Hy-Vee is piloting a mobile app that promotes soon-to-expire products.
The Midwest supermarket retailer is leveraging Flashfood, a mobile app that enables in-store shoppers to browse and purchase food items approaching their “best before” date at reduced prices. The Flashfood app and program will be available at two Hy-Vee stores in Madison, Wisconsin, and one Hy-Vee store in Fitchburg, Wisconsin.
By downloading the Flashfood app, customers can browse through available deals on items like meat, dairy, bread and snacks. Customers then make product purchases directly from their phone and pick them up at any time from the Flashfood zone in the grocery store. In addition to diverting food waste, the app also provides Hy-Vee with the potential to improve profits by reducing the number of products disposed of at a total loss.
“At Hy-Vee, we know it’s important that we do our part as grocers to reduce food waste,” said Jessica Ringena, Hy-Vee VP of innovation and business development. “In 2018 alone, our food waste diversion programs at all our Hy-Vee stores have kept more than 25 million pounds of food waste out of landfills. This partnership with Flashfood is just one more way we can further increase our sustainability efforts.”
Hy-Vee, Inc. is an employee-owned corporation operating more than 245 retail stores across eight Midwestern states.