Giant Eagle Steps Up Flashfood Program

Move follows successful pilot that slashed 430K pounds of food waste

7/26/2022

Giant Eagle is adding Flashfood zones to all of its 173 corporate Giant Eagle and Giant Eagle Market District stores.

Less food is going to landfills, thanks to an expanded partnership between Giant Eagle and Flashfood. Following a successful pilot test with the digital marketplace, the Pennsylvania-based retailer is bringing the program to all of its store locations.

Flashfood allows customers to get deep discounts on items nearing best-by dates while simultaneously curbing food waste. Users can look for deals on the Flashfood app and order directly for in-store pickup at a designated Flashfood zone. Several grocers around the country, including Meijer, SpartanNash and Vallarta Supermarkets, among others, have collaborated with Flashfood as part of their sustainability and corporate responsibility efforts.

According to Giant Eagle, the initial rollout at 34 store locations in 2021 kept more than 430,000 pounds of foods from going to landfills. That translated to 159,102 meals for families and a savings of 834,335 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

“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,” reported Giant Eagle spokesperson Dan Donovan. “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.”

Josh Domingues, founder and CEO of Toronto-based Flashfood, said that the option has become even more popular, given recent market circumstances. “Our expanded partnership with Giant Eagle couldn’t come at a more critical time,” he remarked. “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.”

The deployment of Flashfood zones will start at Giant Eagle stores in Cleveland and conclude by the end of October, the grocer estimates.

With almost $10 billion in annual sales, Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle operates more than 470 stores throughout western Pennsylvania, Ohio, northern West Virginia, Maryland and Indiana. Giant Eagle was recently included in Progressive Grocer’s Top 10 Regional Operators to Watch. The company is also No. 36 on The PG 100, PG’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.