Now, two free phone apps can help you lower your food bills while reducing food waste.

You’ll find standard and refrigerated Flashfood lockers at the front of Stop & Shop stores.
One app lets you purchase deeply discounted grocery items with soon-to-expire dates or damaged packaging. The other provides a collection of prepared surplus foods at a 66% savings.
Flashfood is a grocery app that works in Stop & Shop stores. It also works in other grocery chains throughout the US and Canada, but none near us.
It’s simple to use. Download the Flashfood app, input your zip code, and select the Stop & Shop you want to visit. You’ll see dozens of discounted meats, cereals, cheeses, condiments and more. While shopping at the store or from home, select the items you want, buy them through the app and pick them up at Flashfood lockers at the front of the store.
With the second app, Too Good to Go, you purchase “surprise” bags of leftover prepared foods from local cafes, restaurants, pizzerias, bakeries, Whole Foods, and other stores. You don’t know the exact contents of what you’ll pick up, although the merchants often provide general descriptions such as 3-4 slices of pizza, day-old bagels, ready-to-eat meals, soups or tea. The prices you pay are 66% off the going retail prices. The app offers a slider button to set the distance you’re willing to travel to participating businesses up to 20 miles away.
Each app has its pros and cons.
Too Good to Go
According to Senior PR Manager Sarah Soteroff, Copenhagen-based Too Good to Go has over 100 million registered users and 170,000 active food-selling businesses worldwide. Since 2016, the firm has saved over 350 million meals from the waste bin.
It officially launched in Connecticut in mid-November. The main disadvantage for Suffield residents is the current lack of signed-up food-selling businesses nearby. Most days, you can only choose from King Donuts and Aurora Pizza in Enfield. Soteroff said that will change as the word gets out.
If you set the distance slider to 15 miles away or farther, your choices multiply to include Whole Foods in South Windsor, Circle K and other pizza and seafood restaurants in Northern Connecticut and Western Massachusetts. Aldi is a worldwide Too Good to Go partner, but their Enfield location has yet to sign up.
The Too Good to Go app includes user reviews. It shows the number, average rating and “Top 3 Highlights.” Beware: Since you’re purchasing leftover meals, prepared sandwiches, bagels and the like, pick-up times are typically later, such as 7 to 10 p.m. for restaurants and 2 to 4 p.m. for bakeries.
Flashfood
My wife helped me test the Flashfood app at the Enfield Stop & Shop. Butterball turkey burger patties expiring that day cost $2.99 through Flashfood versus the listed $5.99.
Similar discounts were offered on other quickly expiring foods, and some with months to go before expiration were also reduced.
Fage yogurt, with one month before expiration, was on sale for $5.99. The Flashfood price was $3.49. Nature Valley salted caramel protein bars with nine months before expiration cost $2.89 through Flashfood vs. $5.70 on the shelf. The Flashfood price for family-size Honey Nut Cheerios, with 10 months of shelf life left, was $3.49 vs. a shelf price of $6.39.
Understand, cartons may be damaged, and sometimes the deals are minuscule, so check the store shelf before ordering through Flashfood. We purchased a dented box of Wheat Chex for $2.86 through Flashfood. When we went to the shelf, the same size was on sale for $2.99.
You can also get deals on nonperishables, likely in dented boxes. Pampers size 7, listed for $32.99, was $16.50 through Flashfood.
Conclusions
While Too Good to Go now lacks local signed-on food sellers, that should improve. And if you typically travel for your job, enjoyment or kids’ activities, you could find yourself near restaurants or Whole Foods that will satisfy your needs–at 66% off. If saving money on groceries is appealing, Flashfoods offers immediate savings at your nearby Stop & Shop.
Remember, in both cases, you save money while keeping food from being thrown out.