Kroger Expands Partnership With Food Surplus Platform to Over 100 Stores
Kroger is expanding its partnership with surplus grocery platform Flashfood to all of its stores in the retailer's Mid-Atlantic division, the companies said April 8. The expansion, which follows a 16-store test in the Richmond, Virginia, market last summer, includes more than 100 stores across Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky.
Bringing the Flashfood app into its stores lets Kroger sell food at a discounted price on its final day of freshness. Through its test with Flashfood, this not only helped Kroger divert more food from landfills, but it also brought new customers into stores and gave shoppers a new option for buying affordable, quality food, Kroger Mid-Atlantic Division President Kate Mora told Progressive Grocer.
"It supports our purpose of feeding the human spirit and our mission of driving zero hunger, zero waste," she said.
Following the 16-store test over the summer, Mora said Kroger received good feedback from customers, many of whom shopped through Flashfood multiple times per week. She also said the partnership has been easy to execute from the store side of things, and that Kroger associates are proud to be able to offer shoppers fresh foods they might not have been able to buy otherwise.
These benefits for both customers and stores played a part in Kroger's decision to expand its partnership with Flashfood.
"It attracts new customers to our stores that are digitally engaged through the Flashfood app, and they discover options they wouldn't otherwise have discovered," Mora said. "It makes good financial sense for us as well as being really close to our hearts by matching our purpose of feeding the human spirit."
Flashfood CEO Jordan Schenck agreed that the combination of benefits for Kroger shoppers and its stores lent itself to the success of the 16-store test and, ultimately, the division-wide rollout.
"It's a great program from a business and customer standpoint," Schenck told Progressive Grocer. "Kroger has always been such a community-driven brand."
For Toronto-based Flashfood, Schenck said expanding its partnership with Kroger is an important moment in the company's mission to "feed families, not landfills."
In the past, Flashfood positioned the idea of cutting down on food waste as sustainability.
"What we've … seen as a whole is our retailers really starting to grab onto the concept of surplus or food waste," Schenck said. "For many years, it was seen as an afterthought."
This shift in the industry is a step in the right direction, but as the company rolls out its platform at all of Kroger's Mid-Atlantic stores, it's focusing more on its tech platform offering and the return on investment that Flashfood can bring its retail partners.
"I think we exist in an exciting era for grocery where there's a readiness for adoption of new technology that we haven't seen before," Schenck said. "We're at this very exciting moment where, because we've had a lot of great proven ROI and because we've really dug in and moved our business forward, … we have the ability to move forward faster."
Nutrition, Health Play a Big Part in Expansion
A big part of the expanded partnership will be centered around health and making affordability part of the conversation on nutrition, the companies said. Kroger Health and Flashfood will offer free virtual nutrition classes for shoppers as part of the expansion across the Mid-Atlantic division.
The classes will teach Kroger shoppers how to prepare easy, healthy meals on a budget and how to make the most of fresh ingredients.
“Our team is always looking for ways to make healthier choices the easy choice for our shoppers, and Flashfood helps make those options both accessible and affordable,” Laura Brown, director of nutrition for Kroger Health, said.
According to Schenck, 70% of Flashfood shoppers report eating healthier because the platform makes produce more affordable.
"We are dedicated to serving our communities with fresh, affordable food and this provides just another option for our customers to stretch their budget and include proteins and other foods into their diet that they may not have been able to afford otherwise," Mora added.
Since launching its test with Kroger over the summer, shoppers have saved nearly $700,000 on fresh groceries and kept more than 290,000 pounds of food out of landfills through the Flashfood platform.
“From the start, our Richmond customers have embraced Flashfood,” Mora said. “The expansion throughout our Mid-Atlantic division is a natural next step."
This article was originally published on P2PI sibling brand Progressive Grocer.
