Save Mart targets waste reduction with Flashfood app
The Save Mart Companies is rolling out an app designed to notify customers of deals on soon-to-expire grocery products.
The California-based grocer, which operates approximately 200 stores under the banners of Save Mart, Lucky, and FoodMaxx in California and Western Nevada, is making the free Flashfood app available at 44 Lucky stores in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.
Flashfood connects shoppers with fresh produce, meat and other groceries at up to 50% off, with the goals of diverting food waste from landfills and offering deals on groceries. The app enables shoppers to browse deals on fresh items such as meat, produce boxes, dairy, and bakery items, as well as center-store foods and snacks, that are nearing their best-by dates.
Using the Flashfood app, shoppers can select a Lucky store location, choose discounted items to purchase, pay directly on the app and pick up the order in the store. Save Mart, which is the first retailer in California to offer Flashfood, plans to rapidly expand Flashfood to all 194 of its banner locations in California and Western Nevada.
Other retailers operating in the grocery space that have piloted and deployed Flashfood in the past few years include Giant Food, Meijer, Hy-Vee and SpartanNash.
"This partnership underscores our commitment to innovation and leadership in the industry," said Tamara Pattison, senior VP and chief digital officer at The Save Mart Companies. "Together, we’re tackling food waste so that the bounty of California’s farms ends up on the dinner table, not in a landfill."
"No one wants to live in a world where food goes to waste, while at the same time families are forced to live with less," said Nicholas Bertram, CEO, Flashfood. "The Bay Area has long been a place where technology is used to solve humanity’s problems, which is why Flashfood desires to be part of this community. We’re proud to partner with The Save Mart Companies, a retailer that has served shoppers in California for more than 70 years and continues to support the communities they serve."
The Save Mart Companies, a Kingswood Capital Management, LP portfolio company and a California-based grocer, operates approximately 200 Save Mart, Lucky, and FoodMaxx stores in California and Western Nevada. In addition to its retail operation, the Company also operates SMART Refrigerated Transport and is a partner in Super Store Industries (“SSI”), which owns and operates a distribution center in Lathrop, and the Sunnyside Farms dairy processing plant in Turlock, Calif.