Food waste is a major social and environmental concern. While we waste around 2.5 billion tonnes of food annually, approximately 870 million people go hungry. Food waste is also directly responsible for about 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. When food is wasted, all the resources used to produce, process and transport it are also wasted, leading to unnecessary carbon emissions that contribute to climate change (Too Good To Go).
If food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Consumers are increasingly expecting businesses to take action to reduce food waste, which is now seen as the number one solution to combating the climate crisis. It is estimated that one-third of all food produced worldwide goes to waste, equating to an economic loss of $1.2 trillion per year (Gander).
A unique opportunity for retailers
Retailers can help to mitigate food waste by reducing lost sales, and offering great value to local shoppers through promotional deals on grocery products. There is a large and growing segment of consumers eager to purchase reduced-price food – they just don’t know where to find it.
To combat the gap between availability and awareness, Nisa have partnered with innovative companies dedicated to reducing food waste, such as Too Good To Go and Gander. These app-based platforms allow retailers to showcase short-dated, clearance products to shoppers in their communities. By leveraging these apps, stores can significantly reduce food waste while improving in-store sales.
The benefits for retailers
- Environmental impact reduction: Reducing food waste improves a store’s environmental footprint. This, in turn, enhances the store’s reputation within the community as a responsible and sustainable business.
- Increased footfall: By listing discounted, short-dated products on food waste reduction apps, retailers can draw in local customers who may not have visited otherwise. This increase in foot traffic can lead to higher overall sales.
- Boost in-store sales: Discounted products, particularly when marketed through popular apps, can help clear inventory that would otherwise go to waste faster, turning potential losses into revenue.
- Catering to a growing market: With a significant portion of shoppers actively seeking discounted food, retailers can cater to demand and ensure they capture this segment of the market.
Too Good To Go and Gander don’t require any additional labour or training costs and give retailers more control over sales – offering an impressive return on investment. Too Good To Go users are delighted when they pick up their ‘magic bags’ full of surprise shopping items. And through Ganderlytics, a proprietary analytics platform, retailers can gain unparalleled insights into reduction performance and consumer behaviour, track progress over time, optimise policies and ensure compliance with waste-reduction strategies. The app also facilitates real-time management of reductions on shelves, enabling retailers to instantly manage items or correct any human errors.
Gander reports that 32% of shoppers seek out food discounts daily. And by participating in these programmes, retailers can tap into this growing market of budget-conscious consumers to attract foot traffic, reduce food waste, protect their reputations and standing in the community while increasing profits.
By April 2024, Nisa retailers had saved 175,000 meals from being thrown away thanks to their tie-ups with Too Good To Go. The 300-plus stores that had signed up to the surplus food app since 2019 had prevented 477,187 kilograms of CO2 being emitted – the equivalent to 83 flight tickets around the world or 1,637 flight tickets from London to Berlin.
‘Every Nisa store that has so far partnered with Too Good To Go has given positive feedback about how simple the app is to use and the impact on the local community,’ said Nisa regional retail manager Ian Bacon.
Too Good To Go UK/IE country director Sophie Trueman added, ‘Since partnering with Nisa in 2019, their commitment and active involvement have made them a valuable partner in our mission to reduce food waste. The Nisa team has consistently demonstrated their dedication, enthusiasm and provided invaluable support.’
‘The Gander app works really well at a local level. When reductions are made in store, customers are alerted and can then pop in to get their bargain. As well as highlighting savings to our local community, it also helps to reduce waste and the amount of food going to landfill, so the store and our customers are able to play a small part in sustainability and tackling the global issue of climate change’, said Karen Stephenson, co-owner of Nisa Local Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria.
If you’re interested in exploring food waste solutions, just visit the Food Redistribution Hub on OCS, where you can learn more about the benefits of partnering with Gander and Too Good to Go, as well as sign up to join the movement towards reducing food waste – while boosting your business.