Flashfood , a Toronto startup combatting food waste with deeply discounted groceries, has found a large-scale partnership in the U.S.
In an effort to put a dent in the volume of perfectly good food that ends up in landfills, American supercenter chain Meijer is trialling the Flashfood app at four of its Michigan outlets, The Takeout reports. Through the app, grocers can upload “close-dated” items — fresh foods nearing their best buy dates — which shoppers can purchase for up to 50 per cent off.
Once a purchase is made via the app, customers then pick up their discounted groceries — including baked goods, deli products, meat, produce and seafood — from a refrigerated case or shelving unit at the front of participating stores.
“Bringing the Metro Detroit community the ability to buy such great food at huge discounts while reducing food waste is exciting,” Josh Domingues, founder and CEO of Flashfood, said in a statement. “Meijer is a well-respected market leader focusing on innovation and it’s evident through our partnership. Both teams are thrilled about the impact we’re bringing to market in this pilot.”
Like the food industry at large, as well as our own households, grocery stores have a well-established food waste problem. As Flashfood highlights on its website, roughly 73 billion kilograms (160 billion pounds) of food is dumped into landfills annually in North America. And as Grocery Dive reported in 2018, food waste is costing grocers roughly $24.2 billion each year; an issue they’re attempting to solve with varying degrees of effectiveness.
American retailers such as Kroger, Target and Whole Foods have claimed some success in experimenting with “order-to-shelf” technology as a means of reducing waste, while a move to create a market for “ugly produce” hasn’t panned out the way some businesses had hoped. As The Associated Press reported in February, Walmart and Whole Foods, who had previously attempted to sell discounted imperfect produce, “quietly ended their tests” after customers failed to bite.
“Food is at the core of what we do, and we are constantly looking at ways to minimize in-store waste because it’s the right thing to do for our communities and our customers,” Don Sanderson, group vice president of fresh for Meijer, said in a statement. “We are excited to work with Flashfood and learn how much food can be spared from landfills.”
Earlier this year, Flashfood partnered with Loblaw — Canada’s largest food retailer — and its service is currently available at 405 locations across the country. As a customer of a participating Real Canadian Superstore told the St. Catharines Standard last month, using the app has been a positive experience. “It cuts down on grocery costs, it’s easy to do online and you just pick it up,” Bernice Warkentin reportedly said. “Often it solves the ‘what’s for dinner’ problem. I just see what’s available.”
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
