help spread the campaign to reduce overall food waste.

the design is accompanied by a short message that says, ‘Please Help’

the stickers are typically attached onto meal items like rice balls, sandwiches, and lunch boxes

the design comes with a discounted price on the side

the company says more people have bought expiring food because of the campaign

the design is free to download and for public use

project info:

name: Tearful Eye Sticker

company: FamilyMart | @familymartid

stickers: here

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