Flashfood - Grocery deals

I was alarmed yesterday to find a pop-up saying that the Stop & Shop chain was ending its Flashfood offerings. I am in Massachusetts, and that means it’s over here for now. The closest store now is 39 miles away and has two items. I have to admit that I had entirely stopped going to Stop & Shop before I found Flashfood, but through the app I bought so many things, and had the satisfaction of saving food thay might have gone to waste. One issue was that it could be hard to find staff to get the orders, depending on the store, and then it took some time for them to rummage through the dedicated shelves. One store was great and packed bags when the orders came in, which probably could have saved all the problems if it were standard. Also, I was surprised to learn that people could not use SNAP benefits, meaning that some people who really needed the app couldn’t use it. I understand this was different store to store, but when Stop & Shop says there was low usership, perhaps they made it too hard for customers to use. I love the idea and hope a better local chain pairs with Flashfood.

This has got to be the GREATEST APP ever created!! What a great way to get people to buy short dated items from stores. My only gripe is that the local stores seem to not always put the items on their Flashfood shelves on the actual App, and they sit in the store FOREVER. I’ve mentioned it to the locations that I’d buy the good if they were listed on the app, and the insist they’re listed…even when I show them it’s not. This has happened at more than one location. My other issue is poor pictures of items like meat where you cannot see the original price/weight. How do you know if you’re getting a deal if you cannot see the price/weight of an item or don’t know how much of an item you’re getting? Lastly, in the beginning, Flashfood offered incentives back to shoppers who used the app. I got a few $10 and $20 credits to my account in the beginning based on my usage and as a thank you. It would be nice to see those again. Any hopes of expanding to other stores besides Tops in Western NY?

So, we live in a small area and there are only two stores within a few hour drive from us that have this app (kink one). The one we use is about 14 miles from our house. That being said, you can imagine that the inventory is very limited (kink two). I searched other areas and there a many more stores and foods to choose from in larger cities/areas. This is also so new in our area that the store employees still aren’t 100% sure how to operate the system (kink three). But, we have bought a few boxes so far and have been pretty happy. It would help if some contents were listed. Like if it’s an ENTIRE box of lettuce rather than just lettuce on top, that would be nice to know (kink four, but our rabbits are happy!) So far the fruit has been in great shape and the process is pretty simple. My kids say these are the best oranges they’ve ever had. I have six children, so buying large boxes of mixed fruit is perfect, but if we weren’t such a big family, this might be too much to eat in a week or two. If you like to do canning or have animals that will eat the extras, it’s a great deal!