Abstract: Systems for determining a price of goods, reducing food waste, optimizing markdowns for the goods, controlling prices of the goods, and optimizing product mixes in a retail setting are described. A scanner scans a readable identification tag affixed to a good during a time period. A pricing engine and/or an assortment simulator of at least one server queries, dynamically and in real-time, a database to identify, from the readable identification tag, the good and the information associated with the good such as cost, brand information and other information. The pricing engine then applies algorithms to the identified good to calculate a price of the good and modify the calculated price of the good during the time period to optimize a target function and/or product mix configurations. The optimization of the target function depends on price-calculation factors associated with a shelf-state of the good and associated with a future stock of the good.