By Lauren DeVol
SpartanNash
As part of its commitment to helping customers save money every day and reducing its environmental impact, SpartanNash today announced it is relaunching its Flashfood® pilot program at five West Michigan Family Fare stores.
The Flashfood app allows store guests and community nonprofits to purchase food nearing its best-by date at savings of up to 50 percent off. Eligible items include meat, produce, seafood, deli and bakery products.
The five participating Family Fare stores testing the Flashfood app are located at:
- 2245 84th St., SW in Byron Center
- 1415 E. Fulton St. in Grand Rapids
- 2755 Lake Michigan Drive, NW in Grand Rapids
- 1225 Leonard, NE in Grand Rapids
- 6127 Kalamazoo Ave., SE in Kentwood
Through the partnership, Family Fare shoppers can download the Flashfood app and browse grocery deals. Purchases are made directly from the shoppers’ phone and picked up from the Flashfood area in participating Family Fare stores.
The Flashfood pilot was first launched in February 2020 but was temporarily halted due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Given the success of the initial pilot, SpartanNash plans to expand the partnership at the end of the month, with additional stores to be announced soon.
“We are excited to relaunch the Flashfood app for our customers and expand the program to additional stores, making it easier than ever to save time and money at Family Fare,” Director, Retail Consumer Innovation Matt Bennett said. “The Flashfood app also gives us the ability to reduce food waste while increasing access to lower cost fresh foods – making it a win-win for our customers and the environment. Our aisles are filled with a variety of perishable foods, and as we get near the best-by dates, we want to make sure customers know about the savings available to them.”
Flashfood is a Toronto-based mobile app that operates in more than 450 grocery locations throughout Canada, Michigan and Wisconsin. The mobile app is free and available on iOS and Android.
After downloading the Flashfood app, customers can select a participating Family Fare store, choose the items they want to purchase and pay for them directly on the app, then pick up their items and confirm their order at the customer service counter. To make it even easier, the purchased food will be stored at the front of each participating Family Fare in refrigerators and on storage racks until the store guest picks them up.
The Flashfood app pilot is another way SpartanNash is fighting food waste and hunger in local communities. SpartanNash also partners with local food banks and food pantries throughout the company’s footprint, donating pantry staples and shelf-stable products as well as fresh dairy, meat and produce.
In April, SpartanNash and the SpartanNash Foundation donated $250,000 to Feeding America. SpartanNash also donates more than 5.5 million pounds of food annually to partnering food banks and local food pantries and funded more than $1.4 million in community support in 2019.
“Reducing food waste and building stronger communities are both important parts of SpartanNash’s corporate responsibility commitment,” Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Communications Meredith Gremel said. “At SpartanNash, we are always looking for positive changes we can drive as we ‘take food places’ in more socially responsible, environmentally sustainable ways, and the Flashfood app is another way we can do that – all while benefitting our store guests and community partners.”
