For more than a decade, the Real Canadian Superstore (RCSS) located at 1485 Lasalle Boulevard has supported the community through various initiatives and partnerships. For example, through its ongoing relationship with the Sudbury Food Bank, people in need have access to food via the donation bin placed in the store near the customer service area. Other important partnerships include local radio stations that help with fundraisers and local schools that provide holiday meals to people and families in need.
RCSS Sudbury also donates items such as arts and crafts to local schools and sponsors the Sudbury Wolves by holding joint fundraisers like the Meet and Eat event with the Sudbury Wolves.
In April 2020, RCSS Sudbury partnered with Science North to provide 8,700 cans of food for a giant tin can display, which translated to the word SCIENCENORTH in binary code. With this initiative, Science North set a new Guinness World Record title for the largest tin can display, using 2,512 cans. After the event, the cans of food were donated to the local food bank.
More recently, RCSS Sudbury partnered with the Red Cross to provide baby food, formula and water to evacuees who were flown from up north.
One very important partnership that the store is very proud of is with Flashfood, an app that helps address food waste, which is a global epidemic. Approximately 30 to 40 per cent of food around the world is thrown out. In Canada alone, it has been estimated that $3 billion dollars of perfectly good food is thrown out by Canadian grocers each year. That’s a staggering amount of food.
As a result and in an effort to find a simple solution to help reduce food waste, RCSS has chosen to partner with the app called Flashfood, which was introduced to customers in May 2019. Other locations nationwide also use the app to provide customers with low priced foods all while keeping food waste out of landfills. The app can be downloaded on any smart phone and used by anyone. Currently, the store uses it only for its perishable items.
How it works: each department is responsible for going through the product on the shelf and identifying close dated products up to the date of expiry. These items are then uploaded to the Flashfood app and sold at a 50 per cent discount and sometimes even more! Once the app is downloaded, customers simply place items in their ‘cart’, pay and pick up from the store. It's so easy! The app also sends notifications to customers and RCSS posts updates on its Facebook page.
When the app was launched, the store initially took note that most of its customers were college/university students. Now, people of all ages and socio-economic backgrounds use the app. In one week alone, the store successfully diverted 2,850 lbs of waste from going to the landfill. And it continues to do this on a weekly basis. It is a win-win situation!
RCSS wants to see more people using the Flashfood app to help reduce food waste and at the same, save money on their grocery bill. Download it today!