With a mission to end food waste while feeding hungry people, the Flashfood app continues to make great strides in fighting food waste. Three-year-old, Flashfood raised an undisclosed venture round lead by General Catalyst and partnered with Loblaw Companies Limited (Loblaw), all in the span of two months.
The app gives grocery stores a way to sell their surplus food items that are nearing their best before date and that they would otherwise throw away. Savvy shoppers can buy items through the app and pick them up in store, at 50 percent off.
SEE Change first talked to Flashfood founder Josh Domingues when he was starting out. He had a few pilots set up with two to three grocery stores in the GTA and in London, Ontario. While shoppers were loving the app, there wasn’t enough buy-in from the grocery stores to make it really work, until Loblaw.
Flashfood is now available to customers at the Loblaw discount division brands: Maxi and Provigo in Quebec. Currently nine Maxi stores have access to Flashfood and 25 Provigo stores will be joining on March 11th. By the end of April, Flashfood will be live in an additional 113 Maxi stores.
As the leading grocery retailer in Canada, Loblaw has taken big steps to reduce food waste through its “Feed Everyone” mission which ensures customers are provided with easy access to fresh, healthy and affordable food options at the best value possible. They also have made a commitment to reducing overall store-generated food waste by 50 percent by 2025. Furthermore, Loblaw has partnered with food banks, food recovery and rescue agencies like Second Harvest and Food Banks Canada to make this happen as well.
Flashfood is ideal for the shopper looking for a great deal and for opportunities to reduce food waste. The average person is inclined to doing what they can to help the environment, like changing their light bulbs to LED or carpooling. But inconvenience or cost often get in the way of their best intentions. Flashfood helps a person save money and doesn’t inconvenience them much, as they often go to the grocery store anyway to get their regular items. Effectively, the app allows anyone do their part to reduce food waste without really changing any habits or spending money.
To date, Flashfood has sold more than 75 percent of the products available through its platform while saving consumers an average of 50 percent on their grocery items. Flashfood app is currently working with Loblaw, Target and Hy-Vee in select stores across North America. With this current growth, no doubt we’ll be seeing them in most grocery stores soon.
See the change reader can download the app and get $5 credit here: https://flashfood.app.link/seethechange
Est-ce que cette application inclus les épiceries d’Ottawa ?
Hi Daniela,
Oui cette application inclus quelques epiceries d’Ottawa. Sorry for the late response. Please click on the link to see all the stores in Ottawa (and Ontario) where it’s available. https://www.flashfood.com/en/locations/ontario