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App helps divert food waste at Superstore

Flashfood
The Flashfood refrigerator and shelves, located in the customer service area of Real Canadian Superstore, helps shoppers save money while the store reduces food waste. Photo by Ben Sherick/Rocky View Publishing

Flashfood, a Canadian app, is helping shoppers at Airdrie’s Real Canadian Superstore find discounts on grocery items while assisting waste diversion.

“Flashfood is a company that puts in refrigeration and shelving at the front of the store,” said Suzanne Turner, store manager at the Airdrie location. “It’s a third party, and then we have short-dated products that will go in there at 50 per cent off or more.”

Deli meats, produce, sauces, bakery items and frozen foods are just some of the items that might be found in the fridge, she said.

After Superstore staff places food approaching its sell-by date in the refrigerator, Turner said, customers purchase items using the app, charged to their credit card. When they arrive at the store, the customer retrieves the items and makes a quick stop at customer service, where store employees check the purchase against a list of customers and items. With the purchase verified, customers are then free to go on their way with their groceries.

The Flashfood refrigerator was installed during the summer, Turner said, as part of a national partnership between the app company and Loblaw Companies Ltd. Airdrie is one of 31 Real Canadian Superstore locations using Flashfood in Alberta, with 11 located at stores around Calgary.

Since its introduction, she said, the popularity of the service has grown. While she was unable to cite specific numbers, she said she often sees a line at the fridge.

“We started out small, where we were like, ‘Is this going to work?’ And now, I was at customer service putting something away and six people were standing there with stuff from the fridge,” Turner said. “I think it pretty much sells through every day.”

Staff at the store are also enthusiastic about the app, she added, and keep an eye out for items that can be placed in the fridge.

According to flashfood.com, the Toronto-based company developed the app to help grocery stores reduce food waste.

“Every year in Canada, grocers throw out about $3 billion worth of food,” Flashfood COO Cedric Samaha told CTV News. “We found an opportunity to target this marketplace and help grocers reduce that impact.”

According to Turner, none of Superstore’s food products end up in landfills – items are either discounted so they sell, or composted if they can no longer be sold. However, she added, Flashfood has given the store another method to put food in the hands of customers rather than dispose of it, while offering savings to customers.

“It’s just one more way for no food to be wasted,” she said.

Turner added there is, and should be, an increasing focus on food waste throughout the world.

“No farmer goes out and grows a whole bunch of stuff so that we can throw it away,” she said. “We want to make sure that everything that is produced is consumed in some manner.”

While unable to cite any numbers, Turner said she felt the addition of the refrigerator has led to a decrease in food composted by the store.

“It is, for sure, working very, very well in any kind of packaged food like deli meat,” she said.

The app can be downloaded at the Apple Store or Google Play.



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