Results prompt Giant Eagle to expand Flashfood partnership
Retailer Giant Eagle is expanding its partnership with Flashfood, a digital marketplace that provides customers access to heavily discounted food nearing its best-by date, to all of its 173 corporate Giant Eagle and Giant Eagle Market District stores. Starting in Cleveland, the 140-store expansion will steadily roll out throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania and will be completed by the end of October.
Since Giant Eagle first introduced the Flashfood program at 34 store locations in 2021, more than 430,000 pounds of food waste has been diverted from reaching landfills. This equates to nearly 159,102 meals that fed families rather than being thrown away and about 834,335 pounds of CO2e- emissions saved from entering the atmosphere.
"Our partnership with Flashfood has not only helped us in our mission to reduce food waste, but it has helped us better serve our guests and their families by offering more value-focused grocery options," said Dan Donovan, Giant Eagle spokesperson. "With the success we've seen so far, it was a natural next step to expand the program to all our corporate supermarket locations to offer more guests access to this savings opportunity while making an even bigger impact on the environment."
The Flashfood app enables customers to browse deals — directly from their phone or computer — on fresh items like produce boxes, meat, dairy and bakery items, as well as center-store foods and snacks that are nearing their best-by dates. Purchases are made directly through the app and customers then pick up their order from the Flashfood zone located inside their participating Giant Eagle or Market District location. Regular Flashfood shoppers save an average of $96 per month on grocery bills.
"Our expanded partnership with Giant Eagle couldn't come at a more critical time," said Josh Domingues, founder and CEO, Flashfood. "With inflation causing grocery prices to soar, the 140-store expansion will increase our ability to feed more families affordably and reduce the amount of food reaching the landfill four-fold. It is a big win for both Ohio and Pennsylvania shoppers and the planet."