Stop & Shop expands Flashfood partnership in Massachusetts, Rhode Island

Stop & Shop is expanded availability of Flashfood, a digital marketplace that significantly reduces food waste at the retail level by connecting consumers with discounted food nearing its best by date, across 21 of its Rhode Island stores and 34 of its Massachusetts stores.

Since partnering with Stop & Shop in 2021, nearly 20,000 shoppers across the Northeast have used Flashfood to save money on groceries while also diverting over 168,000 pounds of food from landfills. Now with additional stores offering Flashfood, sales through the app will further decrease food waste throughout the Northeast while adding to the staggering 60 million pounds of food across the U.S. and Canada that has already been diverted from landfills due to the program.

With Flashfood, shoppers save up to 50 percent off items nearing their best-by date, such as meats, dairy, seafood, fresh produce, baked goods, and more. Shoppers conveniently browse and buy discounted items directly through the Flashfood app on their mobile phone, and then simply pick up their order from the Flashfood Zone located inside their participating store.

“We know that value and variety are important to our customers, and like Stop & Shop, many of our Massachusetts shoppers are focused on helping to reduce our carbon footprint,” said Holland Ricker, regional vice president of operations for Stop & Shop. “We’re proud of this recent expansion of Flashfood to our Massachusetts customers, and hope that shopping the Flashfood marketplace at Stop & Shop will help offer them sustainable shopping options with ways to also save significantly on groceries.”

“Providing value and variety to our customers with a focus on reducing our carbon footprint is at the forefront of what we do,” said Tom Ferreira, regional vice president of operations for Stop & Shop. “We’re proud to now offer the Flashfood marketplace to our Rhode Island customers to help offer sustainable shopping options with ways to also save significantly on groceries.”

Stop & Shop’s partnership with Flashfood kicked off in 2021 in Worcester, MA. Flashfood has since expanded to nearly 70 Stop & Shop stores in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut and Rhode Island, diverting over 168,000 pounds of food from landfills — preventing 319,200 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent from being released into the atmosphere. This is equivalent to the CO2e emissions of driving over 350,000 miles in the average car.

“With sustainability-minded partners like Stop & Shop, we’re able to reduce more food waste while giving families a means to purchase quality fresh food for less,” said Josh Domingues, founder and CEO of Flashfood. “With nearly one in three Rhode Island households struggling with food insecurity, our expansion throughout the region will help improve accessibility to affordable food for more people.”

Stop & Shop’s expansion is part of the grocer’s 2023 rollout plans to make Flashfood available at more locations,  including Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.