What’s Going On Here?
Supermarket chain, ‘S-Market’ has started a grocery happy hour across their 900 stores in Finland.
What Does This Mean?
Every evening at 9pm, food that needs to be sold by midnight and would otherwise be thrown away is reduced in cost by a whopping 60%.It’s pretty much like the beloved reduced section of most supermarkets except that S-Market has a scheduled time and guaranteed decent price cuts which should encourage more customers to come instore for it.
The happy hour is part of the supermarket’s campaign to reduce their food waste – great news for their pockets and our planet!
Why Should We Care?
A third of all food produced worldwide gets wasted. In the UK, this accounts for around 10.2 million tonnes every year! In higher income countries like the UK, 40% of this occurs at the retail or consumer stage.
S-Market aims to reduce the environmental impact of food waste whilst still profiting and sets a good example for other supermarkets to follow. Earlier this year, following the UK government urging food retailers to reduce their food waste – more than 100 supermarkets including Aldi, Asda, Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, M&S, and Morrisons pledged to halve their food waste by 2030.
Be Curious!
- Make sure the supermarket don’t pass on the food waste burden to you. Only buy what you will eat, no matter how tempting the price! Tools like Dinner Spinner and Supercook are great for finding a recipe using ingredients you already have.
- If you’re an avid hunter in the reduced aisle of your local supermarket, make sure you are clued up on how to store the food you find, especially if their use-by-date is the same day.
- Help fight food waste from hospitality and retail with apps like Olio, Too Good to Go and Karma which rescue unsold food from cafes, restaurants and supermarkets!
