Natural grocer Earth Fare reduces food waste with app partnership
Earth Fare is expanding the availability and scope of its rollout of the Flashfood waste reduction app.
The regional natural and organic supermarket retailer operating in the Midwest and Southeast is building on an existing partnership with Flashfood. The Flashfood app offers discounts of up to 50% on groceries nearing their sell-by date with the goal of diverting food waste from landfills.
In August 2024, Earth Fare launched Flashfood in its Greenville, S.C. store and became Flashfood’s first location in the Southeast and one of the first retailers on the Flashfood for Independents platform. Now, the grocer is also offering the app at stores in North Canton, Ohio, Concord, N.C. and Rock Hill, S.C.
Since initial introduction, Earth Fare says Flashfood shoppers at its stores have saved more than $17,000 on their groceries and diverted more than 9,000 pounds of food from landfills in the process.
In addition, Earth Fare reports that at its Greenville store, Flashfood has allowed for a more efficient, streamlined approach to the culling process. This has helped improve the quality of the produce department, bringing in new shoppers and motivating store employees to post soon-to-expire products on Flashfood.
"I’m absolutely blown away with how easy Flashfood is to use," said Ashley Wolfe, Greenville store team leader. "Once they are set up on the app, I’ve now gained a customer for Earth Fare. I’ve taught that customer to shop from home on the Flashfood app, so I’m getting customers that may not have come to the store in the first place but they’re going to come to pick up their Flashfood order."
In a unique usage of the program, Earth Fare is also utilizing Flashfood to reduce food waste from the store’s hot bar and lists plates of prepared foods on Flashfood, offering an alternative to takeout for evening shoppers.
Using the free Flashfood app, Earth Fare shoppers can select the store location nearest them, choose discounted items to purchase, pay directly on the app and pick up the order in store.
Other retailers operating in the grocery space that have piloted and deployed Flashfood in the past few years include Save Mart, Giant Food, Meijer, Hy-Vee and SpartanNash.
[READ MORE: Flashfood upgrades app interface, shopping features]
"It’s getting harder and harder for Americans to eat nutritious food, affordably. Families are forced to go with less and yet we’re still throwing away millions of meals every year, particularly fresh, unprocessed meals," said Nicholas Bertram, CEO at Flashfood. "We’re thrilled to expand our partnership with Earth Fare, an exemplary grocer on our independents platform."
Based in Asheville, N.C., Earth Fare operates 16 locations in seven Midwest and Southeast states.
